《Carnival - A LitRPG Apocalypse》 Chapter 1 - A routine is a routine for a reason System initialising... ¡°People of Earth, your planet has been scheduled for assimilation by the Void Imperium in the near future. The Illuminated Alliance has chosen to intervene and provide you with a fighting chance. We are not able to intervene directly at this time and wouldn''t even if we could. You must earn your place in the worlds to come. However we will help you help yourselves. This will not be easy on you, without struggle, without sacrifice nothing worthwhile can be achieved. The time is now 06:00 local time. Your movements will be restricted initially, each village, town and city is encapsulated in an impregnable barrier and you cannot leave your starting area until the end of the recruitment process. Communications technology has been limited. All citizen soldier recruits of sufficient age will receive one Essence as a gift and have an ability unlocked automatically. Learn to use your new powers swiftly and learn to use them well. They are all that now stands between you and oblivion. The recruitment process will involve a winnowing of your species. There will be three attacks on each settlement, chosen by lottery, your task is to adopt, adapt and survive. Those of you who emerge from the crucible will be reforged and ready to remake your world into a valuable member of the Alliance. The first wave will begin at 09:00. At 08:45 the details of the wave will be announced. Good luck. The Light shines Well, that¡¯s a first, thought John. He had been woken up in some fairly strange ways over the course of his life. The dog deciding to try and confirm if she prefers the taste of his earwax over her own and taking advantage of his sleep-slowed reactions to get a suitable sample was ill advised. Then there are nicer ways to wake up. Waking up gently as the autumn sunlight falls through the curtains on a weekend safe in the knowledge you don¡¯t have to get up yet, a lover''s embrace or a small child bouncing up and down because it¡¯s Christmas and you will get out of bed and open presents at half past five in the morning whether you like it or not. John rolled over, dislodging the dog who had been using his legs as a pillow as usual and reached for his phone. He glanced around his room as his arm stretched out. Still a mess, he thought. His dumb bells were mostly covered with dirty laundry, it had been a few days since he''d felt the urge to pretend to exercise. The phone showed 06:01 but had no wifi or data service available. He clicked on messenger and whatsapp, trying to send messages to family members, he tried to make a call but nothing connected or went through. He felt like this should worry him more but found he was strangely unmoved by the situation. He put the phone down and laid back on the pillows. He felt a sort of numb contentment, not the rising panic you would think a man with glowing golden letters in his face telling him his world was about to be invaded should feel. He clicked on the browser... ¡°Unable to access the network¡± - the net was down. He reached for his tobacco and laid back. He began rolling a cigarette. A routine is a routine for a reason. ¡°Kid, are you awake? Are you seeing this as well¡± he called out to his daughter, Evie. ¡°Dad it''s the holidays, I''m not getting up for...¡± she began groggily. ¡°What the hell! Wow! Are you seeing this?¡± she finished with the panic of a preteen being cut off from the internet. The thumps and bangs of her hurriedly climbing down from her bed echoed through the house. It seemed it took glowing letters and the promise of magic powers to make Evie even vaguely a morning person. ¡°Yes I am, that''s why I asked you if you could see it,¡± he called back. ¡°Clear¡±, ¡°Delete¡±, ¡°Minimise¡±, ¡°Get Rid¡±, ¡°Sod off!¡±. He muttered trying to remove the notification from his vision as he swiped at the writing with one hand. He was wondering how he would manage with a wall of text floating in front of his eyes for the rest of his life when it vanished and a new screen appeared. ¡°You have received one Essence and automatically advanced to level 1. Say or think status to review your information¡± ¡°It says I''m too young to receive an Essence! This is crap dad, I am not an NPC!¡± a now enraged eleven year old yelled. She stumbled into John¡¯s room putting on the oversized hoodie she used in place of a dressing gown and glowering at the world like it owed her money. ¡°Language child! Uh, status?¡± said John. Level: 1 Name: John Borrows Ability: Teleportation Constitution: 100% Reserves: 100 Ability: Teleportation: A shut in who hates to travel. You¡¯ve barely left your house for years and now you can go wherever you like with a thought. Have fun with that. Guidelines: Maximum weight: 100kg Maximum Distance: 1km Line of sight required Modifications: none John sat dumbfounded. If this worked it was going to make putting the bins out a doddle. Well, at least it''s a useful power he thought to himself. A grin slowly spread across his face as he stared at the text before him. He dismissed the notification. As usual their dog, Zeeg, immediately crawled out from under the duvet as Evie sat down on the edge of the bed, the dog stretched like she should have been born a cat and moved to Evie. Her tail was wagging like a whip and she wanted her morning scratches. Evie''s heart was clearly not in it, more concerned at being robbed out of becoming a superhero. Or losing access to the internet. Could have been both, John supposed. Evie patted Zeeg twice on the head and immediately broke into an angry tirade. ¡°I haven''t got an ability! I can see the message but when I think ¡°status¡± all I get is ¡°You are underage, try again when you are sixteen,¡± she threw her hands in the air, "what the hell is all this Dad!¡± She is not taking this well, thought John with his usual deep incisiveness, and it¡¯s a shame because I could use a gamers mind to help make sense of all this. Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°I''m sorry but I don¡¯t understand what¡¯s happening kiddo,¡± he said with a gentle smile as Evie tried to settle the pup down. John concentrated on his dressing gown hanging on the door and felt his mind catch on to it and twist in a very unsettling way, then his dressing gown fell onto his head. ¡°What did you just do?¡± asked Evie in an awed voice continuing her half hearted attempts to give Zeeg the necessary attention required before she would calm down. ¡°Teleportation kiddo! I got teleportation for my ¡°ability¡±. I''m not sure this system has been very well thought out,¡± he finished in a more thoughtful voice, ¡°Because you dropped it on your head?¡± she asked, giving him the look daughters reserve for their fathers when they know the father in question has made a mistake and is faking infallibility. ¡°It wasn¡¯t bad for a first try, thank you very much! But no that isn''t what I meant, Youngling.¡± he mumbled scratching his head after removing his new head wear. He checked his status, just bringing up his Constitution and Reserves and found his reserves were showing at 98. ¡°Does it give you any other information? Ability, constitution and reserves?¡± John asked her. ¡°It just says You Are Underage. Lamest system apocalypse ever dude.¡± she sat down in what promised to grow into an epic huff and crossed her arms with a frown. The dog was now getting more and more excitable, Evie had stopped fussing with her, weighed down by her disappointment at not getting a power. When Zeeg started getting worked up she kept going until something settled her down so John called her over and began giving her a fuss to try and let Evie have some space for a minute. ¡°C''mon puppy, who''s a good girl? Tummy rubs?¡± The dog jumped next to him on the bed and rolled over for the tummy rubs, tail still wagging frantically. ¡°You''d like super powers too wouldn''t you? Yes you would,¡± John said in the soppy voice humans insist on using when talking to animals and spoiled children, ¡°you''d get super powers and then I''d invite you to my team and you''d be the super dog in the group. Would you like to join my team, Zeeg?¡± For discovering the Team function before the start of the first wave you are rewarded one Essence. Would you like to use one Essence on Dog: Zeeg Borrows to awaken her ability and invite her to your team? Y/N ¡°Oh , OK!¡± John thought about it for a moment, concluded Evie would literally kill him if he gave the dog magic before her, then said ¡°No¡± ¡°Invite Evie to Team¡± he declared with a hint of smugness in his voice. ¡°What are you doing dad? I''m a bloody NPC you can''t...¡± she replied grumpily. Would you like to use one Essence on Human: Evie Borrows to awaken her ability and invite her to your team? Y/N Donating Essence to juveniles is not recommended. ¡°Yes¡± You have gifted one Essence to Evie Borrows and she has joined your team. Initialising advancement to level 1 for Evie Borrows. Calculating... Complete. Level 1 Name: Evie Borrows Ability: Electrogenesis Constitution: 100% Reserves: 100 Ability: Electrogenesis: You hate physics and maths so here¡¯s a power that will be more useful the better your understanding of physics and maths. You can create and control electricity. Good luck! Guidelines: Maximum Discharge: 240V Line of sight required. An almost ultrasonic scream of joy erupted from Evie. She jumped up and down on John¡¯s bed, launching the dog to the floor in the process and yelling extremely unladylike things. After about thirty seconds she calmed down enough to throw herself at John in a cross between a flying rugby tackle and a hug. ¡°Thank you, thank you, thank you! No more NPC Evie! This is going to be so cool. So I can Zap stuff now?¡± she asked smiling like a lunatic. John was knocked off balance and had to spin around to bleed off the momentum. ¡°No worries Ginger; as to the zapping we''ll have to find out. but not in the house!¡± he chuckled, ¡°the phones aren''t working and the net is down but the power is still up... I''m going to have a smoke and get us some breakfast. Then we can see what we can do to prepare for this first wave¡±. ¡°It''ll be a cake walk dude, now that I''m Electro Girl! Nah that''s terrible. I''m the Great Zap! Lightning Bolt? Also bad, sounds too much like an animated sled dog. Picking a character name is always the hardest part isn''t it?¡± ¡°How about Spark Plug? ¡° She scowled and shook her head in response. ¡°Let''s eat while we figure it out.¡± John said firmly with a grin. Picking a character name in a game was always the longest part of character creation for anyone with any class. They went downstairs into the kitchen/dining room. The dining part of this room was largely occupied with a two tier planter by the window to take advantage of the south facing aspect and the room had ended up cluttered with random bits and bobs. They never ate there. They were very much an "eat on your knees in front of the tele" kind of family. John went into the kitchen and moved some rubbish and unwashed pots out of the way, thinking to himself that cleaning up will be a lot easier now he could teleport stuff with his mighty brain powers... He looked at the chopping board, still greasy from the garlic bread he had cut on it yesterday to go with their dinner and twisted space and time. It appeared in the sink with a blip and a splash. Neat but need to work on the landing, he thought. Evie had gone through into the living room and judging from the intermittent pops and crackles was probably going to start a house fire, blow all the fuses or both. Once the bacon was cooking he had a thought. Why not see what his ability could do? He teleported four slices of bread onto a fresh chopping board, opened the cutlery drawer and teleported a knife to the board then opened the fridge and teleported the butter to the board. He checked his reserves and saw he was down to 94. Two reserves per use. So fifty uses from a full charge? How fast does it recover? He looked out the window and saw the two large thirty litre bags of compost he hadn''t put on the vegetable patch yet, checked his reserves, still at 94, then teleported them to the end of the garden, about five metres. His reserves dropped to 84. ¡°Interesting, so the rate is variable depending on the weight maybe?¡± he muttered before turning his attention back to making bacon sandwiches. He got out his phone and started a timer, keeping an eye on his reserves while putting breakfast together. He put the kettle on for a coffee and grabbed an orange juice for Evie. ¡°Here you go, Sausage,¡± he said handing the plate with the sandwich to her. He then went back to the door so he could see the glass of OJ he left on the side and teleported it next to her plate. John moved to his seat and sat down with a smirk. He started eating while waiting for the kettle to boil. ¡°Show off¡± she mumbled around a mouthful. ¡°Check this out¡± she proceeded to make sparks flash between the outstretched fingers of one hand. ¡°I guess I¡¯m not going to see Mum today then? It was meant to be a girly day as well!¡± Evie had lived with John since she was four due to what might be called ¡°some unpleasantness¡± so these days she saw her mum for visits every other Sunday and on Thursday during school holidays, making today a ¡°mumday¡± that wasn''t destined to happen. ¡°I¡¯m sorry sweetheart, I¡¯m guessing this is happening everywhere and she won¡¯t be able to travel to see you.¡± ¡°And it was going to be a Greg-free-day as well. Sucks.¡± Greg was her half brother who was a few years younger than her and had a ¡°challenging personality¡±. She continued rolling sparks around her hand with a grimace of disappointment. ¡°How much of your reserves are you using?¡± John asked to try and change the subject, ¡°I got mine down to 84 by blipping the sarnie components around the kitchen and moving the compost. After three minutes or so they were back at 100. So that''s a regen rate of five per minute I guess? 5% per minute isn''t¡¯ too bad? Is it a percentage based rate or a flat 5 per minute? Could be other factors I guess, those books you read always have ambient levels of magic in the air that affect regen rates and stuff right? Moving the compost took a lot more Reserves than moving the butter. I¡¯m not sure why though.¡± ¡°Check your log,¡± she replied casually, chewing into the bacon buttie. ¡°My what?¡± ¡°Your combat log. Think or say ¡°Log¡±¡±. ¡°Log¡± Combat log: Previous entry: Teleport Glass of Orange Juice Successful Reserve cost: 20 Cost mitigated by the following factors: Less than 10% of Weight Limit ¨C cost reduced by half Less than 10% of Distance Limit ¨C cost reduced by half Minimum cost cannot be reduced by more than 90% of base cost. Final Cost: 2 Reserves ¡°You, child of mine, are a god-damn genius.¡± Chapter 2 - So are you going to magic up the dog then or what? ¡°I got an Essence for it as well,¡± Evie said happily. ¡°Still not sure what to do with them.¡± John finished his sandwich with a contented sigh and went to make his coffee. ¡°I got the option to give one to Zeeg that I rejected to give it to you. We could invite her to the party?¡± he called from the kitchen. ¡°Or I could figure out how to level up... Oh, of course it''s that simple... Yes¡± Team member Evie Borrows has chosen to spend one Essence and advance to Level 2. Levelling in process... ¡°This is weird Dad, I''ve got three choices to pick from: Ability, Efficiency and Utility. What do you think.¡± she looked at him questioningly.. John came back with his coffee, slightly miffed to have to wait and see what Zeeg became with an Essence but glad Evie had once again figured something out. He was starting to feel being a little left behind was going to become a motif in his new life. Going from constant provider and protector to "How are you this dumb, Dad?" or something equally caustic in such a short time would take some getting used to. ¡°Any explanation or description?¡± he asked, sitting down and waiting for his drink to cool. ¡°Nothing else at all. I''m going to pick efficiency I think.¡± she looked at him questioningly. ¡°Fill your boots, test subject number one. Be the guinea pig. Live the guinea pig!¡± He said, taking a slurp of his coffee. Evie Borrows has chosen to modify Efficiency. New status for team member Evie Borrows: Level 2 Name: Evie Borrows Ability: Electrogenesis Constitution: 100% Reserves: 200 Guidelines: Maximum Discharge: 240V Line of sight required. Modifications: Level 2: Reserve capacity X2 ¡°Woah. That felt very weird!¡± said Evie, glancing around the room. ¡°Like a part of me I didn''t know existed and can''t normally feel, somehow got bigger¡±. ¡°What did you get?¡± he asked curiously. ¡°Reserves times two so I¡¯ve got 200 now." ¡°You doubled your reserves with one level?" he asked, amazed, "that has the potential for exponential growth! No way the levelling system is that broken. Right?¡± He asked hesitantly and Evie shrugged, ¡±if you can get maximum efficiency, now when you use your power now you can use it 100 times instead of 50 without needing a break. I''m guessing it''s less than 10% of your voltage?¡±. ¡°Yeah? I think? I''ve just been using max strength.¡± ¡°If you double your voltage for a few levels you¡¯ll end up doing a lot of damage, you probably zap someone like they stuck a fork in a plug socket already. How about you get dressed and we go into the garden to really test out these powers?¡± John asked, consumed by curiosity about their new abilities. Five minutes later Evie was dressed and John was still rocking his post covid business attire: PJs, a dressing gown and crocs ensemble. Working from home was not good for his fashion sense. Evie sported black jeans and a Nirvana t-shirt that had John contemplating a lecture about putting things in the laundry basket more regularly. After a brief argument Evie was ordered to wear her trainers because there was no way John was giving up his croc/dressing gown combo at this time of day. They let Zeeg out first, who immediately went to sniff around her domain and do what dogs do when you let them out on a morning. ¡°Hang fire a second, I need to gather the dog eggs,¡± John used his preferred euphemism for bagging up dog poop. Then an evil grin appeared on his lips, his voice dropped to a whisper. ¡°Do you remember the trouble we had with the lady over the fence at the end throwing stuff into our garden last year? And what I told her I''d do if she didn''t stop?¡± ¡°Dad, I''m pretty sure she stopped... don''t...¡± but she grinned anyway. John began teleporting ¡°dog eggs¡± into the gutter of the unpleasant lady¡¯s conservatory while Evie giggled quietly into her hands. ¡°Whatever else, whatever the hell this apocalypse brings... that made it all worth it!¡± grinned John at his daughter, ¡°now don''t tell grandma I did that under any circumstances! Or your mates at school. Or anyone at all in fact. So, what can you do, Little Miss Sparky? Give me a second to set up some targets for you.¡± John fished some bamboo canes from the garage, carefully ignoring the mess in there he had been planning on clearing out for nearly a year now, and planted a dozen poles spread across the garden. Evie pointed at the first and a fat spark leapt from her finger to the middle cane on the first row. A baby lightning bolt. Evie Borrows: Reserves: 190 The bamboo cane exploded throwing burning splinters across the garden. ¡°I used Maximum voltage for ten reserves. I''m not sure how I knew how to control it but I just understood it. Like... it''s like how I know how to walk or breathe. Pretty sure that would have hurt if it hit a baddie!¡± she grinned ¡°I don''t think a Hello Kitty bandaid would be enough to make it feel better, for sure. My guidelines are weight and distance so the reduction is based on what I try to move and how far. I can control how far much like you said about how much voltage you use, I just know how. Unfortunately the weight is just whatever the thing weighs. Hopefully we end up being attacked by things weighing less than 10kg but I''m not wildly optimistic about that. Take another shot?¡± The second bamboo cane on the front row exploded and sizzled. Evie went through eight more, doing quick draw finger guns to take out the last couple. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°I''ve got an idea. Can I try something on you?¡± she asked. ¡°Um, as long as it isn''t a Zap... ok?¡± It felt like John''s entire body went weak and then everything went black. He came to, flat on his back, a bump growing on the back of his head from collapsing with a semi-hysterical Evie slapping his cheeks. ¡°Ok kid, I don''t keep my awake-ness in my cheeks! What the hell happened?¡± He said groggily, and silently cursed for jinxing himself by joking that she could play guinea pig. ¡°I thought I''d killed you! I''m so sorry Dad! Are you sure you''re OK? How many fingers am I holding up?¡± she said calming now John was awake again but still distraught. ¡°I''m alright Sausage, bit of a headache though. I can see¡­ twenty seven fingers.¡± One of the twenty seven was deployed to poke him in the beer gut. ¡±Ouch! You can see my constitution in the team status thing. I only took... 2%.¡± John grabbed his phone and started a stopwatch. ¡°Now we have a chance to figure out how fast that regenerates as well, if it does. Good job Sausage!¡± ¡°That was not a good job,¡± she said with guilt clear in her voice, ¡°are you sure you''re OK?¡± John slowly got up, rubbing the back of his head and checking for blood. ¡°All ship shape and Bristol fashion here kiddo, despite the pigeon egg on the back of my noggin. What was it you, um, did?¡± She hesitated a moment then said ¡°I was thinking about how electricity is in our nerves right?¡± ¡°Well kind of but it¡¯s not really electricity per se I think? ¡°Well, whatever, I figured living things, things with nerves anyway used electricity so I kind of, um, stole some of yours. I''m so sorry dad,¡± she hung her head. ¡°Did it work and did it take any reserves?¡± her dad asked with a hint of excitement in his voice, for the moment completely unconcerned about the potential danger he had just been in. ¡°Yeah I got a bit but it knocked you out like a light. Cost me one reserve. Can we just call it Mana Dad? This reserve thing is lame.¡± ¡°Well please don''t do that to me again and you can call it Unicorn Poop Units for all I care. I might feel a bit strange asking you how many UPU you used though. Thinking about it... I''m going to stick to the words this stupid system uses for now. Wait right there a sec kiddo, I''ve got an idea.¡± John opened the garage door again, continued to ignore the mess and boxes he''d been putting off sorting out, he had a years worth of practice at ignoring it so he was fairly competent in that regard by now. He found what he was looking for and re-emerged into the light. ¡°The battery for the mower/strimmer thing we got from Grandad,¡± he said, presenting it with a flourish. He pressed the button to check the charge level, ¡°Fully charged. Can you pull power from this?¡± Evie frowned and raised a hand. ¡°Woah there! Gimme a sec!¡± John put the battery down and backed away a metre or so. Then went back, picked it up and moved the battery to the end of the garden, about ten metres away, and then went to stand safely behind Evie. ¡°Righto. Do your thing.¡± ¡°Scared?¡± Evie laughed. ¡°Not going to lie. Whatever you did really sucked to be on the receiving end of. Let''s hope whatever the first wave is has nerves. Fire away kiddo¡± A blue light shot from the battery to Evie''s hand. ¡°Johnny Five is alive! I¡¯ve got a 100% boost on the next zap now!¡± John went and picked up the battery, hit the power level button and saw she had completely drained all of the power from it. ¡°Empty. I''m going to stick it back on to charge, see how long it takes to show full again. How much reserves did that take?¡± Evie checked and responded ¡°10 reserves. Ouch¡± ZAAAAPPPP ZAP More bamboo exploded. ¡°This boost to damage when I drain stuff is great! Did you see that first shot? How long does it take to charge the battery dad?¡± John Borrows is back to 100% constitution. John grabbed his phone and saw it had been just under two minutes since he started the timer and he now felt absolutely fine again. The lump on the back of his head was gone. Fifteen seconds unconscious give or take... ¡°1% health per minute I think? So I can be almost dead and then be completely healthy in an hour and a half or so? This is ridiculous. Anything less than instagibbed and you are fine in a couple of hours¡± he mumbled. ¡°Uh, five or six hours on the battery, I think? You''ll need another option to stay topped off than draining me. It seriously messes me up, maybe treat the Zaps as your ¡°special¡± attack and drain as your bread and butter move? If you pull less power you''ll use a lot fewer reserves.¡± As Evie resumed creating every panda''s worst nightmare, a panorama of shattered, burning bamboo, John took stock. He was trying to understand how to weaponize his ability as the first system message made it clear a fight was coming. He had been giving it some thought and concluded gravity would be his best friend. He didn''t feel overly worried about this situation and with his daughter''s and his own lives apparently on the line this struck him as very odd. He also didn¡¯t seem to be terribly worried about not being worried so he focused on what was at hand. He began teleporting the ornamental rocks at the end of the garden around. A few centimetres either way at first before graduating to dropping them from three metres up. Then ten. Then twenty metres up. They were digging themselves in quite deeply and throwing mud all over from the impacts at that point. Two reserves each time. Less than 10% weight and less than 10% distance keeping the costs low. Dropping a few kilos of rock on something''s head was undoubtedly going to be effective but rocks could be surprisingly sneaky beggars. Two rocks that looked the same size could weigh significantly different amounts due to their density and composition. An additional problem would no doubt be that things he wanted to be able to drop rocks on might not want rocks dropped on their heads. For some reason. They would be extremely unsporting and move out of the way or cheat in some other underhanded fashion. A pickle to be sure. He sent a rock ninety nine metres straight up and waited a moment, eyes fixed to it. He watched it fall, drifting over towards landing in the neighbours garden due to the wind, building speed and momentum then teleported it again to right above another rock. Both rocks shattered with a resounding crash, sending shards of stone flying, some of which were left embedded in the fence. ¡°Well that works¡± He grinned at Evie. We have a status screen, levels and upgrades. All very video game-y... John considered everything he had learned from the video games he had played and silly stories he had read in his life and decided to chant random words to see what happened. As all sane people naturally would in this situation. ¡°Inventory¡± he muttered. Nothing. No infinite pocket dimension to make logistics a doddle for Johnny boy. Bugger. That would have been handy. Having worked in logistics for the last few years he knew moving things in bulk was not a simple process and being a pathological fan of survivalist blogs and videos he knew how difficult it was to keep people warm and fed without modern supply chains. Supply chains they were apparently now completely cut off from. The power being on was nice but they couldn¡¯t pay electronically for anything now with the internet taking a break and he didn¡¯t keep much cash in the house. Just in time delivery systems suddenly didn¡¯t seem like such a great idea as John considered the ramifications. Thousands of people in town and most of them only have a few days food on hand... This will get ugly fast. ¡°Active effects?¡± Nothing. ¡°Status Effects¡±. Zip. ¡°Buffs¡±. Nada. ¡°How does this thing start?¡± Nothing, no infinite ammo Dodge corvette for him. ¡°God Mode, uh, Infinite Essence...¡± Double nothing. Long odds for sure but they had been worth a shot. ¡°Identify¡± he whispered as he was getting an increasingly funny look from Evie. You have discovered the Identify function. +1 Essence. Small rock Approximate weight 2kg ¡°Booyah!¡± He looked at Evie and thought Identify. Level 2 Name: Evie Borrows Ability: Electrogenesis Constitution: 100% Reserves: 44 Weight: 57kg ¡°Kid, look at me and think IDENTIFY!¡± John said with a distinct tone of smug in his voice. ¡°Oh cool. A level one noob and you''re good for 25% of a power boost to my next zap but it would kill you. Let me try it on something less weak.¡± Hurtful! Evie looked at the the house, began waving her arms over her head and said in what someone who watched too many Japanese cartoons might think sounded like a magical chant ¡°IdEnTIFyyYY!!!!¡± John assumed she was being snarky about his overly optimistic ¡°god mode¡±. In all fairness he probably deserved it. ¡°That is going to be really handy!¡± she continued in a less melodramatic voice, ¡°The house is plugged into the grid so I can pull a lot of power from it. As in a really large lot. Nearly infinite in fact. That''s going to be useful. Did you get an Essence for it?¡± ¡°Yes, I got an Essence.¡± ¡°So are you going to magic up the dog then or what?¡± Chapter 3 - Lets go find some flying stuff to fight John stood up straight and raised his right hand, cupped upwards and declared in his best Patrick Stewart voice ¡°Alas poor Yorik I knew him well. Zeeg, a puppy of infinite jests but poor socialisation and recall yet of most excellent fancy... yadda yadda... something about slings and arrows... to magic up the dog or not to magic up the dog. That is the question,¡± he finished in a more normal voice as he failed to recall the Shakespeare he was forced to read all those years ago. ¡°Well?¡± asked Evie in the unimpressed voice of someone who had become immune to non sequiturs from her dad. ¡°Not sure kid. Not sure. The dog is mental. Imagine her with superpowers. What will she do next time we¡¯re out for a walk and she sees a random SFD and decides to go for it?¡± John was silent for a few moments. ¡°I think I''ll take the level. We can magic Zeeg up when we have a better idea of what''s coming and a better chance of stopping her from using flying powers, or whatever she gets, to go and hunt down all the Small Fluffy Dogs or whatever madness takes her fancy. Level up!¡± Would you like to use one Essence and advance to Level 2? Y/N ¡°Yes¡± Please select from the following options Ability Efficiency Utility You have selected Efficiency. New Status: Level: 2 Name: John Borrows Ability: Teleportation Constitution: 100% Reserves: 76 Guidelines: Maximum weight: 100kg Maximum Distance: 1km Line of sight required Modifications: Level 2: How about we split the difference? You always were a cheapskate. Maximum cost reduction due to efficiency bonus'' increased to 99% ¡°Ok, this is nuts,¡± John said before making rocks bounce back and forth across the garden. ¡°That took 1.6 reserves for eight teleports. As long as I keep the objects small I can do... um... what 500 teleports from a full tank?¡± he looked up at the sky and declared, ¡°you know this is mental right?¡± Evie ignored her father ranting at the sky. This wasn''t the first time it had happened after all. Usually it was on an evening and he''d had a few glasses of wine though, so this was a bit out of character. ¡°Sooo when are you going to take the plunge?¡± ¡°What plunge?¡± ¡°You know the ''why don''t you stop being a baby and become the Nightcrawler you were always meant to be'' plunge?¡± ¡°I find your lack of respect¡­ disturbing,¡± said John in a Darth Vader voice, ¡°but par for the course. Fair point... I guess it''s one thing to blip rocks about the garden but to blip me about, what if something goes wrong? What if it isn''t ¡®folding space¡¯ or whatever and I actually create a duplicate in the new location and something goes wrong and the original isn''t destroyed and then he decides to hunt me down because of something stupid I did twenty years ago that ruined his life??? What if...¡± ¡°Dad, stop, she held up both hands and made ''chill'' gestures, "as usual you''re overthinking this. I think there is a limiter or override that stops us hurting ourselves with the powers. There is only one way to find out, so man up!¡± She poked him in a kidney. John became very serious. ¡°Please promise me you''ll be careful experimenting with your ability? ''I think'' doesn''t mean it is.¡± ¡°Ok Dad, sheesh fine but like I said, I don''t think we can hurt ourselves with our own powers. Other people? Stuff? Sure we can hurt them but not ourselves.¡± ¡°Nevertheless, Sausage, be careful. There''s a pinnacle to climb or whatever the crazy system means, and no one will be climbing anything if they fry their own brain or teleport themselves into a wall. Speaking of not doing the latter... Right. Here we go. Maximum effort. No fear. Fear is the mindkiller, the little death that brings total obliteration...¡± ¡°Stop reciting the Litany Against Fear and just do it already Dad.¡± And for the first time in his life John did something that would eventually become humdrum and routine but this first time was somehow magical and special. This moment in time, crystalised in his memory, would never be forgotten. Blip. John appeared two metres up the garden, slipped on a muddy patch and promptly fell on his ass. Truly a memory to cherish. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Combat log: Previous entry: Teleport: Self Successful Reserve cost: 20 Cost mitigated by the following factors: More than 50% of Weight Limit ¨C No reduction Less than 10% of Distance Limit ¨C cost reduced by half Final Cost: 10 Reserves John leapt to his feet and unleashed a rather undignified whoop before realising his dressing gown was now covered in mud at the back. ¡°Crap. Now I have to go get dressed and it isn''t even 7 o''clock. This is not what working from home was meant to be like.¡± He smirked despite the setback as Evie chortled quietly at his expense. ¡°Real smooth dad! Looks like you crapped yourself¡± Returning to the garden after putting his PJs and dressing gown in the washing machine and now attired in jeans, an old t shirt emblazoned with ¡°Summer of 88¡± and a hoodie, John briefly thanked the gods that the water and power grids hadn''t been affected so far. In minutes he was back in the garden blipping from one end to the other occasionally while making it rain rocks at the far end. ZAP. Another bamboo pole shattered. ¡°You know Dad, I think we need to test how effective drain is on a living thing. ZAP of DOOM is brutal but I think you are right about it being a special rather than the usual attack.¡± Evie had a calculating expression on her face. John disappeared from her left and reappeared on her right. ¡°Awesome,¡± he said to himself. He was revelling in the power he had been given and becoming increasingly comfortable at moving without moving. ¡°Hmm? ZAP of DOOM? You might want to work on that. What else have you got? In terms of powers, not terrible names for powers. Maybe you should call it The Frank? After Frank Zappa? Geddit?¡± Evie scowled briefly at her Dad. ¡°Boomer music," she scoffed, "you went down like a tower of cards in a gale when I drew on you so stop tempting me to try again. And it cost a lot less reserves. I need something else to try it on.¡± ¡°Leave the dog alone! You are not experimenting with possibly harmful magic powers on the puppy,¡± said John sternly. ¡°As if I would. I''ve got a much better target in mind,¡± she said as her eyes roved across the nearby rooftops. She fixed her gaze on two pigeons and a faint blue light shot from them to Evie. ¡°Take that sky rats!¡± The pigeons twitched as they dropped off the roof. 2 Harmless Pigeons Killed Harmless Pigeons yield 0.05 essence Total Essence gained: 0.1 ¡°Did you really just murder a pair of pigeons in cold blood to test out your power?¡± ¡°Hang on... log says yes, they are dead as a parrot what is nailed to the perch, pining for the fjords, etc. etc. I will purge all the sky rats to gain ultimate powah!!! Bwahahaha!¡± she cackled. ¡°Dude, I don''t know what pigeons ever did to you but I''m not sure this is healthy.¡± ¡°Mum calls them sky rats, I''m really not a pigeon-ist. Much. Anyway they deserve it. Flying flea bags. We both got 0.05 essence from each of them and I got their charge. Not much charge in them though. Maybe a bit of a boost to my next Zap and cost was 2 reserves. I bet it gets higher the further away I drain something from. So I''ve got 100 shots at anything that gets close. I hope we get slow monsters or whatever in the waves," she said with a worried expression on her face. ¡°You moved us both towards a new level by murdering pigeons?¡± he asked, slightly horrified and somehow unsurprised at the same time. A very strange form of ambivalence. ¡°Seems so. Maybe we should take a trip to the abandoned club and farm some essence from baddies whose only way to attack us is giving us fleas or pooping on us? Whatever happens with the wave the stronger we are at the start the better.¡± Evie''s enthusiasm was starting to take John aback. Evie had played violent games and watched violent films for a couple of years now, probably starting younger than was strictly acceptable but had always seemed like a calm, easy-going sort of kid. She did prefer it when he killed spiders rather than threw them out the window but that was spiders and she was eleven. Perfectly normal? This bloodthirstiness was very unlike her in John¡¯s mind. The problem was that he largely agreed with her plan for a local pigeon genocide. ¡°I think whatever this is, it''s messing with our heads. We need to take a breath. Let¡¯s go grab a drink and spend a few minutes thinking and getting our reserves back before we make a decision, OK?¡± John rested one hand on her shoulder. ¡°You''re no fun! But fine, just remember tick tock the clock is ticking,¡± Evie grumped but went inside and got herself a glass of squash, moving to the living room and making sparks jump around her fingers. ¡°No powers!¡± John said seriously, coming through having put the kettle on again. ¡°I think we are missing a trick here kiddo. It''s... ten to seven, we have until quarter to nine. If we stop using powers at 08:45 we will have full tanks when whatever will happen, happens, leaving us fifteen minutes knowing what we are facing to fine tune a plan. So we''ve got an hour and fifty five minutes. Let''s take ten to come up with a plan to take us through till we get the notification. Sounds good?¡± ¡°Sure Dad. I''ve been messing about with ¡°Identify¡± by the way." Evie mentioned as she gestured to the computer sat on the coffee table., adding, "your laptop is worth two full empowered Zaps to me.¡± John was not impressed and shook his head, replying, ¡°do not use my laptop battery as a battery. For you I mean, it works as a battery for the laptop only! I don''t want to lose my save games, thanks very much. Some of them have hundreds of hours behind them.¡± ¡°Nerd, but fine whatever," Evie rolled her eyes. "I don¡¯t know what you see in those 4X games. Give me a shooter any day of the week. Can I drain the house instead?¡± she asked hopefully. ¡°Maybe try to pull power from a plug?" John said, pointing to the wall. "Gladys is a nice landlady and I don''t want to upset her by letting you melt all the wires in the walls or something,¡± he said with a gentle smile. Teamchat: Evie Borrows: So this is what I got :) John Borrows: Oh great now you can project emojis into my brain. This will end well. Evie Borrows: Shut up and look. Evie Borrows: Combat Log: Evie Borrows used Identify on 3 Bedroom End Terrace. 3 Bedroom End Terrace: a modest 3 bed house in the small market town of Normanby. Market valuation: ¡ê286000, connected to - National Grid, making near infinite power available for someone at your level. ¡°Called it!¡± said John, once again smug, ¡°as long as the grid¡¯s up, you''re demigod tier. The S Class Kiddo. The Stumpy Lightning Slinger, Zeus'' More Annoying Ginger Half Pint Female Clone-¡± ¡°Shut up Baldy and don''t ever say the names I come up with suck again.¡± she interrupted, ¡°No idea why it felt the need to include the value of the house, but I am beginning to agree that the system is weird. The point I was trying to make, if I could just get a word in edgewise, Dad." She gave him "The Look" before continuing, "is that I can overcharge Zaps no worries as long as I''m a hundred metres from a house but Zap is expensive in reserves at max strength. Even switching between drain and Zap I''m still very glass cannon-ey and won''t have much staying power.¡± ¡°The ZAP did a number on the bamboo but unless the first wave is bamboo monsters or very vulnerable to electricity, maybe robots or something." John shrugged. "We don''t know how much damage you''ll be doing. I think drain is your best bet until we know more. It worked on me and the sky rats. Focus on efficiency for the first few levels until you¡¯ve got more reserves?¡± ¡°Yeah I can see that. And you are basically a controller aren''t you? Something gets too close you can blip it a kilometre away if you have to. I kill, you keep them off us? You can blip stuff into the sky and hope the fall kills it I suppose. Which means flying stuff is your worst match up... Sooo let''s go find some flying stuff to fight?¡± Chapter 4 - The Great Sky Rat War of 2024 ¡°One sec Sweetie¡± John grinned malevolently and teleported her across the room. ¡°What the actual... Dad - why?¡± Evie stumbled and put out a hand to the door frame in order to right herself. ¡°To see how many reserves it takes to move you obviously. It might be handy to know how many reserves I need to keep in ¡°reserve¡± to give us an escape option?¡± John replied, scanning his log. It definitely hadn''t been revenge for her earlier snarky comments. Definitely not. ¡°And... you my dear are no longer allowed chocolate!¡± ¡°Get stuffed old man. Chocolate is life! That felt really weird. Let me guess no reduction due to weight?¡± ¡°Good guess Short Stuff. It¡¯s ten reserves to move either of us. It says you are 53% of my weight limit, tubby, so no reduction other than the distance one. I can jump us both a hundred metres out of a pickle as long as I have a fifth of my reserves.¡± ¡°Are you happy now?¡± She said, giving her old man a stern look. ¡°Weirdly yes, and me from yesterday would be freaking out. Which is kind of making me freak out but not as much as I think it should. Something funky is going on in my noggin, Sausage.¡± ¡°Just like normal for you then." She smirked at him, "let''s go launch the Great Sky Rat War of 2024. Death to the feathered pests! The scouring will commence now!¡± she declared grandly with a fist in the air. ¡°You know the Australians launched a war on Emu¡¯s? They didn¡¯t win.¡± ¡°Emu¡¯s are massive, Dad. I''m not surprised.¡± ¡°Yeah but they had guns.¡± ¡°They gave the emus guns?¡± she asked incredulously, "now that''s mental!" ¡°No dopey, the Aussies had the guns!¡± ¡°Well that¡¯s pretty embarrassing then. Any other random wars humans have waged on birds that failed? Perhaps a broader historical perspective will allow us to not die to air strikes of poop.¡± ¡°Uh, I think the Chinese had a war on sparrows once? Not sure.¡± ¡°Fascinating,¡± she drawled sarcastically. ¡°Let¡¯s go murder some pigeons. We can call it a special military operation if it makes you feel safer?¡± ¡°When this is over you and I are going to sit down and have a talk, kid.¡± The abandoned club was at the corner of Back Lane before it turned to go into the marketplace, just down the way from the medical centre and a couple of minutes west from their house. John and Evie had moved to Normanby six years ago and the club had been derelict long before then according to things locals had told John. They left through the backdoor and the gate next to the garage. John''s drive was more moss than concrete, getting it power washed hadn''t been a priority for a long time. They stepped into the street and it was just as it always was. Terraced houses facing off against each other with scraps of grass in front. The autumn sun shone down gently, warm for this time of day. They moved off west, heading towards the library. As they got to the snicket they heard a startled shout from ahead of them and they both flinched. The streets were eerily silent. It was early but you would expect more people about. Some dog walkers or people bustling off to work but they had seen no one yet. "What the hell! Fucking wall!" came a stressed out voice. John and Evie moved forward to the bend in the snicket so they could see ahead. They got to the corner and saw a young woman dressed in joggers and a t-shirt scowling at the wall at the end of the snicket. "Are you ok?" called John uncertainly. Her head whipped round. She was young and pretty with long blond hair tied back in a ponytail. "Did you see that shit too? I''m too fast now! This is too fucking strange!" she scowled, looking down at her feet that seemed to have betrayed her. "We got the message as well, we were going to try and get some Essence!" called Evie. She leant in towards John and murmured "she''s cray cray!" "Do you want-" John began. "Screw this! I''m going back to bed and calling in sick!" The woman stormed past John and Evie heading out onto their street and disappearing from view. They could hear her cursing and muttering to herself for some time after she passed out of sight. "Not handling it well?" asked John, pointing a hand after the woman. "What is it you always tell me? ''People are weird, Evie,''" she adopted a gruff voice, "I''m guessing she isn''t a gamer. Or normal. Who goes running at this time in the morning for fun? What a weirdo." "At least we know we aren''t the only ones left, I suppose. The quiet was starting to freak me out." They moved on. Their destination wasn''t far and they didn''t see anyone else on the way. The old club sat on the corner with a straggly overgrown patch of ground that may once have been a gravel parking area but was now essentially scrubland. The windows were all boarded up as were the main doors at the front but enough of the boards on the upstairs windows had been knocked out by kids throwing stones or simply by time and the weather causing them to sag. Ever the opportunists, a substantial part of Normanby''s population of pigeons had set up shop inside, the boards on the upstairs windows beneath the gap they used to get in and out were streaked with the evidence of their passing. The place hadn''t been the site of drinking and dancing into the wee hours for twenty odd years and the husk of the structure was starting to show its age and lack of repair. ¡°So what''s the plan? To get inside I mean,¡± Evie asked. ¡°Good question... should have brought an axe or a crowbar I guess.¡± ¡°Even if it''s dead quiet, wandering around town with a splitting axe over your shoulder and hacking through a door would raise some eyebrows Dad. Even at this time of day. In fact that would raise some eyebrows at any time of day. Do you think they all just went back to sleep except for the crazy lady? For once I''m actually grateful you disturbed me, normally it''s just nagging me to get my breakfast cos ''It''s half eleven child, you''re not a teenager yet so stop acting like one, get out of bed now.''¡± She finished in the gruff voice which was an undeniably accurate impression of John''s ¡°Dad¡± voice. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Well you aren¡¯t a teenager yet however much you think you are," he sighed, "I honestly don''t know, kid. Maybe they are hiding under the covers freaking out? Maybe they figured it was a weird dream and rolled over to go back to sleep? Maybe one or both of us has had some sort of psychotic break and we¡¯re actually just drooling and rocking back and forth in a corner of the living room. I have to assume this is real though and not a dream. When I banged my head it hurt like the blazes and should have snapped me out of a dream. I think? Is that how dreams work?¡± ¡°Who knows? Or cares dad? You always go off topic! Focus! How are we getting in there?¡± John and Evie began examining the main doors and found that despite the age and lack of care they were solidly locked and boarded. They were not going to be brushed aside easily or quietly. They went down the side of the building and stopped by a window. None of the boards were loose but one had not been set in place correctly and left a narrow gap that John could see through. ¡°I''m going to blip you in¡± ¡°Through that gap? Are you sure abo... ut this? Eep!¡± She finished from the other side of the window. John appeared next to her a moment later and said ¡°Yes.¡± Evie punched him in the arm. Looking around they found the first floor was a large open area, the remains of a bar at one end and everything was covered in dust and the filth that accumulated with long periods of neglect. Bits of wood and plastic lay strewn here and there and the stairs up to the second floor rose from the far side of the room, curling up from behind where it looked as though the bar had once been. The floor was marked where tables had been fixed down around the dance floor, said dance floor having been ripped up so only the rough floorboards beneath remained. A constant cooing echoed down the stairs confirming their quarry was at hand. ¡°I''ll go first and start draining, if they freak out can you blip them away from the exits to stop them escaping? Any getting away you send them over to me and I''ll fry them,¡± Evie whispered. ¡°OK kid, let''s try and keep it quiet, we don''t want to draw any attention. This is technically breaking and entering. Although it''s more ¡°breaking the laws of physics in order to enter¡±, I still don''t think the Police will be A-OK with it.¡± They moved as quietly as they could up to the stairs and began to creep slowly upwards. Aged wood tends to shift and warp if it is left unattended for long periods and the staircase was no different. A series of quiet creaks and groans emerged with every step they took, each noise making them both wince and pause to check the noise from above. The birds didn''t seem to notice judging by the constant cooing remaining unchanged as they both moved slowly and carefully on to the last step and crouched down by the banister. Several of the pigeons noticed them and fluffed themselves up but they didn''t seem to feel any sense of danger and quickly went back to ignoring the Father and Daughter Extermination Squad. ¡°Can you move whatever that is to block the window with the board missing? In case they freak out,¡± Evie whispered, pointing at what appeared to be an old door that had been removed from its frame and left lying on the floor. John nodded and with a blip the door appeared almost completely blocking the gap in the window and plunging the room into darkness. There was a slight thunk as the door settled into place that made John wince. The pigeons, being ineffably stupid birds, were briefly startled but quickly settled back down. At this moment John realised he was little more intelligent than the winged rats. He had switched the orientation of the door from horizontal on the floor to almost vertical against the window while blipping it. A new trick that should have been obvious to him from the start. It also occurred to John that humans need light in order to see and this might be a problem. ¡°Damn, can you still see them?¡± he asked. ¡°Not with my eyes anymore. I can sort of sense their, um, energy though. Maybe it''s like with blind people getting super hearing but I can kind of ¡°see¡± the electricity in them. I think I could do this all along but I''m just used to seeing stuff with light and didn''t notice. It¡¯s really weird.¡± The unsanctioned extermination quest was already paying out rewards in innovation and hidden secrets it seemed. ¡°Alright then, start with the ones on the ground. The ones on the rafters will drop and scare the flock,¡± John murmured. As previously mentioned pigeons are not terribly bright and the gentle chorus of coo''s gradually diminished as each pigeon settled on the floor fell into unconsciousness and was unceremoniously shoved into the final slumber from which no feathered thing can return. John sat in the dark and did literally nothing, listening to the gradually reducing volume of the pigeon chorus as the members died and watching the Log entries tick in. Team member Evie Borrows has killed x28 Harmless Pigeons. Each team member has gained 1.4 essence. John nudged Evie gently and gestured that they should creep back down stairs. Once they got to the bottom they moved away from the stairs. ¡°I am become death! Destroyer of sky rats!¡± Evie whispered. ¡°Chill your beans kid. Lets level and see what we get in mods?¡± John suggested quietly. ¡°After you child¡± he said with a gentle smile. Evie grinned and nodded. ¡°What the hell?¡± she exclaimed quietly. ¡°It says I need two Essence to get to level three!¡± John tried and got the same result. ¡°We should have thought of that shouldn''t we really? We play enough games to know that you need more xp for higher levels. Still, we needed one essence for level two, two for level three. Do you think it will be three for level four? That seems like they want us to power level really fast. Coupled with the mods being multiplicative when they aren''t plain weird and rude, we''ll get very powerful very quickly. Let''s go bag another dozen of the feathery bastards and then come back.¡± Three minutes later and having sent twelve more unfortunate pigeons to the great nest in the sky, they were back where they began just inside the main door downstairs. Team member Evie Borrows has chosen to spend two Essence and advance to Level 3. Levelling in process... Evie Borrows has chosen to modify Ability. New status for team member Evie Borrows: Level 3 Name: Evie Borrows Ability: Electrogenesis Constitution: 100% Reserves: 200 Guidelines: Maximum Discharge: 240V Line of sight required. Modifications: Level 2: Reserve capacity X2 Level 3: Waste not Want Not. When you drain energy beyond 100% overcharging your next Zap rather than going to waste, the excess energy is used to invigorate yourself and your team members, providing a temporary buff that boosts reflexes and reserve regeneration. Buff duration is refreshed when reapplied. You''re kind of a vampire but with electricity instead of blood. Rather than science you fall back on horror tropes? Emo Kid! ¡°Cool but I am not a bloody Emo Kid!¡± Evie said. ¡°Remember to check the log when we go back upstairs and see what it actually does.¡± ¡°I thought you were going to go with efficiency to begin with? Meh, it¡¯s your build sweetheart. What are our reflex scores, do you think? I don''t like hidden stats. Let me level up and we can go finish the pidgies off.¡± John Borrows has chosen to spend two Essence advance to Level 3 John Borrows has chosen to modify Ability. New Status: Level: 3 Name: John Borrows Ability: Teleportation Constitution: 100% Reserves: 100 Guidelines: Maximum weight: 500kg Maximum Distance: 1km Line of sight required Modifications: Level 2: How about we split the difference? You always were a cheapskate. Maximum cost reduction due to efficiency bonus'' increased to 99% Level 3: Weight limit x5 Chapter 182 - Making a decision The man hadn¡¯t moved for years. What had begun as a series of plates down his back and shoulders that allowed him to control mechanical arms and attached weapons had grown over the years. Now he was cocooned in steel and plastic. His face was covered with a spherical mask that fed tubes into his nose and throat. Despite his powers he couldn¡¯t escape his biological form like that bastard Bob. He needed oxygen and nutrients so he had designed a system to provide them without his having to leave the device he had come to think of as his throne. His muscles were stimulated electrically to prevent wasting but despite this effort he had grown thin. His spindly limbs were lost in the interfaces that now covered his entire body, connecting his nervous system to the machinery that was both a curse and his greatest achievement. His eyes had been removed and cabling ran from the hood over his head directly into his optic nerves. He could see everything. Well, he could everywhere he had a camera. That area included most of what had, until very recently, been his domain. His mosquito drones provided widespread but low quality coverage while his battle suits offered much sharper details. He sent his mind down the cabling and optics that linked his hidden throne to the production network. No fancy transmutation powers for him, he had to work in traditional ways that wouldn¡¯t have been unfamiliar to someone from before the Advent. God, he hated Bob. The man''s mind encompassed the Seattle factory and he began amending the production schedule. Having now seen what this Monarch was capable of he needed to alter the design of future suits. Liberty was such a stupid name, he grumbled in his mind. The bloody woman was a speedster, but a very dangerous one. Everyone was dangerous in some fashion since the Advent but her level advantage made her a real threat. Her interest in occupying his domain across much of North America made her into his problem. A problem he intended to resolve. A dull thud echoed in his ears, or at least the auditory receivers he¡¯d interfaced on top of his biological ones. He ran a diagnostic. Back in the early days he¡¯d had some feedback issues as he increased the number of suits and drones he was running. He had solved that with pseudo-AI monitoring most of the feedback and flagging important data streams for his personal attention. Another thud echoed through him and his atrophied arms twitched in response. His arms twitched? He ran another check over his physical body. He usually ran a biological check once a day and this morning had revealed, other than steadily atrophying limbs, that he was in perfect health. ¡°Well this is weird! You aren¡¯t rooted but you might as well be! Bit of a dead end dude.¡± A woman''s voice was clearly speaking to him within his helmet. Panic rushed through his body, his recycling facilities buzzed to life. He had top notch security around his throne room, despite secrecy being his greatest strength. In a fraction of a second he scanned through the logs and found nothing had been triggered but he was convinced he was no longer alone in the heart of his territory. He activated cameras and microphones that he hadn¡¯t used for over a decade. Leaning down, with her face pushed through his helm, was a slender woman wearing loose robes. Liberty! He thought. He didn¡¯t keep any weapon systems in his throne room. An oversight he would have to remedy. In light of his secrecy and the impressive outer layers of defence he hadn¡¯t wanted the risk of having powerful weapons so close to his fragile biological body. How the hell did the bitch get through? ¡°I see you¡¯ve found me,¡± Belisarius¡¯ voice came from a speaker built into the towering machinery that spread out behind his body. She moved back, her face phasing through the metal of his hood, and reached out to plink a fingernail against some of the outer casing that held him vertical. His body shuddered slightly at the thought of what she could do if she only flicked a little harder. ¡°It wasn¡¯t that hard. Look, there¡¯s no reason for us to be at odds, right? I¡¯m here to help!¡± she said with a bright smile as she moved away and began examining the dark room. It was only lit by the pinpricks of light coming from the old interface tables he had never gotten round to removing after he entombed himself in his throne. Belisarius sent frantic signals, summoning battle suits to the single doorway that led into this room. Specialist devices whirred to life deep below him and began charging up. Should he let them fully charge a sizable piece of valuable real estate would be vapourised. If it came to his real body being taken captive civilian deaths were the last thing he would give a shit about. ¡°This is a gross invasion of my privacy,¡± he ground out. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that!¡± she grinned again in a way that didn¡¯t reassure him. ¡°I just wanted us to be on the same page. Less chance of misunderstandings if we all know where we stand. I know you¡¯re not happy, spam-man, but we all need to rub along ok? We¡¯re in this for the species!¡± ¡°Why did you say I¡¯m a dead end?¡± he asked, regaining control of his fluctuating emotions. ¡°You can¡¯t go off-world. You¡¯ll be useful against the early phases of the Void invasion but once they get established you¡¯ll be more of a hindrance. Well maybe not. They won¡¯t get Essence from killing your machines but you lack the numbers the Old Mech can put out. His tech is fascinating, yours seems more like advanced versions of what we had before.¡±This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°My tech is far beyond what we had before the Advent,¡± he snarled. Fear went down his spine. Had he made an error with the throne? If he wasn¡¯t going to be able to keep up with other humans sooner or later he¡¯d be nothing. All his dreams would turn to dust. ¡°Maybe.¡± Liberty shrugged. ¡°I wasn¡¯t into that kind of stuff before so I¡¯m probably not the best judge. Anyway, I just came by to say hi and make sure we both know where we stand. We do both understand where we stand, right?¡± The smiling girl became serious and although he couldn¡¯t see any change he felt an aura of menace spread out and smother him. His bio monitors ticked up as his heart rate increased and there was another whirr from the recycling facilities he was built into. ¡°I believe I understand perfectly. Perhaps we could discuss the details of our collaboration at a later time, when I¡¯ve been able to draw up my capabilities for you to examine?¡± Drug pumps had kicked in to bring his heart rate down and his voice was smooth and emotionless as a result. ¡°Wonderful! I¡¯ll see you soon then!¡± Liberty turned and walked through the metre thick steel, reinforced with dragonsteel bought at extraordinary cost from that bastard drone swarm, like it wasn¡¯t even there. The battle suits waiting on the other side twitched but Liberty didn¡¯t emerge. They waited for two minutes on high alert while Belisarius ran every scan and check available to him before he concluded she had left. Probably. *** ¡°So what¡¯s the problem?¡± asked the Treant, half a world away from Belisarius. John stretched out in the comfy chair he had blipped into the middle of the Treetown Grove while he visited his dad seeking advice. He sighed and leaned forward to look up at the giant ambulatory tree. ¡°How do you go about something like this? Do we offer to hold auditions? Do we ask a bunch of people and then take our pick from the ones who say yes? It seems rude,¡± he grumbled. ¡°You¡¯re worried about hurting people''s feelings? Who are you and what have you done with my son?¡± laughed the Treant. John flicked his dad a middle finger as leaves fell from Seb¡¯s higher branches wagging back and forth. ¡°You know what I mean. If we¡¯re leaving Ryn behind¡­ It¡¯s not even just her and her team. There¡¯s Greg and the Department, Jasmine, Amit, hell even Brendan! Leaving people pissed at us¡­ it wouldn¡¯t feel right. Vic¡¯s freaking out about it. We¡¯ve already pissed off a lot of people over the years. The Imperium has been gutted but there¡¯s the folks in the Court whose family, kids a few times, I had to put down. Among many others. We¡¯ve got enemies.¡± ¡°And friends, son. Ryn alone is almost as dangerous as you are now. If they¡¯re going to use Mars as a home they¡¯ll be about as safe as they can be. When the kids come back to Earth to level¡­ You know it¡¯s going to mean fighting? She¡¯s already more of a soldier than you are! She grew up with the system and monsters!¡± When a Treant shrugs it is impressively expressive. ¡°I think you¡¯re overthinking this. Just pick two that are a good fit, people you know and trust and stop being a fanny!¡± ¡°Thanks for the words of support, Dad,¡± John grumbled. ¡°You¡¯re probably right. We¡¯re getting some upgrades, tech and bio, before we go. Whoever it is needs to be on the whitelist for Signatory implants and enhancements.¡± ¡°So that narrows it down a fair bit. Why not just take Breaker and Starfall? They were both dropping hints at being up for it the other day.¡± John blipped in a smoke and lit up. ¡°I think I¡¯d prefer to have them here watching your and Ryn¡¯s backs,¡± he said frankly. ¡°We need trustworthy people here as well. ¡°Take Amit and a healer then. Wayfaire has some decently levelled healers now, one of them would be useful, or someone from Ascension. You¡¯ll probably get some injuries while you''re swanning around the cosmos. I¡¯d rather you had something other than Bob¡¯s replacements to fall back on if you lose another arm.¡± John sighed, a cloud of smoke expanding around him in the chill evening air. ¡°We do need a healer. But we need damage and utility as well. If we get dumped in a situation where we don¡¯t have access to the stash we¡¯ll need as many skills as possible. Skills might almost trump powers to be honest.¡± He lapsed into a brooding silence and glared at the trees. ¡°Want me to take some of your acorns with me? Planting new groves on alien worlds might be fun for you,¡± he offered to change the subject. ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. I¡¯m not sure how it will feel. The grove in New Zealand is somehow directly linked to me despite the roots not joining up.¡± ¡°How is Iyla doing?¡± John asked. ¡°She¡¯s fine. Pegasus has become a lot of work but the town is thriving again. Stop trying to change the subject. Make a decision boy!¡± barked the tree. ¡°Jesus, alright Dad. I¡¯ll have a think about it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not making a decision!¡± laughed Seb. ¡°That¡¯s procrastination!¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± John grinned up at his father, ruby eyes glittering as they caught the light. ¡°I don¡¯t want to go, not really. Ryn will be older than Evie is now when we get back, assuming we get a run like the Monarchs. I¡¯ll miss out on so much. That¡¯s assuming she survives,¡± he said bitterly. ¡°She¡¯ll be fine. As long as she doesn¡¯t piss off Life or Magic she¡¯s about as apex predator as you,¡± Seb replied in a gentler voice. ¡°I¡¯m not apex predator material, but I might see if Bob can build me a shoulder mounted plasma cannon. That would be sweet,¡± he grinned at Seb and rose to his feet, the chair vanished back to his rooms in the Bunker. ¡°Well old man, you¡¯ve been very helpful. Thank you so much for your wise council,¡± he bowed slightly as Seb chuckled. ¡°So you¡¯ve made a decision then?¡± John grimaced but nodded. ¡°Yeah. Now I just have to sell it to the rest of them.¡± ¡°Dare I ask what, or rather who, you¡¯ve decided on?¡± ¡°You can ask!¡± John grinned as he tapped the side of his nose. ¡°See you later Dad.¡± He vanished from the sunny clearing in the forest. Seb glanced around, muttered about idiot young people, then walked into the trunk of one of the giant trees that lined the space. Chapter 183 - Starfish organ? ¡°You¡¯re sure they¡¯ll accept?¡± asked the bio-Bob smoking a cigar opposite him. John and Vic¡¯s apartment in the Bunker was fairly bare bones. Most of their possessions had been lost in the attack on their house at the Topping and they¡¯d not really gotten round to replacing anything more than the essentials. The chairs were comfortable, the rooms well ventilated and warm so John couldn¡¯t complain too much. The lack of a bowling alley was an irritant though. ¡°I think it¡¯s a decent choice. They can heal, buff and kill in equal measure. The only issue is what it¡¯ll do to John''s ego to be constantly called Saint.¡± Vic called, she was busying herself in the kitchen area making drinks. She hadn¡¯t really stopped and settled since the team had committed to going off-world. ¡°The twins will agree if John asks them nicely,¡± the bio-Bob grinned at him. John felt himself try to curl up, hunching his shoulders slightly but he fought the urge off. ¡°I¡¯ll speak to them later today,¡± he grumbled. Being treated like a religious icon had pros and cons. Generally in his experience the cons outweighed the pros by a considerable margin. ¡°Well you¡¯ll need to find the time. We¡¯ve got upgrades with Pete and Life this morning then I¡¯m issuing new armour this afternoon,¡± said Bob. ¡°Aren¡¯t we already as enhanced as we can get?¡± asked Vic, bringing through three cups of coffee and putting one down in front of each of them. She sat down with a sigh as she took a deep inhale of the aroma. ¡°I¡¯m going to miss this,¡± she said regretfully looking at her cup. ¡°Nah, I¡¯ll pack the stash to the gills. I¡¯ve cut down the manufacturing area a fair bit, I still want that capability while we¡¯re off on our jollies, but I¡¯m already cramming Doris to the gills with essentials. Coffee is on the essential list!¡± Bob added hurriedly as Vic gave him a look. ¡°Apparently Life and Pete have found their abilities are quite complementary and they can do a lot better than what we¡¯ve had before. Your eyes are stuck that way, according to Life, but the rest of you are in for a treat.¡± They chatted a while longer, John fishing for advice on handling the twins and receiving little more than jokes in return. Once they had finished their drinks John blipped them over the entrance to Shelly¡¯s nest under Wayfaire. Bob led the way, knowing exactly where they needed to go. It was a good job as well. The dark and dank corridors had expanded greatly since John had last visited. The main corridor wound down in a spiral with expansive rooms off to either side. The darkness made it hard to judge the exact size but glittering multifaceted eyes watched them pass from the depths of the birthing rooms. The glints of light suggested these new birthing rooms were vast, hundreds of metres long at least. They took a turn off the main passage and began following slightly narrower tunnels that spread out horizontally for half a mile. The side rooms in this section were all sealed with sphincter like biological doors which was actually a relief after the thousands of eyes that had watched them pass earlier. The only sounds they could hear was the occasional dripping coming from the vein-like tubes running along the ceiling and the soft squelches of their footsteps. The oppressive atmosphere of the nest settled in around them like a cloak, leaving them silent and on edge. A sphincter-door opened ahead of them and Shelly, or a Shelly at least, emerged on clattering feet that broke the soft noises and made them all start. ¡°Time for the Maker to show his power!¡± she chittered happily. ¡°Follow. Follow!¡± she skittered off ahead of them and they increased the pace to keep up. ¡°Maker has given Shelly wonderful permissions! New creatures for the hive! Wonderful creatures!¡± she said. She stopped and spun round lightning fast to nod her head at them before turning back and moving on. ¡°Keep up!¡± They followed the giant arachnid through the tunnels, taking several turns that would have left John bewildered before he¡¯d received his ¡°gift¡± from the King of Magic. Now he could see straight through the walls to where Pete¡¯s primary body and the man known as Life were waiting ahead of them. He tried to keep the distance he could see to something akin to his normal vision, it became disorienting to look through hundreds of miles of stone. They emerged into a large hall, the roof disappearing into the distance only slightly helping John¡¯s sense of claustrophobia. The Dragon waited for them in the middle and it raised its head as they emerged from the corridor. ¡°Excellent! Now we can see if this works!¡± he rumbled as he uncoiled and moved towards them. ¡°Not sure I like the idea of ¡®seeing if this works¡¯,¡± said Vic with an angry look at the giant lizard. ¡°I¡¯m not a lab rat!¡± ¡°It will work. Pete is new to this kind of adjustment but he has demonstrated his understanding on several Nagas and I am here to correct if anything goes wrong,¡± said Life. ¡°Hello all. Will the rest of the biological members of the team be joining us?¡± he asked. John sent a quick teamchat message and as he received an affirmative response from each of them he blipped them into the dank chamber a mile beneath the surface of their world. They exchanged greetings and turned their gazes on the Dragon who somehow looked a little sheepish. ¡°So¡­ Who wants to go first?¡± Pete asked. ¡°What, exactly, are you planning to do?¡± asked Evie as she crossed her arms.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°It¡¯s amazing really!¡± the Dragon gushed, all nervousness forgotten now he had an opportunity to discuss his plans with a captive audience. ¡°Life has some extremely potent templates. You¡¯re looking at increasing muscle efficiency by 30%, sensory feedback by 15% and considerable hardening against most physical damage. The starfish organ is particularly impressive, but I think the best part is the enhanced nervous system. Pain dampening, emotional suppression, stamina recovery. It all adds up to making you as perfect as we can!¡± ¡°Starfish organ?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°What the hell is that? And will this even work on me?¡± ¡°You might be a tricky one due to the transformative nature of your ability but I¡¯m confident we can make most of the enhancements work for you,¡± Life cut in. ¡°The starfish organ is something I cooked up while we were away. It lets you regrow limbs and internal organs quickly. Not in minutes or anything like that but in hours or days. It¡¯s not useful in combat, although it will minimise the trauma, but after a few days you¡¯ll have grown back whatever you lost.¡± ¡°So why is Magic still a stub of a person?¡± John asked. ¡°I didn¡¯t have it when Magic lost most of his body. The spells he used to keep himself alive made it impossible for me to alter his body again. Unfortunately he is trapped that way forever,¡± Life said sadly. ¡°Come along, form a line and touch the Dragon!¡± he blinked at his own words. ¡°Not something I ever thought I¡¯d say outside of a DND game!¡± he muttered as he waved an arm in Pete¡¯s direction. The team eyed each other for a moment then Reg shrugged, swore colourfully and stepped forward to slap a hand on the nearest leg of the Dragon. He swayed lightly then stepped back, bringing his hands to his head and grimacing. ¡°Feck me! That¡¯s nae any fun!¡± he grouched. ¡°Are you OK Reg?¡± asked Flash worriedly. He trusted his brother, despite the horrific changes from little boy to Dragon that Pete had endured, but this was a huge change even compared to the enhancements they¡¯d received before. ¡°Aye boy. I¡¯ll live. And keep yer fecking voice down!¡± Reg almost-whispered in reply. ¡°I was just talking normally?¡± grumbled Flash as he stepped up and laid a hand on his brother''s scaly arm. They all went through the process and were all equally impressed with the results. John¡¯s vision remained unchanged but he could hear the susurrations of Shelly¡¯s pet monsters for half a kilometre despite the sealed doors. He blipped himself in place as rapidly as possible and noted a considerable increase in his reserve usage. He must be getting close to two or three hundred blips a second now. He made a note to run some experiments later. Maybe get Bob to do some measurements? ¡°It all seems to have worked out fine!¡± Life said cheerfully making the team wince. ¡°You¡¯ll get used to the auditory improvements quickly!¡± he lowered his voice slightly in deference to their newly enhanced hearing. ¡°Did it get warmer in here?¡± asked Evie, looking around. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me,¡± said Vic quietly. ¡°I haven¡¯t noticed temperature changes that I don¡¯t cause for years.¡± She glanced about, reaching out with her power then shrugged. ¡°Nope. Same temperature as it was before I think.¡± ¡°Well how about we go see your next surprise then? Might as well get it out of the way then John can go and have a nice chat with Gemini!¡± said the bio-Bob who had also received the strange changes the Dragon and the Monarch had cooked up for them. John scowled but nodded. Bob sent him a location via his implant that still somehow worked despite the mutilation of his eyes. They said farewell to the two biotinkers and John blipped to their next destination. They all breathed a quiet sigh of relief to be away from the oppressive atmosphere of the deep nest. They had appeared in a brightly lit expanse, spider drones and flying machines darting around them as they ran or flew back and forth carrying supplies, machinery, bits of other drones and god alone knew what some of the more esoteric looking things were. The cacophony of clangs and whirring noises had them all reaching for their ears. ¡°Right over here!¡± said Bob as he hurried them towards a rectangle of light that they were all familiar with. John paused. If that was the access to the stash then that meant it was next to Doris¡¯ foot. He panned his head up slowly as he adjusted his vision to see through everything again. His jaw dropped open. Doris was now gargantuan. She stretched over a hundred metres above them. The five metre high roof barely left her ankles exposed to the room. She was an intricate web of struts reinforcing the heavy armour plates over her entire surface. Various sealed ports hid a dizzying array of projectile and energy weapons, covering large sections of her outer armour. Beneath those ports was more armour to cover for the weaknesses introduced into the outer shell. He blinked his ruby eyes as the aural assault hit him once more and he scurried forward into the portal to the stash. It was relatively quiet in the stash. The old fashioned machine lines had long been replaced with what amounted to magic fabricators and they had largely been removed and set up in the depths of the Bunker. Drones flew back and forth and metallic tentacles dangling from the ceiling shuttled back and forth over a third of the kilometre square space. The rest was full of crates stacked in neat racks stretching for hundreds of metres across nearly half a kilometre of the stash. ¡°Never heard of travelling light?¡± asked Evie as she nudged the bio-Bob. ¡°Better to have something and not need it-¡± Bob began. ¡°Than need something and not have it,¡± the rest of the team chorused. John scowled at his friends. ¡°I know I say it a lot but it is good advice! So let¡¯s see the new armour then,¡± he said, turning to Bob. ¡°Spoilsport! Only you and Vic knew what it was. Follow me!¡± He bounced along cheerfully, the drones and arms passing around them like synchronised swimmers. He led them down one of the storage bays and John took stock of what Bob had laid in as stores for their journey. Tons of food and raw materials of every description filled the space, enough to last them for years. He expanded his vision and saw the medical facilities at the rear of the chamber had been expanded and enhanced. There was also a living area with small rooms set aside so they could sleep in the stash if needed. His eyes found their destination and he suppressed a grin. Bob had certainly outdone himself, if he had leaned heavily on well known aesthetics. ¡°Tada!¡± said Bob, waving a hand at a bulky enclosed section of the stash. A door split it down the centre and out marched something none of them had seen before. It resembled an eight foot armoured knight with massive pauldrons covering its shoulder and almost reaching the same height as the helmets. From within the shadow cast by the comically large shoulder plates twin red eyes gleamed. The entire body was covered in articulated dragonmetal plates, all a dull silver-grey. It didn¡¯t stomp or clang like you would expect, moving almost silently as it settled into a stance, legs spread and arms held at its sides. A bulky pack was built into its back, making it look as though it was sporting a large metal rucksack. ¡°How do we get in?¡± asked Evie. The machine peeled apart, expanding strands of yellow metal keeping the parts connected as it broke itself open to create a gap at the side big enough for someone to slip awkwardly into. ¡°This one¡¯s John¡¯s. The rest are on their way,¡± Bob grinned as the compartment split once more and another set of battle armour walked out. ¡°Well, hurry up and see how they fit!¡± Chapter 184 - Walk among the stars ¡°Traveller, can I ask a favour?¡± War was pacing up and down as John walked into a briefing room in the upper floors of the Bunker. He knew Bob was antsy whenever one of the Monarchs entered his lair. John was convinced they were aware of it as well. War and Life were their local representatives of that team and both seemed much better adjusted than the others. ¡°What is it?¡± John asked as he took a seat and leant back in the luxurious chair. He made a mental note to get Bob to take a bunch of his best furniture with them. No need to rough it if they didn¡¯t need to. ¡°We want to expand the portal network. You¡¯ve been relying on temporary portals and they may fail while you¡¯re off-world,¡± War replied, continuing to pace back and forth. He spun, moving so fast his gut wobbled. ¡°I need to be able to move back and forth freely. I¡¯m fast on the cloud but not cross-the-world-in-seconds fast. I can run faster but I can¡¯t run across oceans.¡± ¡°It would have to be routed through Blue Street. Or a special area underground, maybe. It¡¯s also more portals to guard, more places for bad actors to infiltrate. It¡¯s a Wayfaire issue, I can¡¯t just say yes.¡± John shrugged. ¡°Have you spoken to Greg?¡± ¡°Not yet. Death wants to talk to your friend as well. There is an interesting synergy there that he wants to exploit for the invasion. He¡¯s thinking about a stronghold in a place with plenty of ghosts. Zombie hordes plus shrieking spirits could be very effective against the more intelligent Void beasts. They aren¡¯t all dumb beasts and some of them can be made to feel fear.¡± He stopped pacing and crossed his arms over his stomach. ¡°If your friend agrees, are you happy to lay down a grid? Fifty portals spread across the surface, all connected to a central nexus would make things a lot easier.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lot of portals in the middle of nowhere.¡± John rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ¡°Be a bitch to defend. Why do you want them spread out like that? Most population centres are already linked via Blue Street.¡± ¡°In case you aren¡¯t back before the Void arrives. We won¡¯t be able to expand the network while you¡¯re away and there¡¯s going to be a lot of construction work being done while you¡¯re away.¡± War sat down and rested his elbows on his knees, leaning forward and meeting John¡¯s eyes. The force of personality behind War¡¯s gaze hit John like a sledgehammer. ¡°We won¡¯t be away that long!¡± John laughed uncomfortably. ¡°Will we?¡± ¡°Who knows? Maybe fifteen years on Earth is the standard deployment. We don¡¯t know. I can tell you it wasn¡¯t fifteen years for us. Some kind of time fuckery was in play. For us it was only a couple of years on the ship, including time fighting on the ground. No one said the timer on the invasion was accurate either. With these egg things already being here I think it might have been a bit generous.¡± John thought for a moment. Maybe the fat man had a point? If he was still away when the Void arrived¡­ He sent a burst of questions and instructions to Bob through his implant. They¡¯d need to adjust their own setup for the portals as well before he left. Unity, the bases on mars and the Moon¡­ they needed to centralise the hub for those networks. As well as bury it as deep as possible in the most heavily fortified section of the Bunker. ¡°If Greg agrees I¡¯ll do it.¡± John had his own reservations about the idea. The Monarchs weren¡¯t all friendly, or mentally stable and he still hadn¡¯t met two of them. ¡°Greg isn¡¯t even level twenty, if I remember right. I¡¯m not sure how much use he¡¯d be to Death¡¯s plan.¡± War rose to his feet and smiled. ¡°We have plenty of spare Essence if he is happy to be boosted up. Thank you, that¡¯s all I would ask of you. I¡¯ll see if I can crash that meeting Death has planned with the Headmaster for this evening. Thanks John. If you want to pick my brain before you go, feel free to reach out to me.¡± War pulled a Bphone from his pocket and waggled it at John. A not so subtle reminder that the Monarchs weren¡¯t trusted for implants perhaps? They didn¡¯t need enhancements, Life was light years ahead of Pete in that area, but they had no tech of their own. ¡°Sure. Thanks. Let a Bob know where you want the portals if Greg is cool with it and I¡¯ll set them up.¡± John stood and shook War''s hand, painfully conscious that the big man could still crush his hand without any effort, despite the latest enhancements they¡¯d received. The grip was firm and if John had to guess; carefully controlled. War nodded and strode out into the corridor, the door swishing shut behind him. ¡°So. Time for the twins?¡± he asked in the empty room. ¡°Yep. They¡¯ve gone back to Ascension since the end of the Accords. Turns out they had hundreds of Orion''s with massive Essence reserves. The tithing of Essence the followers of their church give had been carefully hoarded,¡± said Bob from all around him. Was he hiding the speakers now? Weird. ¡°I¡¯ll drop them a message and ask for an urgent meeting then,¡± said john, pulling up his contacts and firing off a quick note requesting to see them as soon as they had a moment. ¡°What do you think about this new portal grid?¡± asked John to kill time while he waited for the twins to get back to him. ¡°It¡¯s a good idea. I¡¯m not sure how to handle the Wayfaire element. I¡¯m not sure I want it in the Bunker if it¡¯s primarily for the Monarchs. Maybe we should build a massive platform and do it up high, keep it out in the sun so there¡¯s no shenanigans.¡± ¡°I like that idea. We need to move the interplanetary portals as well before we go,¡± John muttered thoughtfully. ¡°Down by the server farm?¡± he asked. ¡°Most of the server farm is being dispersed as we speak. We¡¯ve got too many eggs in Wayfaire. The next year for me is going to involve setting up multiple manufactorums, all across the globe.¡± ¡°It¡¯s going to be weird having you with us and still being here at the same time. Will you be able to communicate with yourself?¡± John mentally crossed his fingers, the option to have video calls or even just send text messages back home while they were away would lift a weight from his shoulders. ¡°No idea. I¡¯ve been working on a few things that might allow some basic communication, entangled fundamental elements. It won¡¯t be able to do much more than morse code though. I¡¯m not sure it¡¯s a good idea anyway. Think about it: we¡¯re stuck off-world for an unknown period and something awful happens. Like the Void gets here early or something. How would it feel to know and be helpless to get here in time to help?¡± John paused and concluded it would suck. He nodded and was about to reply when the Twins replied to him that they were available and he could come directly to the Canticle. ¡°I¡¯m off to see the Twins mate.¡± he said instead. ¡°I¡¯ll let you know what they say.¡± ¡°Have fun. I already know what they¡¯ll say. It¡¯s no secret; what we¡¯re planning I mean. Or that they¡¯ll do pretty much anything you ask as long as it isn¡¯t against their crazy religion.¡± John shook his head ruefully and vanished.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. Ascension had changed dramatically over the last fifteen years. John had rarely visited. People followed him about and made weird gestures in his direction. He was fairly sure the gestures were devotional rather than rude but he had never wanted to ask. He appeared on the balcony outside the Canticle, right as the top. The whole city was laid out below him like a map. What had once been a large gothic cathedral surrounded by mismatched buildings thrown together by earth movers in a hurry, surrounded by dank and misty marshes was now completely transformed. Shining spires and flying buttresses dominated the view. Each building was massive and baroque, probably housing a village in each of them. They were largely self-sufficient in terms of amenities and facilities. Each one was dominated by the church that occupied the upper floors. All of them were dwarfed by the Cathedral of Light, upon whose highest tower he had appeared. The height would have given the old John conniptions fits, if not an outright panic attack, but he was immune to vertigo now. He turned to look at the arching doors behind him, heavy carved marble, that swung open as he did so. ¡°Saint Traveller.¡± The cleric bowed deeply. John had never bothered to learn what the intricacies of their priestly costumes meant but he knew they were significant to the Churches followers. Due to the elaborate black and gold thread work John assumed this gentleman was a big deal. A beaming face greeted him as the man straightened and reached forward to shake his hand. John reciprocated, the other man¡¯s grip was clammy and sweaty. He discreetly wiped his palm on his trousers as the man closed his eyes and made that bloody weird gesture at him. Thumbs and forefingers touching on both hands, interlinked to form a horizontal figure 8. ¡°Saint. The prophets will see you in their private chambers. Please follow me.¡± He turned gracefully and John followed him deeper in the glories of the Church. No expense had been spared on this vast room that floated on delicate struts of alien metal purchased from BME, clad in marble and gold. The floor was largely clear, focussed on a dais with an ornate gold and black podium sat centre stage. The balcony he¡¯d arrived on was opposite the dais and as he entered he looked to either side to see the wide spiral staircases that gave access to this amazing space for the congregations that worshipped here daily. Along the walls were beautiful artworks and sculptures, articles of faith and devotion provided by the Faithful. Black and gold were a heavy theme throughout the space, mirroring the colours of the twins'' strange powers. He carefully avoided looking at the artworks that featured heavily idealised images of himself looking heroic or wise. He wasn¡¯t that heroic, nor wise and he had definitely ever looked that good. His scruffy beard and scarred face were all imagined far better than they¡¯d ever actually looked. They¡¯ll have to buy up a load of rubies to redo my eyes, he chuckled to himself uncomfortably. John decided to just assume the chap playing servant to deliver him to the twins was a bishop of some sort and opted not to push for conversation as they walked across the church. He followed the man to the right side of the dais and paused as the bishop knocked gently on a simple wooden door three times. ¡°Come in!¡± called back twice, once in a male voice and once in a feminine voice although it was hard to be sure. Both the twins sounded fairly androgynous. This was definitely the right place at least. The prelate pushed the door open gently and stepped in, John following behind. ¡°Prophets. The Saint is here to see you.¡± His voice was full of fervour, a zealous tone that demonstrated beyond doubt that this man was a true believer in the strange cult the twins had built around themselves. He stepped to the side and bowed deeply towards the space between John and the twins. The pair was reclining on a simple wooden bench with ratty old fashioned cushions scattered across the seat. John took in the rest of the room and was surprised at the simplicity of it, especially in comparison to the overly decorated space next door. Simple white walls, two basic wooden desks facing each other in the centre of the room and equal unadorned benches lined the walls. At the far end was a pair of plain doors, presumably for the twins'' sleeping quarters. ¡°Thank you Arch Bishop. We will join you for evensong in four hours. Please let us have peace in the meantime?¡± said Felix. ¡°Meantime,¡± echoed Felicity. Years of putting up with this mirror speak¡­ am I sure this a good idea? John wondered. And that bloke was the Arch Bishop? He¡¯s almost as important as the twins and he played usher for me! ¡°What can we do for you John?¡± asked Felicity rising from her seat gracefully to give him a warm hug before pulling one of the seats from behind the desk and sliding it over for him to sit on opposite them. As she sat back down she smoothed her skirts before assuming a perfect copy of the inquisitive pose her brother had struck. Both heads slightly cocked to one side, polite, bright eyes looking at him. ¡°Thanks for seeing me. How¡¯s life now you can be back as part of the faction?¡± ¡°It is good.¡± said Felix. ¡°Good. Being back in the Church so much is a wonderful feeling,¡± Felicity added. ¡°Ah,¡± John muttered and rubbed a hand back over his bald head. He¡¯d flatly refused to let Pete tinker with him to get his hair back. ¡°How is it for you to be back with Wayfaire?¡± asked Felix. ¡°I¡¯m not really back with Wayfaire to be honest.¡± John leant back in the surprisingly comfortable chair. Looking simple didn¡¯t mean good ergonomics couldn¡¯t be included it seemed. ¡°They fully adapted to being without us as far as planning and organising is concerned. Not that we were particularly involved in that kind of thing before the Accords,¡± he shrugged. ¡°I¡¯m not convinced they¡¯re happy about the situation. Greg is, of course, but the management of much of Wayfaire''s affairs is handled by the Department now and I never have learned to get along with them.¡± ¡°Managers and bureaucrats are needed as well as holy warriors. The Ecclesiarchy handles most of that side of things for Ascension.¡± said Felicity. ¡°Ascension.¡± Felix¡¯s voice practically glowed with pride when he said the word. ¡°We are more figureheads than anything these days.¡± ¡°I guess it¡¯s similar for us. If Wayfaire gets in a bind they can call on the Carnival and know that we¡¯ll show up,¡± John said with a faint smile as he remembered the simpler times before the Accords. ¡°Not that it matters much with the Monarchs back on Earth. That¡¯s what I wanted to talk to you about, kind of.¡± ¡°You are troubled to have more powerful people? With the Darkness coming we will need all the strength the species can muster.¡± Felicity said with a warm smile. ¡°Muster. They are humans and will fight for our world,¡± Felix added. ¡°But they can¡¯t be the only ones who get that strong before the Void- uh the Darkness arrives. Are you aware of the Carnival''s plans?¡± ¡°To visit the cosmos? Of course,¡± Felicity replied. ¡°Of course. We¡¯re also aware of your need,¡± Felix finished for his sister. ¡°Well what do you think?¡± John muttered, feeling increasingly uncomfortable. ¡°It is a good plan. But we question your motivation.¡± Felix answered, fixing John with a firm look. ¡°Motivation. Are you so used to being the strongest, bar ourselves, that this change in circumstance troubles you?¡± Felicity also turned a raptor like gaze on him. John blinked and swallowed. Was that part of his motivation? Maybe, if he was being honest with himself. But it wasn¡¯t all of it. Evie had been very loud about how it was the only way to level and if they had to become as strong as possible to face the invasion and live. His eldest daughter had been eleven during the advent. She had always been a little strange, likely due to him never speaking to her like a child. Being a single dad wasn¡¯t easy and John had wanted to give her the best chance in life, despite the shaky start she had suffered, so sugar-coating and keeping things from her had never been his priority. As a result of that and the Advent she was battle mad and obsessed with levelling up. Now they were as high as they¡¯d likely get if they stayed on Earth. If they slaughtered the highest level monsters they could find for decades they might gain another level or two. They needed hundreds of millions of Essence per level now and soon it would be billions. The only other option, slaughtering humans, was not on the table. ¡°I think that¡¯s part of it, if I¡¯m honest. I don¡¯t like not being the counter that keeps everyone mostly in line.¡± The twins nodded so he continued. ¡°The rest of it is we won¡¯t be able to get more powerful on Earth. Not in a meaningful timeframe, anyway. We need to be strong before the Void arrives, as strong or stronger than the Monarchs. Hell, as strong as possible. Level one hundred gives you five class enhancements and they¡¯re force multipliers. We¡¯ll need people that strong to stand a chance.¡± The twins leant back and steepled their fingers under their chins. They shared a quick look and nodded. ¡°Thank you for your honesty,¡± said Felicity as their hands dropped to their laps simultaneously. ¡°Our Church has long been without us and will cope well enough in our absence.¡± ¡°Absence,¡± Felix picked up the thread. ¡°We¡¯d be honoured to join you as we walk among the stars.¡± Chapter 185 - The usual ¡°Well that¡¯s that job jobbed.¡± John said. Off to the south side of what had once been Normanby a five hundred metre wide platform had been erected. Arcing struts supported it, broad and shallow enough that people and vehicles could travel up them easily. The portals were arrayed in concentric circles across its surface with three metre wide roads forming a series of concentric circles when viewed from above. Being elevated so high it cast a constant blue glow over the whole of the centre of Wayfaire, day and night. ¡°Seemed the easiest way. There¡¯s going to be a lot of construction work going on. We¡¯re throwing up fortified positions with support facilities around the exits from the Monarch¡¯s Way. They won¡¯t be manned until nearer the time but having the infrastructure already in place gives us a lot of flexibility. The invasion could land anywhere, and will probably land everywhere to be honest, so having this network of bases setup will make it easier to react when the time comes,¡± said the small drone hovering next to John. ¡°Any complaints about the light?¡± John asked as he studied Bob¡¯s handiwork. ¡°Nope. Lots about having it looming over the city centre like a misplaced car park though. Greg told them to sod off.¡± ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound like Greg?¡± John asked as he pivoted in the air to glance at the drone. It bobbed up and down briefly, its equivalent to a shrug. ¡°He was a bit more diplomatic but that was the gist of it. Can you feel it? It¡¯s like the whole word has come alive! Everything is being pushed towards defence and preparation. I¡¯ve had to online another ten server-Bobs!¡± Bob sounded strangely happy to be so busy. John had always preferred a nice, steady routine, being busy had usually meant something had gone wrong and needed fixing urgently. ¡°Yeah. It does feel different.¡± Different was pronounced in a way that suggested it wasn¡¯t necessarily better. ¡°What¡¯s the plan for Doris? I¡¯m not sure the rest understood just how massive she is now. Will I be able to teleport her?¡± ¡°You should be ok. She¡¯s just under twenty thousand tons without the antigrav systems online. With them running she¡¯s under twelve thousand. She¡¯s going to be sporting a backpack which will punch her up a couple of thousand, though.¡± John blinked. ¡°Why is she going to have a two thousand ton backpack? It¡¯s not like we¡¯re going hiking and there¡¯s always the stash,¡± he said, confused. ¡°Remember the third wave? We couldn¡¯t access the stash for months. I for one am not going without at least the essentials for that long again,¡± buzzed the drone. ¡°Good point. Can you make sure a decent supply of tobacco is in the back pack please?¡± ¡°Already done. That and whiskey.¡± ¡°I hope you left a little bit of space for things like food?¡± John grinned. ¡°Oh yeah. It¡¯s also a modest production facility. Scaled down versions of most of the main reactors and fabrication plants are included, along with a hundred B-3000s. Bob-prime has a little fortified house at the back of Doris¡¯ skull as well.¡± ¡°Good thinking Batman.¡± ¡°She¡¯ll be clumsy as hell until she can drop it somewhere but it¡¯s worth having those facilities accessible under any circumstances,¡± The drone replied. ¡°Have you spoken to Ryn?¡± Bob changed the subject. He was always a little shifty about his first and favourite machine. ¡°Yeah. She¡¯s not happy about moving to Mars but she understands. The rest of her team have agreed to join her so you¡¯ll have the first semi-permanent Martian colonists in a couple of days,¡± John said, trying to make the best of the situation. Wherever he had been sent, wherever he had chosen to go since the advent, he had always been able to get home easily. Globe trotting and being home for tea with his family had been the norm. When Evie moved out there had been a void but leaving home was healthy and he had accepted it. Now he felt like he was abandoning his younger daughter. ¡°She¡¯ll be fine, mate.¡± The drone seemed to read his thoughts and John''s adrenaline spiked. ¡°Ha. I¡¯m just reading your life signs, relax. I thought you¡¯d gotten used to it?¡± ¡°Sometimes I forget. I¡¯m pushing sixty years old now,¡± John replied ruefully. ¡°And you don¡¯t look a day over thirty. Thank god for Pete¡¯s little treatments, eh?¡± the drone chuckled. ¡°Not a problem I need to worry about.¡± ¡°Now that you¡¯re an immortal drone swarm? Hah. I¡¯d rather be blood and bone. How is Pete? He and Shelly haven¡¯t replied to any messages for the last couple of days.¡± John asked. ¡°I¡¯d rather be the old me as well.¡± Bob said sadly. John rarely heard Bob complain about his situation. The loss of his original human body was something that Bob had taken in stride and had never seemed to be an issue for him. ¡°Still, it¡¯s better than being dragon shit!¡± The drone perked up. ¡°Pete and Shelly are busy.¡± Bob¡¯s lack of further explanation pricked at John¡¯s mind but he decided not to push. The Dragon and his creation could make monsters. If John had to guess Pete was busy setting up hives across the globe, likely mirroring Bob¡¯s forward base plans.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Am I going to get forgetful? All the usual ageing stuff?¡± John wondered quietly to himself. ¡°Probably. We only need to last another fifty odd years though. Once the Invasion is dealt with we can retire and take it easy.¡± ¡°Only another fifty years?¡± John muttered. ¡°Well plus however long it takes us to deal with the Void. Most of that is going to fly by though. We¡¯ll be off world for a few years from our perspective but time dilation will mean most of that fifty years will have gone by when we get back. Call it another ten years or so of relative time to get through the Invasion, then we can park up and¡­ I dunno, found a vineyard or something?¡± ¡°A vineyard?¡± John raised an eyebrow. ¡°Whatever insanely rich and powerful people do when they get old. Buy an island? Meddle in politics? The world will be our oyster, John.¡± ¡°You seem remarkably confident about all this working out. What¡¯s the success rate against a Void invasion? Less than 50%?¡± John asked. ¡°As you damn well know we don¡¯t have hard numbers on that but from what Jintak and Grell have said, coupled with what we¡¯ve gleaned from Life and War, at least 50% survive to the point where Void monsters are an endemic pest but they don¡¯t lose their world. The ones who actually clear out the invasion? Probably less than 5%.¡± ¡°One in twenty? That seems high. If this is happening across millions of worlds, one in twenty is a huge number of wins.¡± ¡°Agreed but we don¡¯t know how many worlds are out there. Maybe an Advent only happens once every century or maybe there are thousands of them a year. It¡¯s pure conjecture.¡± The drone bobbed up and down again. ¡°So what you¡¯re really saying is we don¡¯t have a fucking clue,¡± John grumbled. ¡°Pretty much. We¡¯re going to operate on the assumption we can win, and win properly. We¡¯ve got a lot of advantages and now all the tribs are dealt with, or about to be dealt with at any rate, we can really knuckle down and turn good old Terra into a real terror for the Void. We¡¯re going to eat them up and shit them out when they get here. Literally in the case of Pete and his pets. Going into a fight expecting to lose is a bad idea.¡± ¡°Never let realism get in the way of motivational propaganda. Dammit Bob, I¡¯m leaving my daughter and a bunch of friends on the assumption we can get strong enough to make a difference.¡± The drone circled round in front of John as he scowled down at the new structure looming over his old home town. ¡°John. There¡¯s no such thing as a sure bet. I thought you were all set for this new adventure?¡± Bob asked. John narrowed his ruby eyes at the drone, seeing through it for a moment before bringing his focus back to encompass the machine. It was all whirring wheels and pulsing cables on the inside. It was fascinating to be able to see the flow of power and force as its parts synergised to let it function and fly. ¡°Now we¡¯re set on the course, I''m second guessing myself. Just ignore me. So what¡¯s next?¡± he asked. ¡°With the new portal network set up I need you to move the interplanetary portals into the sub-basement of the Bunker. Then it¡¯s barbeque time before we officially sign up and go gallivanting off into the black ocean. Does black ocean work? I was going to say Void but the pricks coming to mess with us have kind of nicked that.¡± ¡°Black ocean is fine in small doses,¡± John chuckled. He blipped down to the sub-basement and looked around. He also looked through everything around him. He was at least half a mile underground and surrounded by materials that would have driven a pre-system engineer insane with envy. The walls were made of some composite of alien resin and refined stone, reinforced with Bob¡¯s finest dragonsteel. The area was accessible through a single narrow corridor, constructed equally as heavily as the three metre thick walls, which started in one of the most heavily fortified locations in the Bunker. Recessed weapon systems were built into the walls and it had its own drone factory, stacked with tons of construction materials, to constantly provide new defenders. John pulled his vision back and then zoomed out once more. ¡°What are the weird hexagonal objects in the walls?¡± he asked. ¡°Demolition charges. Our orbital facilities are one of our major edges over the Monarchs, if we ever fall out with them. Those charges are part of a larger network that will collapse the entire bunker.¡± ¡°They could just dig through it? I could blip out twenty thousand ton chunks and dig down pretty quickly if I had to. And what the fuck will happen to Ryn and anyone else on Mars if you use these bloody things?¡± John snapped. ¡°First of all you missed the casings.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t miss them. I can see everything. That didn¡¯t sound like I meant it to. What did I miss?¡± ¡°The outer layer of the charges shielding. Have another look.¡± John did so and saw rows of what looked like bullets circling the charges horizontally. ¡°You see them?¡± Bob asked and John nodded. ¡°Those are filled with, well, think Anthrax on steroids.¡± ¡°Life can just kill them,¡± John said unhappily. ¡°Yep but it¡¯s also filled with stuff that makes CX gas look like helium. And enough fissile material to irradiate the remains of the bunker for generations.¡± ¡°Jesus Bob,¡± John whistled. ¡°Setting aside all the war crimes this represents, what happens if you have to use the damn things? Ryn will be stuck on Mars for years!¡± ¡°Nah, I¡¯m turning Deimos into a shipyard. They¡¯ll have a fleet of flying saucers to play with in a few months. Call it a year''s travel time without the portals so Ryn could be back in orbit in 18 months if things go sideways. Orbital construction is going to ramp up over Earth a lot as well but we can¡¯t move those portals, they need access to raw materials.¡± ¡°So Fortress Earth is your project for while we¡¯re away. That and looking after Ryn!¡± he scowled at the drone, his red eyes adding an infernal touch to his glare that he appreciated. He¡¯d been trying it out in the mirror when he was brushing his teeth and the result was intimidating. The effect was completely lost on Bob. ¡°Yep. Both of those plus running the global economy, keeping an eye on our new glorious overlords, making sure Pete doesn¡¯t accidentally sterilise the planet etc etc. You know, the usual.¡± Chapter 186 - Our last night on Earth John stepped away from the party and lit up a smoke. They would be signing up tomorrow morning and a tension had been seeping into his mind, gradually increasing the closer that moment drew. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t disappear off on your own. Two Guns is trying to get Armand to duel,¡± Ryn said from behind him. ¡°Is that what it¡¯s like to deal with me? Just popping up where you aren¡¯t expected?¡± he chuckled. ¡°Oh you¡¯re much worse than me Dad. I have to be able to see where I want to go, I don¡¯t have some system enhanced memory thing letting me go anywhere I¡¯ve been before.¡± ¡°I suppose that¡¯s fair.¡± John turned and carefully ignored the subconscious flinch he noticed in his daughter as Ryn met his ruby eyes. He pulled his sight in, making it as close to the human normal as he could manage. Ghostly outlines became semi-solid as his vision was scaled down and structures and people appeared almost like they used to. ¡°Maybe you should get eyes like these. I can see through anything.¡± ¡°No thanks Dad. They¡¯re creepy.¡± ¡°Creepy? Charming!¡± John laughed and pulled Ryn into a hug. He stepped back and put a hand on each of her shoulders as he stared down at her face. ¡°I¡¯ll miss you kid,¡± he said softly. ¡°I know. I¡¯ll miss you too Dad. Let¡¯s not get maudlin, Kev is probably twitching at your emotions!¡± ¡°Mars will be easier for him, at least. There¡¯s only a few hundred people living there.¡± John stepped back and turned to the view from the balcony. They were in a park section of the bunker. A vast cavern whose walls and ceiling were covered in screens and projectors to create an idyllic horizon around the expanse of parkland and forests Bob had cultivated deep underground. ¡°I¡¯m looking forward to Mars. Have you seen the training facilities Bob has built?¡± ¡°No love. What are they like?¡± John had seen the plans, he just wanted to listen to his daughter''s voice. ¡°There¡¯s huge caves made into all sorts of environments. Parklands like this-¡± she waved a hand at the artificial landscape below them, ¡°-urban complexes, even alien-style structures. Weird mechanical and biological looking things! All populated by bots and bioconstructs from Pete. I had a look at his attempt at a Void spawning structure; it was awesome. Twisty corridors and brood rooms crawling with messed up looking monsters!¡± John smiled to himself and let her ramble, asking only enough questions to keep her narrative flowing enthusiastically, as he soaked up the memories. She would be so different when they came back. The adult she would grow into would be shaped by strife and conflict, a weapon honed for the coming war, and he wouldn¡¯t be part of that process from here on out. Ryn had already drifted away from Vic and John, to an extent. Only in the normal way that happens with all teenagers, thus far. She was going to spend years training and learning to make the most of her powers while they were separated and that natural distancing would create a vast gulf between his Ryn, standing next to him discussing the intricacies of using her power in confined spaces, and the woman who he would meet for the first time whenever the system decided to send him back home. He was confident she would grow into a good person. Her friends and their families would be moving to Mars as well, along with a number of people with vital manufacturing abilities. Bob, with the blessing of the Monarchs, had laid out complex plans that would take years, probably decades to realise. Turning the interior of Mars and the Moon into massive industrial zones churning out all the materials of war that humanity was going to need was not a small project. Ryn gradually wound down and looked up at her dad, her enthusiasm fading slightly. ¡°Were you even listening?¡± she asked. ¡°I was, sweetheart. I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll do fine while we¡¯re away. You¡¯re a good kid.¡± John controlled his voice carefully, preventing the emotions choking up his chest from showing through. ¡°Of course we¡¯ll be fine! Heck, when you get back we¡¯ll be ready to choke out the Void as soon as they appear in the solar system and they¡¯ll still be fifteen years away! We¡¯ll be ready Dad.¡± Her voice was full of the confidence of youth but perhaps, John thought, it was at least partially justified. "C¡¯mon kid, let¡¯s go rejoin the party,¡± she smiled and he put an arm over her shoulders as they headed back inside. The party was a contradiction. Raucous and happy on the one hand and slightly sombre, coloured by regret, on the other. The Carnival were all present, including the twins, and the friends and extended family of everyone were having a good time. Clouds of gloom hung over some people, they were the ones that Kev was carefully keeping his distance from as the misery of imminent separation was impossible to ignore. John and Ryn walked over to where Vic was arguing good naturedly with Sam about something that would have been inconsequential in any other setting. Sam was defending her comment and denying that the film she had referenced was made up while Vic needled her about the obviously fictitious movie reference. ¡°Mum, I¡¯m going to check on Kev, keep an eye on Dad? He¡¯s getting all grumbly!¡± Ryn hugged Vic and moved off to thread her way across the room to rescue her friend from Bad¡¯s father, who was discussing knife fighting techniques in gruesome detail that the lanky teenager wasn¡¯t appreciating. A few hours later the guests began filtering out, in ones and twos at first before some critical mass was reached and those who remained moved out almost en masse. John scanned across the room and all the detritus of the gathering vanished. John, Vic, Evie and Ryn said their farewells to the rest of the team and moved into their apartment for the night. It was a spacious series of rooms built around a central communal area, pleasantly decorated and well furnished with comfortable seats and fancy looking flute-legged tables.This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°I¡¯m going to turn in for the night! I¡¯ll see you tomorrow before we go, little sister!¡± Evie called as she waved over her shoulder and headed into her room. She bumped into the doorframe and grumbled as she corrected herself. ¡°How much did she have to drink?¡± asked Vic. ¡°More than she should have!¡± John chuckled, looking forward to the hangover Evie would have in the morning. ¡°I¡¯m going to turn in as well. Night Mum. Night Dad. Sweet dreams!¡± Ryn hugged her parents and made her way to the door to her room where she paused for a moment. She turned round and smiled broadly at her parents. ¡°I¡¯m really proud of you both!¡± she blurted out before rushing through the door and slamming it closed behind her. Grumpy complaints echoed out through the door to Evie¡¯s room as a result of the noise. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be the ones being proud of her?¡± John asked as he moved over to a cabinet and pulled out a bottle of amber liquid. ¡°Night cap?¡± ¡°Just a small one, please. I¡¯m not sure whether to be happy or insulted that Ryn is as ok as she is about us going away,¡± said Vic in a bemused voice. ¡°She¡¯s always been living in our shadow. It will do her good to shine on her own merits,¡± John said as he poured two tumblers half full of liquid gold. He lifted his glass, breathed deeply at the aroma and took a small sip before blipping over to Vic and handing her a glass. ¡°That isn¡¯t a small one, love,¡± Vic complained with a smile as she took the glass and drank. They moved over to a sofa arranged so that it faced the window with the parkland outside lit by faux-moonlight. It was beautiful in a slightly artificial way. The green expanse looked too perfect and the knowledge they were half a mile underground only reinforced the uncanny valley feeling John got as his eyes switched to allow him to see through the enveloping rock and earth. They sat next to each other, a line of connection running along where their thighs touched, holding hands as they drank their scotch in silence. ¡°I¡¯ll miss this,¡± Vic said sombrely after a few minutes. ¡°Pretty sure Bob is packing plenty of booze on Doris,¡± John replied. ¡°Not that, idiot. I swear if your liver wasn¡¯t made of monster flesh you¡¯d have died five years ago. Tomorrow will be the last day we get to live in this world.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be coming back,¡± John¡¯s voice was confident as he tried to reassure his wife. ¡°Most of us will, if the Monarchs are anything to go by,¡± Vic said darkly. ¡°That wasn¡¯t what I meant though. The world won¡¯t be as it is now when we get back. It will have changed as much as it has since the end of the Waves, maybe more.¡± ¡°Bob and the Sigs will be here to keep an eye on things.¡± ¡°I know that. Dammit John you really are bad at listening aren¡¯t you?¡± Vic turned her green eyes to lock with his red ones and let out a small laugh. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± She brought a hand up to his scarred cheek and held it against his skin, the warmth of her flowing into him reminding him why he needed to get stronger. ¡°I¡¯m not great at it,¡± he said slowly, blipping his glass to the table in the corner and reaching up to put his other hand on her wrist, holding her hand to his face. ¡°I do try though.¡± ¡°I know love. You are very trying.¡± She grinned as he twitched and fought down a laugh. ¡°C¡¯mon. Let¡¯s go to bed. It¡¯s our last night on Earth. Whatever will we do with the time?¡± *** John carefully extricated himself from the tangle of Vic¡¯s arms and legs a few hours later. He was restless and couldn¡¯t sleep. He blipped himself silently back out into the living area and sought out his half finished glass from before. He grabbed it and moved to the windows to look down on a terrarium hiding underground. If they ever lost the surface this place, and places like it, would be the only green spaces his grandchildren might ever see. He blipped himself out into the ¡°sky¡± and stood hovering in the air, casting his gaze through his surroundings. The trees below were complex structures, long tubes running from deep in the soil to the branches above to transport water and nutrients to the photosynthetic greenery at their tops. Humans and animals were moving through the space, even at this time of night, and he watched them flow around each other, the animals shying away while the humans passed each other with cordial politeness. A young couple had made a den out behind some bushes and¡­ He pivoted his gaze away, leaving them what privacy he could. ¡°You will not enjoy being off-world, little mammal.¡± "And why is that, old fiend?¡± John asked without turning. ¡°Fifteen years you¡¯ve hidden away without even a Christmas card. I was starting to think you¡¯d forgotten about me.¡± ¡°Your world is moving into a new phase. My intervention is no longer required and administrative tasks take up a lot of my focus,¡± said Fashtaal with a reptilian shrug. John glanced across at the golden lizard-man and blipped in a pair of smokes, passing one across to the avatar of the system on Earth. ¡°Paperwork eh? Well that fucking sucks for you. Why won¡¯t I like it off-world?¡± he asked again as he lit his own cigarette with a thumbs up, the small jet of fire springing from a special organ Pete had designed to replace the mechanical implant he had used in the past. ¡°It will not be as you expect, naturally, but you¡¯ll also learn some things you will not like. And if I know you as well as I think I do you¡¯ll probably end up doing something foolish. Just remember that you¡¯re only out ¡®there¡¯ because you want ¡®here¡¯ to continue to exist.¡± ¡°How well do you think you know me?¡± asked John, turning his ruby gaze on the lizard. Despite the effects of the eye¡¯s Magic had ¡°given¡± him, Fashtaal looked exactly like he had when John had his boring blue biological eyes; an outline of golden lights forming the creature''s body. ¡°Well enough John. Sometimes we have to do things for the system, things we would prefer not to do. Bending to the inevitable is a wise choice in those circumstances.¡± Fashtaal blew out a cloud of smoke that slowly spread around him. Despite being hundreds of feet above the ground the air was still in this pocket of green beneath the stone. ¡°I¡¯ve done unsavoury things before,¡± muttered John, thinking of the outlaws he had put down in the past. The renegades who broke the Accords, boosting their levels too high, too fast and going mad with the sense of power. The ones who became a danger to the wider population and had had to be put down for their crimes. The revenge he had taken on the Scunners was the least of his sins over the last decade. ¡°Killing a few mad dogs is not the same. Do you remember your second wave?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± John snapped. ¡°Big ugly bastards. If Hargreaves hadn¡¯t been such a self absorbed dickhead we¡¯d have cheesed the sons of bitches to death without losses.¡± ¡°They once embarked on the same mission you are about to undertake. Perhaps you will not be required to serve in such a capacity. Then again, perhaps what the system requires of you will be even worse than slaughtering newly ascended primitives,¡± Fashtaal said sadly. John took a moment to parse the possibilities through his mind. Could he slaughter innocents trapped inside rainbow barriers? Terrified people, newly empowered by the system and considerably lower level than himself and his team would be chaff in the wind to the Carnival. ¡°Do we get any say on what missions we receive?¡± he asked. ¡°I think you know the answer to that already. The system is not a big fan of giving you options,¡± Fashtaal chuckled to himself, a sibilant rumble that raised the hairs on the back of John¡¯s neck. ¡°Remember, my friend, it is better to bend than to break.¡± Chapter 187 - The Light shines The Carnival were all gathered in an area away from the centre of Wayfaire that was strangely devoid of buildings. Half a kilometre in diameter the zone had been magically overlooked by the Departments urban development teams. Trees had taken over and the space was used as a picnic and recreational area by members of the Department and others who had to work in the centre of the burgeoning planetary capital. The sun had yet to properly breach the horizon but a pink glow suffused the air, blurring to purple due to azure light coming from all the portals on Blue Street. John looked around and suppressed a grin. He could see the massive machinery churning underground, lifting Doris to the surface for the first time in years. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t someone make a speech?¡± rumbled Greg, grinning cadaverously at the assemblage. The Carnival''s friends and family had dragged themselves out of bed early, hungover and complaining, so they could be present to say a final farewell. ¡°Keep the noise down!¡± complained Evie, raising a hand to her forehead only to flinch as her power armoured hand clanged off her helmet, sending a loud noise through her fragile skull. ¡°This is going to take some getting used to,¡± she moaned, carefully avoiding any further movements. Vomiting inside their new armour had probably been allowed for in the specs but she had no wish to be the first to test it. Raoul towered over everyone in his four metre tall suit but the rest of them were easily two and a half metres tall now. Only the twins had refused the new armour pattern, preferring standard BME armour as it didn¡¯t limit their movement and power. Bob had built them a pair of suits anyway and kept them in reserve in Doris¡¯ backpack. Their regular armour wasn¡¯t ideal for fighting in vacuum or other hostile environments. ¡°When will I be allowed back in?¡± demanded someone from the Department who had worked a night shift and made a habit of stopping off in the park to take breakfast/dinner before heading home. For some reason the sight of Carnival, decked out in their intimidating new armour hadn¡¯t been enough to persuade him to skip a rural breakfast today. Eight lumps of metal pivoted to stare down at the thin man who suddenly became very quiet and began to sidle away. The team turned and watched expectantly. It began with a crash as earth was thrown to the sides of a huge hatch, splitting the ground in two as it clam shelled up. They were watching from the line of the split and it appeared as though a powerful explosion had blasted the dirt outwards. As the dust cleared Doris¡¯ head was revealed. It took a minute as the machinery lifting her out of her underground bay wasn¡¯t up to quickly moving so much mass. Her gleaming helm emerged, a blank metal visage devoid of facial features gleamed silver and gold in the early morning light. ¡°Bloody hell Bob. I still wish we could have swapped powers. She¡¯s beautiful!¡± said Evie quietly, as the head continued to emerge. The only decoration was two long spikes, swept back from her head where the ears would be on a human. After the ten metre tall head was clear the shoulders came up, turrets and launchers bristled on top of the pauldrons, making it look as though she had stolen a pair of science fiction battleships and melted them in place. Barrels and tubes large enough to count as naval weapons pivoted and spun, testing their range of movement now they were free from the confines she had been held in for so long. Her right arm held a long bladed spear of white metal that was taller than a multistorey building. Her chest and torso armour was angled to deflect ranged attacks, giving her a strangely triangular body when viewed from the front. The bulky rectangular backpack attached to the mech was clearly not part of the original design and looked awkward and artificial compared to the rest of the flowing design. At this point her head was already fifty metres above the surface and then her legs began to emerge. More gleaming metal that John could see housed all sorts of nightmarish weapons of war, hidden in recessed turrets and firing positions. At last the mechanical rumbling faded away and she took a step forward, dust exploding under her broad feet as they slammed into the ground. She pivoted, swung her spear up so it was resting over one shoulder and snapped to attention. ¡°Pretty sweet right?¡± Bob chuckled, the drone bouncing up and down in the air. ¡°Do the rest of us even need to go?¡± wondered Flash. ¡°I want to spar with her!¡± declared Raoul. ¡°Tell me I can spar with her?¡± ¡°Maybe if we get a chance on the ship. We should be put into a space big enough to accommodate us all, according to Jintak, but I don¡¯t have infinite spares. I can make most things to fix her up but serious damage might result in a full rework. So be careful!¡± said the drone. John moved over to where Vic was standing with Ryn. The girl was seemingly dwarfed by their new armour. John pushed the image away, his daughter wasn¡¯t fragile by any means and the comparison was unfair. ¡°Well kiddo. It¡¯s time. You listen to Bob while we¡¯re gone ok?¡± he asked awkwardly as he held out an armoured hand that she reached up and rested her own against. They had said goodbye and exchanged final hugs before coming up from the underground terrarium.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Ryn smiled tightly as she fought down tears. Her parents had always been there and life would be different with them away for so long. ¡°You guys take care. All of you!¡± Ryn called. The rest of the team nodded, expressions not being communicable through their bulky helmets, and called out that they would and she should as well. Evie winced at all the noise but moved over to gently pat Ryn on the back. ¡°Look after Earth for us little sis. Love you,¡± she said simply. Ryn grinned up as a tear formed in her left eye. ¡°Don¡¯t get into any fights you can¡¯t win!¡± she joked back in a slightly choked up voice. ¡°Have you seen me today? Seen us? Nothing in the universe stands a chance!¡± Evie bragged. ¡°The Monarchs went out without gear, without tech and totally ignorant. We¡¯ve got the best of everything and some idea of what we¡¯re up against. We¡¯ll be fine Ryn,¡± Evie finished in a reassuring voice. ¡°I¡¯ll keep an eye on mum and dad.¡± John blinked. Evie had never referred to Vic as mum before. Carly, John¡¯s ex-wife and Evie biological mum, had refused to be here this morning, having exchanged tearful goodbyes last night interspersed with venomous glares aimed at John. ¡°Well, I guess it¡¯s time to do this. Is everyone ready? Bob, where¡¯s Bob-prime?¡± John asked. ¡°I¡¯m up in the cavity in Doris¡¯ skull. All set mates.¡± The rest of the team nodded or confirmed they were ready and John opened his status screen. Deploy to other worlds to assist the Alliance? This involves an indeterminate period on campaign. You may not return in time for the first waves of the Void invasion of Earth. You will be tasked with missions to serve the Alliance. Victory or death are your only options. Do you agree to serve? Y/N? John didn¡¯t like the use of the word serve in this context but he had steeled himself to this decision and wasn¡¯t going to back out because the system was an arrogant dick. He mentally selected the yes option and the world went white. A second later the trees and the distant buildings they had been surrounded by were gone. The pink light of dawn had been replaced with an electric white and he blinked as he looked around. Then he looked through and his breath caught. The space they were in was perhaps a mile across and it was all burnished copper. Probably not actually copper, he thought ruefully, some kind of alien metal. The ceiling was half a mile up and covered in metallic stalactites giving it a semi-organic appearance. His friends were nearby and Doris occupied the centre of the room, he briefly checked they all seemed to be fine and other than some elevated blood pressure and heart rates nothing was out of the ordinary on the team life signs monitor. Looking through the walls made his own blood pressure shoot upwards and his whole body clenched up at the scale of the ship they were on. This vast space was one of hundreds, possibly thousands, all lumped together in the centre of the most intricate machine he had ever seen. The interconnected spaces, obscure machinery and the vast engines that glowed a colour he had never seen before and couldn¡¯t describe in English formed a massive floating city. Vaguely rectangular in shape, what John assumed were the habitation sections -the rooms like the one he found himself in- were clumped together forward of the engines as they churned incomprehensible energies out of what looked suspiciously like his own portals. Setting aside the motive force and how it somehow interacted with the real world to propel the voidliner beyond the speed of light he was mesmerised by the aliens aboard. Most were like themselves, in their situation if not appearance, contained in sealed areas as they sat or fought or slept. However some were moving down passages and tunnels linking between the more esoteric machinery of the vessel. They looked¡­ weird? Humanoids with a nest of tentacles instead of legs that flowed along with an undulating gait. Bulbous heads and large eyes gave them a very stereotypical alien look that John found somehow disappointing. Then his vision passed outside of the outer layers of the ships armour and he seized up. He didn¡¯t collapse because his armour locked up to hold him in position but he screamed as he saw something beyond his understanding. The warp and weft of reality was not something to be witnessed directly. He snapped his vision back to its most limited state and struggled to pull himself together. He¡¯d seen shapes and things, perhaps machines or maybe living beings swimming through the unreality around the hull of the voidliner. They hadn¡¯t been particularly scary, no fang filled maws or writhing limbs, but they had been so outr¨¦, so beyond his comprehension that seeing them was enough to breach the boundaries of sanity. ¡°John!¡± A clang echoed through his head, pulling him back from the brink. He reached out and caught Sam¡¯s hand as she pulled back, likely to wallop his helmet again. ¡°I¡¯m ok. I saw outside. Of reality. I wouldn¡¯t recommend it. What¡¯s the situation?¡± He pulled himself back together to focus on what mattered and the weird polygonal life outside the universe was put aside. ¡°Blessed once more,¡± murmured the twins, causing John to scowl slightly. They wouldn¡¯t call it a blessing if they¡¯d seen it. ¡°We¡¯re all good,¡± said Flash. ¡°No one is missing and all the gear came through with Doris.¡± Bob-prime scampered over Doris¡¯ shoulder, threading its way through the turrets and jumped off. It fell quickly but slowed before it hit the ground and rushed over to the human members of the team. ¡°We were out for six months. As we appeared here I briefly connected to the Bob-swarm on Earth but lost the link after a microsecond. I¡¯m guessing that was when we went to hyperspeed or whatever,¡± said the drone in a rush. ¡°Everything was fine. The construction work was well underway.¡± ¡°So what the hell do we do now?¡± asked Raoul, scuffing an armoured foot against the floor to see if he could leave a mark. He couldn¡¯t so he gave up. A face appeared on the wall ahead of the team. The projection was vast but John knew the thing was only four feet tall at most. This was one of the weird little creatures that wasn¡¯t penned up in sealed holds. It had blue-grey skin and large oval eyes that swirled with purple light. ¡°Welcome aboard the Kipragtsek-¡± it glanced down as though consulting a document, ¡°-humans? Humans will do although I see multiple species and inorganic life forms are included. Please be at ease for the first leg of your journey. Refreshments will be provided and should you require training facilities, or have any special biological requirements, we will do our best to meet your needs. The Light shines.¡± Chapter 188 - Freaky grey bastards It turned out that the Shrell, the octopoid aliens that served as the ship''s crew, really liked to gamble. On the ship they were standoff-ish and cold. Impersonal and overly formal but as soon as they were inside the social area Bob had created in the stash they unwound like a broken clock. They were also overly fond of whiskey. They didn¡¯t get drunk per se, a small glass made them slightly euphoric for a few hours and it had become a popular escape for the crew of Kipragtsek. ¡°I¡¯ll raise you ten,¡± Hrul threw a chip into the kitty and leant back, his cards held in a pair of tentacles and kept close to what passed for his chest. Three Shrell were currently enjoying a round of cards with most of the Carnival. ¡°Go fish!¡± said Evie. Hrul looked confused then emitted a bubbling noise from his bottom half that had severely disturbed the humans at first. It was the Shrell equivalent of a sigh. ¡°We are playing poker, Evie,¡± it said in an exasperated voice. The Shrell, after a glass or two, had been only too happy to explain their asexual method of reproduction. Jinp had even demonstrated it for them, dividing like a giant, grey, many-tentacled amoeba splitting down the middle. Evie had gone green at the sight and insisted they never do it around her again. ¡°Oh ok, I¡¯ll see you and raise five then,¡± Evie grinned at getting a rise out of the alien. The betting continued until the pot was at about five thousand Essence, the buy-ins were currently held in escrow by Bob. Hrul took the round with three kings and extended his flexible limbs to scoop the kitty to his side of the table. ¡°You do have some excellent games! You¡¯re very different from the last group of your sort that came aboard,¡± said Hrul as it stacked its chips carefully. ¡°Perhaps we could try this Monopoly you talk about soon?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not really a gambling game,¡± said Reg grumpily, having lost heavily over the last few rounds. They were keeping the stakes low. At least they were low as far as the Carnival were concerned, limited to a few thousand Essence per round. It was his pride that was stung. He¡¯d been playing poker for fifty odd years and these upstart aliens had mastered it in less than four months. The fact their biology was so unusual gave them a huge edge in terms of bluffing and Reg was only convinced they weren¡¯t cheating by the fact they were permanently naked and had nowhere to hide cards. ¡°What was the last lot like?¡± asked Zeeg as she used stubby little arms that grew out from under her chin to shuffle and deal a new hand. She had accepted how useful thumbs were but would never adopt a permanent form other than her perfect canine body. ¡°Oh, bunch of cloacae. Tried to smash their way out of their hold at the start. The Lord-Captain put them in their place though then they ejaculated every time they saw one of us,¡± Hrul muttered as it examined its cards. ¡°Not sure ejaculated was the right word there, mate,¡± muttered Raoul, likewise looking at his hand. ¡°The expulsion of material from a cloaca is ejaculate is it not?¡± said Frep. ¡°No Frep. At least not all the time. We have different organs for ¡®excreting¡¯ and¡­ other stuff, kind of. Christ it¡¯s weird trying to discuss this kind of thing with beings who don¡¯t even screw. You got the short end of the evolutionary stick on that one!¡± chuckled Sam. ¡°The Lord-Captain says we¡¯re one of the most advanced and favoured species within the system,¡± replied Hrul casually as it threw in its ante and glanced around as everyone else followed suit. ¡°We serve in the voidliners and we don¡¯t have to fight the Void.¡± ¡°What happened to your home world?¡± asked Flash casually from off to the side where he was reading a book with his feet propped up on a stool. Getting information about the wider cosmos out of the little squids had become something of a sport for the humans. ¡°We had no home world. We were born in the black ocean and that is why we are the best to work the voidliners,¡± said Hrul, settling in to follow the bets. ¡°Let¡¯s have a round of drinks as well, eh?¡± said Vic brightly. John obliged and blipped an amber bottle to the table, pouring out glasses and porting them in front of the other players. The Shrell slurped greedily at the glasses and finished them in moments while the humans took careful sips. Zeeg, as usual, abstained from the devil¡¯s water. After a couple more hands, one of which went to Raoul and one to Frep who bubbled happily as it scraped over the chips, Flash looked over at the table, laying his book in his lap. ¡°Frep¡¯s getting a lot better!¡± he said, pointing at the substantial pile of chips in front of the alien. Frep rippled. It was strange to see, starting at the base tentacles hidden under the table and shivering up across its more or less humanoid torso and head. They didn¡¯t have bones, they relied on hydrostatic pressure to maintain their form which made them very resilient to shifts in gravity, a phenomena that happened more often than the little creatures would like aboard the decrepit voidliner. ¡°Thank you, Flash. I have been studying the underlying mathematical principles!¡± it bubbled happily.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Learning to count fecking cards ye mean!¡± Reg complained bitterly. ¡°What is counting cards?¡± asked Hrul as both aliens focussed on him. ¡°Ah nothing ye freaky grey bastards. Forget I said anything!¡± Reg snapped glancing down at his cards, tossing a chip worth a hundred Essence into the pot and raising the bets. ¡°Do you think the Lord-Captain might like to join us for a game sometime?¡± Flash asked, continuing to pay attention to the game. ¡°That glurble? Nah, not its kind of thing! It''s all about the ¡®noble cause of our mission¡¯ and ¡®ensuring maintenance logs are up to date and the ship is functional,¡± grumbled Hrul. ¡°Keeping the ship working seems like a good idea to me. We¡¯re on the bloody thing!¡± laughed Evie. ¡°Kipragtsek is a young ship, barely thirty thousand years old. No need for major maintenance until it hits fifty,¡± muttered Frep, meeting Reg¡¯s raise. ¡°That¡¯s older than any recorded civilization on Earth!¡± said Sam. ¡°Young species always say that. The Lord-Captain says to just ignore the ignorant savages. No offence,¡± Hrul added hurriedly. ¡°No worries. So the LC won¡¯t even deign to play some games of chance with us lowly savages?¡± asked John. He folded and tossed his cards onto the table. ¡°The LC, very disrespectful by the way, won¡¯t even talk to most of us. It sends out comm updates and that¡¯s pretty much all we see of it.¡± ¡°What level is it?¡± asked a bio-Bob that stopped as he was passing through the rec area on some inscrutable mission. Over the last month or so Bob had become extremely cagey about what his drones were getting up to. ¡°Eighty,¡± burped Frep happily as it won the hand and collected yet more chips. ¡°It keeps us in line, we keep you in line. It¡¯s how it¡¯s always been.¡± The aliens they¡¯d met were only level thirty, how they imagined they could keep the Carnival in line was beyond John¡¯s understanding. He supposed they could simply seal their hold and stop supplying oxygen but they could retreat into the stash and be fine for months if not years. ¡°Here,¡± John poured out more drinks for the little aliens and blipped them over. The Shrell guzzled greedily, they seemed to lack self control when presented with a luxury item. ¡°Are you happy with your jobs?¡± he asked while Zeeg dealt the next hand. ¡°What¡¯s happy?¡± Hrul made a farting noise that meant contentment and didn¡¯t involve any noxious gases. ¡°I mean I know what it means but it doesn''t apply to Shrell. We serve on the ship. It¡¯s what we do, my great-great progenitor was split on this ship and my great-great descendant will be as well.¡± ¡°Do you ever get to leave?¡± asked Flash. ¡°I¡¯d hate to be pent up like that my whole life.¡± ¡°Leave? Nope. Why would we want to? The Kipragtsek is our world,¡± Frep replied. "Sounds pretty rough. I¡¯d miss the open skies and flying,¡± Evie said quietly. ¡°On an actual planet? Where the Void can reach you? We¡¯re safe on the ship. We don¡¯t have to fear the Void like you terrestrials.¡± ¡°Guys, sorry to interrupt but I¡¯ve just had a message from our illustrious Lord-Captain. Guy, thing, whatever- it really likes the sound of its own voice!¡± came Bob¡¯s voice from a nearby speaker. ¡°We must depart. Can we settle up later?¡± asked Hrul hurriedly, eyeing the pile of chips in front of it on the table. ¡°We¡¯ll leave the game as is. Let¡¯s bin this hand and we can pick up next time you guys are free,¡± said Vic gently. The creatures were hard to read, having none of the physical tells they associated with emotions in humans. The physical tells they did have tended to involve bubbling or farting noises that didn¡¯t mean what they would in a member of homo sapiens. ¡°Thanks. That would be perfect. Safe travels and good luck,¡± said Frep as it and Hrul undulated rapidly towards the exit of the stash. ¡°Good luck?¡± asked Reg, eying his friends. ¡°What did the wee boggart mean by that?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a deployment. The prick in charge put it on loop three times then cancelled the message and it doesn¡¯t look like we¡¯re going to get anymore info,¡± said Bob as one of his bio-units walked over and sat down, pulling a glass of scotch over from in front of John who scowled. ¡°You¡¯ll need a clear head.¡± Bob drained the glass in one gulp. ¡°Here¡¯s the message.¡± A screen on the wall lit up and a larger, darker coloured version of the Shrell appeared on it. As difficult as it was to read the thing¡¯s emotions, the disdain for them was plain in this one''s voice. ¡°Human unit 143. You are hereby alerted to an impending deployment. You have twenty units to prepare. The voidliner Hagrutship that was running line 1345 has been waylaid by rebellious savages and they must be put down, order restored. The Shrell aboard are dead, anything moving is to be considered hostile and terminated. Avoid damaging the engines and life support systems if you value your lives.¡± ¡°Terminated eh?¡± chuckled Evie. ¡°With extreme prejudice, it seems.¡± ¡°We know the Shrell are brainwashed slaves. You think they might have rebelled on the Hagru-whatever and taken down the LC?¡± asked Flash, still stretched out and reading his book. He licked a finger and carefully turned a page. ¡°No way to know. Odds are it will be ¡®savages¡¯ like us who took over the ship. The Shrell are too low level compared to the Lord-Captain to stand a chance; and that¡¯s assuming they could muster the will to try,¡± said Bob thoughtfully. ¡°Remember Spartacus? Or the Alamo or Rourke''s Drift? Sometimes even a doomed enterprise can flourish for a while.¡± All eyes pivoted to Zeeg who gave a canine shrug. ¡°I like old tv shows and movies. I¡¯m allowed to.¡± ¡°No one said you weren¡¯t, puppy,¡± said John, eliciting a brief tail wag from the dog. ¡°Still we learned a lot in that little speech.¡± ¡°What? Zeeg likes old movies?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Well we know they prefer us to arrange our own transport. We know there are at least fifteen hundred ¡®lines¡¯ so at least 1500 of these damn ships and we now know we¡¯re the 143rd group of humans to go off-world. All valuable info. How long is a time unit in normal measurements?¡± ¡°About three minutes, I think,¡± said Bob thoughtfully. ¡°143 other teams have already done this? Shit we¡¯re so behind the powercurve. We¡¯ll need to make this trip worth it.¡± ¡°So about an hour before we get to move to our target? Can we take Doris?¡± asked Sam. ¡°We¡¯re definitely taking Prime at the very least,¡± said Bob. ¡°The Shrell get really pissy when I try to sample the ship¡¯s tech. This is a golden opportunity for me. As for Doris? If we can find a spot to put her down it would probably be worth it. My drones aren¡¯t as good against system users compared to monsters but they¡¯ll help scout and support us.¡± ¡°What none of ye fecking Sassenachs are thinking about is the most important thing!¡± snapped Reg. They looked at him but he didn¡¯t say anything more, just glaring back at his friends. ¡°And what might that be, oh most wise Reginald?¡± drawled Evie. ¡°If¡¯n they took over the ship, they must be pretty fecking strong to deal with the Lord-Captain. We¡¯re being sent on a fecking suicide mission.¡± Chapter 189 - It’s going to be a question of if there will be anything left afterwards Ryn stood in her armour glaring at the complex of organic looking structures that stretched out across the dome she was in. Deep purple, riddled with tunnels, some of which were too small for her to pass through and crawling with drones and constructs courtesy of Bob and the Martian Shelly. It shone almost like metal but flowed with rounded corners that made it look disturbing to people used to construction based around right angles. The enemy combatants varied from foot long midnight centipedes to massive armoured machines lurking deeper within the complex. Ryn glanced at the ¡°sky¡±, a simulation of screens and projectors that created an illusion of a dark night on earth, a faux-moon showing only a sliver of light. She took a moment to examine her status and breathed deeply at the familiar numbers. She was so much stronger than she¡¯d ever imagined she could achieve. Name: Kathryn Borrows Level: 41 Ability: Suntouched Teleporter Constitution: 100% Reserves: 1728000 Suntouched Teleporter: You were destined to inherit your mothers powers but due to feeling the power of the sun while in the womb your body has been changed, incorporating some of your fathers power. You can both teleport yourself and summon jets of solar fire. I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll be thrilled. Guidelines: Teleportation distance: 406080 km Maximum Temperature: 180000 degrees Line of sight required. Modifications: Level 2: Wreathed in Flame. Whenever you are covered in flames your reserves costs are halved. Level 3: Increase Reserves x5 Level 4: Maximum Teleportation Distance x3 Level 5: Increase Reserves x3 Level 6: Melee Adept. Despite your physical frailty you are more competent and do more damage with close combat weapons than ought to be possible. Level 7: Maximum Teleportation Distance x5 Level 8: Increase Reserves x2 Level 9: Maximum Teleportation Distance x3 Level 10: Increase Reserves x3 Level 11: Syncopated movement: your power and physical body flow seamlessly from one move to the next. You can dance with fire and teleport in rapid succession effortlessly Level 12: Maximum Teleportation Distance x3 Level 13: Reserve Regeneration rate x3 (base rate now 15%) Level 14: Maximum Teleportation Distance x2 Level 15: Maximum temperature x3 Level 16: Increase Reserves x2 Level 17: Bright knight: when defending innocents or friends you are considerably faster and stronger. Level 18: Armour of the Phoenix: conjure flaming armour to protect yourself. Reduces physical damage considerably but takes increased damage from ice attacks. Level 19: Maximum Teleportation Distance x3 Level 20: Class One Enhancement: True flame. Your Elemental body is unlocked and is immune to physical damage. You take enhanced damage from ice attacks. Have you ever seen fire in zero gravity? You can move like that now. Level 21: Maximum Teleportation Distance x4 Level 22: Increase Reserves x4 Level 23: Hide in the fire: you can conceal yourself in any source of fire. Level 24: Maximum temperature x2 Level 25: Maximum Teleportation Distance x4 Level 26: Maximum temperature x2 Level 27: Increase Reserves x2 Level 28: Maximum Teleportation Distance x4 Level 29: Increase Reserves x3 Level 30: Remote incineration: your flame jets can be created anywhere you can see. Level 31: Increase Reserves x3 Level 32: Maximum Teleportation Distance x4 Level 33: Ring of fire: create burning barriers that inflict mobility and regeneration debuffs on any enemies that pass through them. Level 34: Maximum temperature x3 Level 35: Cold flames: fire doesn''t have to burn, unless you want it to. Level 36: Reserve Regeneration rate x2 (base rate now 30%) Level 37: Increase Reserves x2 Level 38: Maximum Teleportation Distance x2 Level 39: Fire sight. See out of any fire within your teleportation range. Level 40: Class Two Enhancement: Summon Flame Wisps: summon five flame wisps, independent entities through whom you can use your abilities. Level 41: Maximum Teleportation Distance x2 A fist sized chunk of fire appeared over her outstretched palm. With an effort of will she shrank it down to something resembling a spark escaping a fire. It shot off into the winding tunnels, ignoring the snapping jaws and slashing limbs that tried to take it out. Ryn could see all around it and she noted the numbers and types of the swarming monsters. Shelly always came up with new variants, ever stranger template creatures that could move faster, spit acid or other chemicals and elements, and always in even creepier shapes than the last time Ryn ran this gauntlet. Four more sparks shot out, threading their way deeper into the nightmare construction through other gaps and mapping it out in her mind. She flashed into fire and prepared herself to move through killing and burning everything that attacked her on her way to her goal. ¡°Jane did it in two and a half yesterday. That¡¯s your target,¡± said a floating drone. The rest of her team were either entertaining themselves in their down time or watching on the live feed. This sense of being watched had taken some getting used to. The nervousness and clumsiness had faded the more times she had been exposed to this kind of training. The benefits of the after action reviews with her team, though occasionally embarrassing, far outweighed the sense of being under a lens. Besides which, when they really fought, whether against the void, monsters, or the increasingly unruly wider population, every single move they made would be logged and analysed by both friends and foes. She closed her eyes and absorbed the information streaming back from her wisps. The smaller biological enemies were now spitting something akin to liquid hydrogen and sharp little blasts. It didn¡¯t bother her wisps, they were too small and too fast to be bothered by that kind of attack. One of the tiny motes of fire burst out into a much larger area occupied by several snakelike creatures and dominated by a titanic mech that swivelled quickly and released a torrent of low temperature gas. Before the wisp failed she blipped in behind the mech and began incinerating everything in the room. These locations were always moved between runs. Getting to them was part of the challenge and then sterilising them was the crux of the objective. There were always half a dozen or so of these rooms hidden within the ever changing maze that the void-spawn building had become. Incomprehensibly hot fire swirled around her. The biological enemies flashed into steam and the mech began to melt. Within moments the area was clear and she took off to continue her hunt. Bob complained vociferously that this was cheating but as in the past she simply flew through the chitinous walls, allowing her body heat to melt them away like ice under a blowtorch. She moved deeper into the building, creating an inferno that trailed after her. She kept a part of her mind of the wisps as they sought out another heavily defended nest room and another part tracked the fire as it spread out through the structure in her wake. She could see and hear and smell through the fires. How the senses were translated so she understood them as a human being was as yet unknown. Bob had been unable to identify a mechanism, but it worked and she wasn¡¯t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Soon the building behind her began to collapse but she burst into a new nest room, this one dripped with a liquid that left frozen splotches on her as it landed on her shoulders. The pain was electrifying, snapping her focus back onto her main body.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. She glanced around, cataloguing the location of her foes then blipped back into the conflagration that followed her. She shaped a blast of fire to lance through the room ahead of her, incinerating a thirty foot wide cylinder over a hundred feet ahead of her. She moved forward more cautiously to check that the room was cleared. It was. The frozen structures had melted away and all that was left was ashes. There was a groan from the structure above her. She was deep into the complex now and widespread damage to the struts and walls tended to result in¡­ She blipped over to a wisp to escape the collapse. She could have burned the material above her but the idea was to minimise structural damage where possible. Not because they were worried about damaging any possible void structures they might have to attack in the future but because they generally assumed it wouldn¡¯t be quite so easy to destroy the real Void structures. A wisp found another creche which she destroyed remotely, abusing her ability to summon her flames remotely in the same way she abused her ability to teleport to anywhere she could see out of a fire. Her mum had this ability as well but she had never, as far as Ryn was aware, made much use of it. For her it allowed her to bypass the line of sight restrictions on her powers and was invaluable. The rest of the trial went just as smoothly. The bioconstructs and drones weren¡¯t programmed to kill, robbing the experience of a lot of its authenticity, but the reactions and the experiences Ryn¡¯s team gained were invaluable. Especially the missions that involved the entire team that allowed them to exploit the synergies that existed between them. She demolished the remaining nest rooms over the next sixty seconds then blipped back to a fire at the edge of the structure and flew out to hover on actinic beams of fire off to one side of where she had begun. Blasts of fire suppressant exploded from the structure and she backed away slightly to avoid the foul smelling gases. Waving a hand in front of her face she lowered herself down to the ground, stepping away from the glowing stone as her body returned to normal. ¡°How¡¯d I do?¡± she asked aloud. ¡°Two minutes twenty seven seconds. I expected better. Even knock-off Batman can do better!¡± barked the drone as it circled down to orbit her and scan her body for any issues. ¡°The liquid nitrogen didn¡¯t get me much. It¡¯s healed now,¡± Ryn said as she waved a hand to bat the overly attentive machine away. It flew up out of reach and the lens on its camera narrowed slightly. ¡°That wasn¡¯t liquid nitrogen girl. You don¡¯t know what it was so don¡¯t be a pain about letting me check.¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t use anything truly dangerous,¡± she grumbled but tolerated the closer inspection by the drone. Once it had orbited her a few more times the drone flew back up to a holding position. ¡°You check out. Let¡¯s debrief in a bit more comfort. I think the others will be there as well.¡± ¡°Bet your ass we will!¡± said Bad over the open comm channel. ¡°These are too easy, Bob. We need a proper challenge!¡± Ryn grinned and blipped herself to the doorway allowing access to the huge training chamber. She threaded her way through the familiar bland corridors that seemed to compose so much of Mars Base One. Bob¡¯s inventiveness when it came to names was oft maligned by the teenagers in snarky jokes at his expense. She arrived at a door that looked like any other along the endless corridors but this opened into a short tunnel. As she emerged from the end of the tunnel she found herself in the terrarium where her team and their families had chosen to make their home over the last year. Trees swayed and insects buzzed, creating a simulacrum of an open area on Earth. A simulacrum of an environment that was becoming increasingly rare on Earth itself. She flew up via teleports, not wanting to set fire to the precious greenery below her, and arrived at the large, round room built into the side of the cavern wall, far above the treeline. It connected internally with a series of spacious apartments, the windows of which gleamed along the wall below it. She appeared on the balcony and pushed aside the glass door to enter the comfortably appointed room. Everything was cream and beige, Bob¡¯s sense of d¨¦cor was another thing they often teased him about. On a series of couches facing a large screen her friends were scattered about. Jane was leant back drinking something that smoked slightly as her ambient temperature brought it near to boiling while Bad and Sally were hunched over in a heated discussion with Simon. ¡°So how was I?¡± she asked brightly, a thread of fear winding through her at the inevitable deconstruction and highlighting of her mistakes. ¡°Fine,¡± Jane waved the hand not holding her glass airily. ¡°I could have done it better of course!¡± Jane looked over and smirked as Ryn took a seat next to Claire. Bolf was stretched out between the sofas and the screen in his best ¡°tummy rubs please¡± pose. All four feet in the air and his tail wagging slightly. Bad looked up from the conspiratorial conversation he was having and stood up to move in front of everyone. He smoothed back his short hair and grinned across his friends. ¡°We need to stop these pointless exercises Bob,¡± he declared to the room in general. Everything here was Bob. Whether a drone was present to act as a focal point for a conversation didn¡¯t matter. ¡°You think you¡¯re ready to go back?¡± the voice echoed around them. Bob didn¡¯t sound like he thought much of their chances. ¡°Yes. Without actual combat experience we aren¡¯t gaining anything anymore. Surely you can see it? We¡¯ve gone from taking twenty minutes to just over two for the same runs!¡± Bad exclaimed. ¡°They aren¡¯t the same. Ryn almost walked into a trap today,¡± said Bob. A door slid open at the back of the room and a bio-Bob walked in to pick up the conversation. ¡°All of you have made similar mistakes in the last week. You think the Void won¡¯t learn faster than I do? You¡¯re strong now but you¡¯re still arrogant, headstrong kids!¡± ¡°We¡¯re all sixteen. Except Armand but he¡¯s Comte de Loire and technically outranks you!¡± barked Sally. She rested a hand on Simon¡¯s shoulder as the boy seemed to prepare to lunge to his feet to support Bad. ¡°Rank doesn¡¯t matter. Without Prime and Doris all I¡¯ve got are drones and they aren¡¯t much of a challenge against high level humans. I can¡¯t guarantee your safety back on Earth anymore. Wayfaire is under siege, kind of,¡± said Bob. ¡°What about Ascension?¡± demanded Simon, brushing off Sally¡¯s hand and striding over to Bob. ¡°This infighting¡­ the Monarchs don¡¯t give a shit and my people are suffering!¡± Claire nodded at the boy''s words. The attacks on Ascension were worse than those aimed at Wayfaire. Now that anyone could level as high as they liked a lot of people had. Some of them held grudges against anyone who had enforced the Accords. Usually against members of their own factions, as was the case for both Ascension and Wayfaire, but often enough it was against another group the newly risen considered to be in competition with their own side. ¡°The terrorism is largely contained,¡± Bob said unconvincingly. ¡°Bollocks! Bob, Wayfaire and Ascension were world powers before! Now what are they? Scared and weak. They need us. They lost most of their Signatories! Only a few Sigs have gone off on interstellar jollies from other factions! It¡¯s left us weak,¡± Sally snapped. Bob raised his hands at them all. He moved over to a cabinet and took out a bottle, pouring himself a large glass of something the kids weren¡¯t allowed to touch. ¡°I hear you but what can we really do?¡± he asked as he sat down and took a slug of his drink, unwilling to argue the point although anyone who thought Ascension and Wayfaire were weak was a fool. Weaker than they had been? Perhaps. But they were far from weak in comparison to most. ¡°You can¡¯t do anything. You need to remain impartial for the sake of BME. We¡¯re not stupid, that has to stay as it is. Without Doris you¡¯ve got no teeth, anyway.¡± Jane¡¯s voice was cold, unusual for the girl. ¡°We can do a lot though. We don¡¯t need to worry about lower levels and us being back on the field will get all the assholes to back off.¡± Bob grimaced as he was reminded of his impotence. Sending Prime and Doris away with his friends had been necessary in order for him to make a meaningful contribution while they were away. Apart from a microsecond connection to his absent selves six months after they were supposed to have left he had received no information. Perhaps in a few years he¡¯d get something back. Maybe the entangled particle communicator would start working at some point. ¡°You think a bunch of kids are going to scare these bastards into backing off?¡± Bob asked, then raised his hands as they all bridled at his words, even gentle Claire took offence. ¡°I know you¡¯re strong. I know you¡¯re good. Really good and well trained. Those bastards won¡¯t see it that way. They¡¯ll see you as a payday. With the Carnival gone you¡¯re the biggest bags of Essence available and it¡¯s not impossible to beat the level gap. We did it a few times. Mostly against monsters but sometimes against people as well. How many people do you want to have to kill, children?¡± ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be the first time we killed people.¡± Ryn¡¯s voice was soft but somehow cut through the tension in the room. ¡°You want to do more of that?¡± asked Bob in a harsh tone. ¡°Of course not!¡± Ryn snapped back. ¡°But if us being there would take some of the pressure off of Greg, Brendan and the remaining Orions it¡¯s worth it.¡± ¡°Girl. It won¡¯t. It¡¯s a fucking jungle down there now. It¡¯s not too bad in Wayfaire and Ascension. Stop! Look I know what you¡¯ve seen and heard but it¡¯s nowhere near as bad back home as it is on the subcontinent or in Africa. Or bloody China. Death and Magic are much more hands off than Life and Liberty. Frost is ok as well. She¡¯s blasted a bunch of rebellions and power mad wackjobs into shards of frozen flesh.¡± ¡°They obviously only care about people getting stronger, even the good ones like Life,¡± said Bad. ¡°Not sure how good any of them are,¡± muttered Simon but Bad ignored his friend. ¡°They only have one objective. Humanity needs to get stronger. How many teams have gone off world? One reason Ascension is getting preyed on is so many of the top Orions have followed Gemini and gone away. We can help stop that. Even the Inheritors are struggling despite Mindscar still being here,¡± Bad concluded. ¡°What are they calling them now? Ravagers or something? Assholes going on killing sprees,¡± asked Claire. ¡°Ravagers are the ones who are killing monsters. They ravage the landscape as they seek Essence. That¡¯s why the Eurasian steppes were destroyed. Cullers are the ones hunting humans. They¡¯re the ones we should be worried about,¡± Bolf had given up on fishing for tummy rubs and sat up as he spoke, turning to face Bob. ¡°Those are the ones we need to stop. Mother¡¯s pack has been decimated and it is all due to those scum. I have lost brothers and sisters.¡± ¡°I think we can all agree that killing dogs is evil,¡± said Bob. ¡°And we¡¯re all glad the pack was so strong when she went. Kids¡­ You¡¯re not ready yet. I¡¯m not ready yet.¡± ¡°What else do you need?¡± asked Bad suspiciously. Bob sighed and leant back in his chair. He raised his glass to his lips and took a sip. ¡°Fuck it,¡± he muttered and waved his free hand at the screen to direct the teams attention in that direction. ¡°You might think that without Doris I¡¯m not much use, especially as drones don¡¯t stand up well against human abilities. But that doesn¡¯t mean I don¡¯t have some options,¡± Bob began as the screen showed an image of Earth from very high orbit. ¡°What the hell have you done with the Necklace?¡± asked Ryn in shock. ¡°That was barely a few miles of struts and pods the last time we were home!¡± ¡°It¡¯s grown to accommodate a significant number of BFOs. There¡¯s over fifty in the fleet now and they¡¯ve all been heavily updated from before.¡± Schematics flashed across the screen. Each BFO had three rings running around its circumference that formed something like a circular train line. Mounted on ¡°railway cars¡± on each ring were hundreds of weapon systems. ¡°The main problem was reload and wear and tear,¡± Bob continued. ¡°So we¡¯ve gotten around that by mounting each weapon system in such a way that as they fire they move around the ship and a fresh weapon is presented. By the time they are back in line to fire they¡¯re reloaded and have cooled down. I need another few hundred of these before we can move to restore order.¡± ¡°There won¡¯t be anything left of the planet if you deploy those things en masse!¡± said Claire unhappily. ¡°What you¡¯ve already got can lay waste to half the world!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking about it. With where we are, with the Monarchs and the new high rankers, it seems to me it won¡¯t be a case of whether we can beat the Void. It¡¯s going to be a question of if there will be anything left afterwards,¡± said Bob sadly. ¡°That¡¯s just the tip of the iceberg, kiddos.¡± the screen switched again and showed outlines of the weapons built into the Necklace before panning back to show the whole construction. It now stretched for hundreds of miles in low orbit, gradually growing to encircle the equator of the Earth. The weapons already in place would make any supervillain insane with envy. Kinetic bombardment, energy weapons, missiles¡­ The Necklace was meant to defend the planet, not obliterate it. ¡°It¡¯s a doomsday machine?¡± asked Simon as he took in the designs faster than anyone else. ¡°No,¡± said Sally. She was even faster than Simon when it came to her thought processes, even if she didn''t understand the engineering as well. Andrea nodded in agreement. ¡°It can be turned outward just as easily. It would cause everyone on Earth to try to kill Bob though,¡± Andrea said with a touch of fear in her voice. ¡°Yes. Until I¡¯m ready we can¡¯t act to interfere with what¡¯s going on at home. If we move too early they¡¯ll destroy all my work. If we wait we can put something in place that will stop the madness and be a huge pain in the ass to the Void when they finally rock up for a scrap,¡± said Bob. Chapter 190 - Anything unusual? John noticed the moment they dropped out of whatever faster than light travel the ship employed. Unless he was in the stash there was always a glitch in his peripheral vision as the unreality and whatever the hell the things that existed outside the boundary of the universe were inflicted themselves on his consciousness. The sudden relief as that itch vanished caused him to glance around from where he and the team had formed up in anticipation of their mission. ¡°John?¡± asked Vic, noticing his sudden shift as his helmet moved to pan around like a kid staring at bubbles blowing through the air. ¡°I¡¯ve got a link back to Earth,¡± said Prime. ¡°Initial message is going through. The larger update is going to take over an hour to transmit.¡± ¡°We¡¯re back in real space. The¡­ things outside are gone. I can see the other ship. Bob, can you pull from my implant?¡± John muttered. The other ship was almost identical to the Kipragtsek. A few hundred miles long with a bulbous shape as various holds and bits of machinery jutted out of the main structure. A timer appeared in all their vision. Deployment timer: 4 time units. ¡°John, find us a good place to drop in, quickly! We need somewhere we can store Doris as well!¡± said Prime in a rush. ¡°I¡¯m looking, dammit!¡± John grumbled as he searched the other ship floating a thousand kilometres off the flank of the Kipragtsek. As he looked he could see the damage across large sections of the interior of the Hagrutship. Someone or something had been blasting chunks out of the bloody thing. He found a room similar to their own and far enough away from the ongoing violence that burned in his vision. It was as close as he could manage to get to the vast engines of the voidliner. ¡°Ok. Got somewhere. Brace yourselves!¡± He blipped himself across first then quickly brought the rest of the team across. Boarding ships in space shouldn¡¯t be this easy. As soon as Doris appeared he felt something hideous and he glanced back to the Kipragtsek just as it twisted reality and vanished. ¡°We¡¯re on our own now,¡± he said grimly. Doris knelt down on her haunches and the backpack detached, falling softly to the ground with a clang that shook the air. Or would have done had there been any air. ¡°We¡¯re in death pressure!¡± said Flash as he rushed around the room examining the doorways that they associated with the brainwashed Shrell popping through to play a game of cards and fish for whiskey. Prime scurried over to an interface that he would have been instantly rebuked for even looking at on the Kipragtsek and began connecting to it, wires and waldo arms extending to mate with the alien connections like they¡¯d been made for it. They probably had been, Bob had not been wasting his time aboard the Kipragtsek. ¡°What¡¯s going on in the rest of the ship?¡± asked Felix in his much lighter armour. He brushed a hand against his thigh and glanced around nervously. Felicity reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder and his anxious body language vanished, returning to the unshakably confident Prophet he usually seemed to be. ¡°Various species are fighting against the Shrell. They suck by the way. The Shrell aren¡¯t fighters but they¡¯re still driving them back. Bunch of ape-like things, bunch of cuttlefish looking bastards, bunch of- urgh those things are gross! It¡¯s like a real life monster mash,¡± muttered John. ¡°So who do we deal with first?¡± asked Evie, eager to get to the fighting. ¡°We need to prioritise defending the bridge and the engines. If they go we¡¯re all dead,¡± said a B-3000 that had joined the group to replace Prime who was busy hacking into the ship''s systems while other spider drones were stripping samples of metal and machinery from other parts of the room. ¡°I can¡¯t port us in. Both areas are covered by some kind of field,¡± John grumbled. ¡°We¡¯ll have to do this the hard way.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no such thing as an easy way,¡± said Raoul as he attempted to crack his knuckles before realising his armour made it impossible. ¡°Sam, are your clones immune to the lack of oxygen?¡± asked Vic. A clone appeared and moved forward, flexing her arms and trying to breathe. After thirty seconds it collapsed and vanished. ¡°No. They¡¯ll only last a minute or two at most unless we can get the air back on.¡± ¡°I¡¯m working on it. Need to get into the security systems before I take over life support. Security is going to take a few minutes, life support will be more like half an hour,¡± said Bob. ¡°I can summon and lose clones. It doesn¡¯t feel nice but I¡¯ve been through worse,¡± Sam reached out and clutched Raoul¡¯s hand. The armour separated their flesh but the connection felt very real to them.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. The door at the end of the cavernous space hissed open as the pressure balanced out. A hundred clones of Sam, lacking the heavy armour, rushed forward and quickly spread out into the nearby corridors. They were met with a series of ineffectual attacks that they batted aside with blasts of incandescent eye beams. As the rest of the team emerged they saw the clones pinning the aliens to the floor and walls around their base of operations. B-3000s ran past, their footfalls silent in the vacuum that had taken over the ship. Collars snapped out, immune to lack of oxygen as the collars would take what they needed from the prisoners once they were activated. The collared aliens were pulled back through to clear the corridor as flying drones took off ahead of the Carnival. John looked sadly at the captured fighters. ¡°They¡¯re all less than level thirty. This isn¡¯t even a fight! Bob, how can we stop them suffocating?¡± John asked. ¡°They can already breathe. Somehow. Ugly bastards. I¡¯ll set up an airlocked tent. It won¡¯t be able to take any damage but we can give them some basic life support.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to move ahead. Bob, send some drones as well?¡± asked Sam. ¡°Sure,¡± a B-3000 said. The rest of the team moved out into the ship and began threading their way through the corridors towards the engines. Whatever was going on at the Lord Captain¡¯s location wasn¡¯t as urgent as the risk some random blast of power would rupture the esoteric machinery that contained the nightmare energies of the engines. John looked through the structure and assessed the situation. The aliens hadn¡¯t spared them any attention yet but that would change. The bloody things were all manner of weird. They flowed along on singular muscular feet, a multitude of tentacles or a pair of limbs. It was like watching a zoo being taken over by the animals. He took a moment to reassess his thoughts. They would all be sentients who had joined the system just like¡­ ¡°We¡¯ve got a team of humans aboard as well. They¡¯re just at the edge of- shit. They went into the command deck. Fuck! I should have just pulled them over!¡± His voice was angry and regretful. ¡°That changes things,¡± said Felix. ¡°Things. We must help other humans!¡± added Felicity as the pair began striding after the drones and clones who had moved deeper into the innards of the ship. Beams of black and gold power lashed out to clear their way. The rest of the team ran after them, their heavy footfalls silent. Shrell were splattered against walls here and there as they moved. As well as other species they didn¡¯t know the names of. The violence had been sporadic but intense. Hundreds of metres were pristine, gleaming metal then suddenly ten metres of the walls and ceiling of the corridor would be painted in various colours that came from a single source: blood. They moved fast towards the engines. Some of the enemies reacted too quickly to be collared and were put down mercilessly by the casters creating new sprays of colour on the bronze walls. Most were no threat and the impromptu prison they had built began to fill up with an oddball collection of aliens. ¡°Once the engines are safe we should rush the command deck,¡± said a drone as it unleashed a torrent of energy into an amorphous blob that had been blocking the corridor. ¡°We¡¯ll need to hold them!¡± gasped Vic as she ran along next to Evie. Evie reached over and pulled Vic onto her disc and continued to zoom along. ¡°Guess your suicide mission theory was bullshit Reg!¡± Evie giggled as she took a corner at high enough speed she and Vic ended up standing horizontally on her disc as she blurred round the turn. John appeared in front of them and the enemies ahead fell into pieces. He flashed forward again and led the way for the rest of their trip. Fifteen minutes later, having taken dozens of prisoners and killed scores of low level aliens, they arrived at a glowing barrier that had been holding back the locals. The gore was horrific. Greens, blues, pinks and the more usual red was splattered across the corridor. Vic stepped off Evie¡¯s disc and a wave of fire burned it clean, leaving pristine metal behind the wash of heat. ¡°How¡¯s the link back to Earth?¡± asked Flash as he eyed the barrier that had denied the native of Hagrutship access. ¡°Half of the main update is done. I can¡¯t get anything back until the whole thing goes through,¡± said a nearby drone. ¡°Let¡¯s secure the other access points to the engines. We must preserve this vessel for the Alliance,¡± said Felicity from the rear of the group. ¡°Bugger the Alliance! We¡¯re in this for our species!¡± snapped Reg, hovering behind her. Both of the twins spun and glared at him. With their silvered masks up the effect was largely lost on the massively armoured Scotsman who scoffed over the comms. ¡°Ye cannae intimidate me children. We need to get home for any of this shite to be of any fecking use at all.¡± The twins glanced at each other, seeing their silvered masks mirrored and stepped aside reluctantly. ¡°How many more access points are there?¡± asked John, looking to move the conversation away from something that could spiral into an argument. ¡°Two more. This is the central one. The other two are easier. I can send some drones to hold them. Next job: save the other human team and deal with the main mutineers,¡± said Bob. ¡°You should be able to port my drones into place?¡± ¡°At least it¡¯s not a suicide mission,¡± laughed John bitterly as his eyes moved through the structure. Reg barked a laugh that sounded even more bitter than Johns. All they¡¯d faced thus far were low level dross. If the mutineers weren¡¯t a threat why the hell had they been deployed to put them down? He blipped groups of drones into position to defend the other points of entry to the engineering section as Bob set up a series of turrets to help hold their current position. ¡°I¡¯m into the life support systems. God this is amazing! The coding, the tech! I¡¯ve got breakdowns of systems that will revolutionise things on Earth! Christ! The metal this fucking thing-¡± a metallic leg bashed against the nearest wall and the sound actually carried to the rest of the team as the atmosphere was quickly replaced, ¡°- is made of is amazing. I need to spend some time plating Doris in this crap!¡± Bob¡¯s voice was shrill as his excitement overrode any other concern. ¡°This alone made the whole trip worth it!¡± he chortled. ¡°We¡¯ve got humans to help. We¡¯ve got a ship to take back from mutineers. How are you enjoying this?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Zeeg isn¡¯t this mental!¡± ¡°I am not mental at all,¡± said Zeeg as she came through a wall and stood before the rest of the team. As long as she remained out of phase oxygen wasn¡¯t a problem for her and with her reserves she could remain intangible more or less indefinitely. ¡°Anything unusual?¡± Vic asked the dog. ¡°This entire place is unusual but I haven¡¯t found anything that is escaping Dad-John and the drone network,¡± the dog replied, sitting down and wagging her tail in and out of the wall. ¡°Then let¡¯s move to the bridge. With life support and the engineering sections secured, that''s our next objective,¡± said Flash ¡°Um. I wouldn¡¯t say secured,¡± muttered Bob in a resigned voice. Chapter 191 - Be right back A Shrell had emerged from within the barrier and was berating a B-3000 as John blipped the team over to intercede. ¡°You are in the architecture! This is not acceptable and you must leave now!¡± the Shrell was screeching. ¡°Savages cannot be allowed to access the wider internal workings of the vessel!¡± ¡°Easy mate!¡± The B-3000 had both hands raised to placate the irate little squid creature. ¡°We¡¯ve been deployed here to help take back the ship! We can¡¯t do that if we can¡¯t breathe!¡± ¡°Nonsense!¡± scoffed the Shrell. ¡°You have your suits. Get out of the architecture!¡± ¡°Our abilities work best if we have a functional environment to work in,¡± said Flash. ¡°Be silent, savage! I am talking to your commander!¡± snapped the Shrell. Name: Kedur Level: 29 Ability: System Administrator Like all the Shrell this one had an ability that made them sound like an engineer or a tech worker. John sighed within his armoured helm. This was a member of the crew and hostile actions against it would probably be frowned upon by the system. ¡°Let¡¯s drop the ¡®savage¡¯ stuff. If you were able to deal with these mutineers we wouldn¡¯t be here. Just hide in the engineering section and let us do our job, Squidward,¡± said Evie, stepping forward to tower over the four foot tall creature. It barely reached her waist. ¡°Animals! Perhaps it¡¯s better to send animals to deal with animals,¡± muttered Kedur. ¡°I must insist you leave the architecture! How sava- uh newly integrated species could even access them is beyond me! This will all be in my report!¡± It farted in a way that the team understood to mean frustration based on their time with the Shrell on Kipragtsek. The difference between this Shrell and the ones they¡¯d met on the Kipragtsek was stark. ¡°What¡¯s up with you, ye wee boggit?¡± demanded Reg, stepping forward and gently pushing Evie to one side. He crouched down and cleared the visor of his helmet so it could see his face. He tried to smile reassuringly but to a human it would have looked like a man trying to fart without following through. ¡°Your lot aren¡¯t usually this twattish.¡± The Shrell bristled, multiple limbs flicking back and forth, and emitted a series of bubbling noises. ¡°You have to retake the ship. Everything depends on retaking the ship. Do what you need to, but your intrusions into the ship systems will be logged,¡± it blurbled before undulating quickly back through the barrier shielding the engine room. ¡°Charming little bastard!¡± said Flash as he stepped forward and poked at the barrier. It repelled his hand, his fist bouncing backwards. ¡°I got a system warning not to test the barrier again!¡± ¡°The Shrell are terrible warriors. That is why we¡¯ve been deployed?¡± asked Felix. ¡°Deployed. Despite their higher levels they are unable to maintain control,¡± Felicity finished. ¡°I¡¯m breaking into the monitoring systems. I¡¯ll have all the logs and videos of what happened soon. We need to go secure the Captain, then either kill or collar the escapees,¡± said a Bob-bot. ¡°We¡¯re going to collar them, right? They¡¯re stupidly weak, it would be like murdering children!¡± barked Sam angrily. ¡°If they¡¯ll let us,¡± muttered Vic. ¡°How are the ones we¡¯ve captured so far?¡± ¡°Submissive. They don¡¯t have the translation thing the Shrell seem to have so I¡¯ve no idea what they¡¯re saying but they¡¯ve accepted food and water and haven¡¯t tried anything with the bots guarding them,¡± said Bob. ¡°So we¡¯re going non lethal, except in personal defence, from here on out? There¡¯s no bloody Essence to be had anyway.¡± Evie complained. ¡°John, does Identify work through the walls with your funky new eyes?¡± asked Raoul. John¡¯s scowl was hidden by his helmet. ¡°No. I¡¯ll have to go see. Be right back,¡± he said softly. He appeared to the rear of the ongoing melee outside the bridge. Shrell were fighting hard and failing miserably against much weaker enemies. The little squid things could hold their own physically against the much lower levelled enemies. The tentacle monsters, Yovgrips, according to Identify, were all less than level twenty and were still going toe to toe with the ship¡¯s crew. The Grelps were metallic looking humanoids with four arms whose levels were in the twenties who for some reason died almost immediately as soon as a Shrell waved a tentacle at them. The battle made no sense to John and he stood dumbstruck as creatures that should have just died in the face of the higher levelled crew held on while at the same time others who should have put up more of a fight were just demolished. He blipped in the rest of the team just as the Shrell holding the entrance to the bridge noticed him. His power armour caused the Shrell to turn a paler shade of grey and recoil once its black eyes locked on the titanic form looming behind the fray.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. The Shrell backed away and the low levelled assailants bounced off the barrier and began flailing at it. The rest of the Carnival swarmed forwards and began collaring the rebels. The mutineers'' attacks were largely ignored. The members of the team in armour simply brushed them aside whereas anything that raised a limb at the twins was bound to the wall in black and gold beams of light. ¡°What the fuck are we even doing here?¡± demanded Evie as she moved to collar the creatures pinned to the walls by the twins. ¡°Let ¡®em go, guys,¡± she called over her shoulder to the pair. The black and gold bands vanished as the insectile legs of the collars closed around the back of the creature''s necks. ¡°I¡¯ll escort our new friends back to the holding area,¡± said a drone as B-3000s marched forward and began hauling away their captives. ¡°This is looking messy, guys. The logs are showing it was the humans that led the revolt. Ah shit. Look, the Shrells are a bunch of pussies. They freaked out, turned off the life support and then all the other fucking aliens went on a rampage. The reason we¡¯ve only had to deal with a few hundred rebels is that they killed thousands when they switched off the air.¡± ¡°Shit. So this lot weren¡¯t even rebels, they just wanted the heat and the air turned back on?¡± asked Flash. ¡°Pretty much. No wonder the squid bastards didn¡¯t want me in the ¡®architecture¡¯. They freaked out when the humans turned traitor and essentially opted to liquidate everyone else to try to kill them. Our lot weren¡¯t bothered by the lack of oxygen for some reason, it must have been an ability rather than tech as none of them have any kind of rebreather or face coverings,¡± Bob said glumly. ¡°We¡¯ve been sent to kill our own kind because the crew shat the bed and tried to murder fecking everyone?¡± asked Reg in disbelief. ¡°If that¡¯s the situation then we need to deal with it. We¡¯re here to level up so we can protect humanity. Why can¡¯t anything ever be simple?¡± aside John rhetorically. ¡°Why send us if it¡¯s easy?¡± Vic replied. ¡°So how do we deal with this? Bob, can you see what¡¯s going on inside this barrier? Will it let us pass?¡± ¡°We can pass, I think. We¡¯re coded differently to anything that was on the ship before we arrived. It wouldn¡¯t let us into the engine rooms as there weren''t any threats in those areas but the ship''s systems are aware of the presence of ¡®interlopers¡¯ on the bridge. It¡¯s not much of a threat. Half the humans are dead and the others are being whipped by the captain.¡± ¡°We need to help them!¡± said Flash. Sam shrugged. ¡°What can we do?¡± she asked. ¡°We¡¯re their executioners,¡± she finished bitterly. ¡°The system has sent us to bring order. If we can remove the threat we can honestly say we have achieved our goal,¡± said Felix. ¡°Goal. If we remove them from the ship our job is done. Death is not necessary for that to happen,¡± added Felicity. After a brief conversation via teamchat the Carnival moved carefully through the barrier. Bob said it was clear and they wouldn¡¯t be attacked but none of them felt terribly confident in the ship and its crew''s ability to tell friend from foe. Sam clones went first, followed by a handful of B-3000s. John was getting increasingly concerned about how many drones were now being used to hold prisoners. Prisoners they had only had to capture because the Shrell had panicked and tried to suffocate the entire ship. As the rest of the team moved through they were taken aback by the scale of the bridge but their instincts honed over years of combat covered for the reaction. The Captain was twice the size of the regular crew but it seemed even larger when it was balanced up high on its ambulatory tentacles. It held two humans, both women, around the throat in a pair of limbs and was waving them around like ragdolls. Their armour, closer to classical mediaeval equipment than anything the Carnival would consider armour, creaked and began to crack along the joins across their throats. John blipped them down to the ground where they were quickly collared by Flash and pushed to the rear of the room under guard by a pair of B-3000s. ¡°What the fuck!¡± snarled a man wearing what at first glance appeared to be some kind of caveman costume. He swung a club at a tentacle that swept towards him then leapt to defend his team mates. Unfortunately this brought him within arms reach of the twins. He was immediately plucked from the air and slammed into the ground by arcs of black and gold. ¡°Gotcha mate. Just calm the fuck down and let us sort this out,¡± hissed Evie as she snapped a collar around his throat. He squirmed, somehow freeing a hand that clenched at the nightmare wrapped around his neck. ¡°Fuck¡­ You¡­¡± he hissed. John blipped him back to the holding area next to Doris. The other two survivors raised their hands, clearing having been sensible enough to use Identify before committing to fight the humans. ¡°We just didn¡¯t want to kill anymore!¡± sobbed one as she fell to her knees. ¡°They wanted us to exterminate a town!¡± ¡°Easy now. We¡¯ll sort this out,¡± said Vic gently. She glanced up and despite the helmet sealing her face away John read her look correctly. He blipped the woman and the man back to the holding area where B-3000s took charge and began talking them down. ¡°Excellent. Execute the other savages and I will mark your mission complete,¡± burbled the Captain. ¡°What fecking savages?¡± muttered Reg. ¡°We have quashed the mutiny.¡± John tilted his head to the nearest B-3000 that nodded slightly. ¡°All hostiles are dead or contained. Our mission is complete.¡± ¡°They broke the rules! I insist they are killed!¡± the Captain writhed around and drew itself up to loom over them. The blinking lights and smooth chrome surfaces behind it gave it the appearance of a terror in the dark. Grey skin caught the light as tentacles flashed back and forth but its face was cast in shadows, with it¡¯s eyes forming two dark, uncaring pits. ¡°Why¡¯d you turn the air off?¡± asked Evie as she moved slowly around the room, poking at the machinery. Her armour was carefully sampling all the surfaces and the data was being fed back to Bob. ¡°Standard protocol. If savage species rebel the ship is to be purged, all lives are forfeit bar surviving crew members.¡± John used Identify. Huh. Level sixty. Not as bad as he¡¯d been expecting. He briefly considered their odds against this Captain. The Shrell were shit fighters so he wasn¡¯t as intimidated as he might have been. As though reading his thoughts Sam stepped forwards and a dozen clones poured out to move around the room, encircling the enraged Shrell. It twitched and eyed them as they surrounded it but other than a slight narrowing of its eyes and a very faint farting noise it made no move. ¡°Our orders said to put down the rebellion and restore order. We¡¯ve pretty much done that,¡± said Bob. ¡°It also said all the Shrell were dead and we were to consider anything moving on the Hagrutship to be hostile.¡± The squid recoiled and its flesh became a paler shade of grey. It began to burble and fart, rocking back and forth on suddenly limp limbs. ¡°I have been cast out. Kill me now, savages.¡± Chapter 192 - Literally what I said ¡°We¡¯re not just going to kill you, idiot!¡± barked Felicity as Felix nodded in agreement. The oversized Shrell seemed to shrink down for a moment before it bubbled up with an abundance of farting noises. Despite its stature compared to the power armoured humans it emitted a sense of menace that not even John, scarred and mutilated as he now was, could match. ¡°We¡¯re here to save your ship,¡± said Sam. ¡°Pretty sure that¡¯s covered now. So all we need to do is wait for the Kipr-whatever to get back and you¡¯ll be back in control.¡± ¡°Savages. Nothing makes sense to you, does it? Even the obvious things! End me or I¡¯ll end you!¡± burbled the squid creature. Despite the level gap the Carnival felt fairly confident against this being. Lower level Shrell were terrible fighters from what they¡¯d seen and after a few moments of armoured helms turning to each other in the sterile bronze room the confidence increased. ¡°Mate. you guys are, no offence, utter pansies!¡± exclaimed Raoul after the silence stretched too long. John resisted the urge to slap a hand against his face and simply gritted his teeth. ¡°Without us the ship dies. You were ordered to sterilise the vessel. Our resistance was ignored.¡± John had heard a wide range of emotion from the Shrell they¡¯d passed the time with over the last few months but bitterness had not been part of their emotional gamut. The tone of the Captain¡¯s voice was as far beyond bitterness as ¡°murderous rage¡± is compared to ¡°mildly miffed¡±. This was a being on the edge. ¡°Your resistance might not have been known. We got, like, an hour to prepare before we were deployed. Once the system recognises the ship is back under control it¡¯ll update. Fecking zealots!¡± said Reg. He glanced at the twins but they were ignoring him, all their attention was focussed on the alien in the room. ¡°You have served a long time,¡± Felicity said. ¡°Long time. Your duty is not yet done.¡± Felix¡¯s voice was firm. ¡°Service? Duty? You¡¯re savages!¡± snarled the Shrell. ¡°We¡¯re arguing not to waste the Alliance''s resources,¡± Felicity barked back. ¡°Resources. You are not replaceable, this vessel is not replaceable. We were sent to save you. Perhaps a little faith is in order?¡± Felix finished. The Shrell¡¯s eyes narrowed for a moment before it noisily deflated. It collapsed down until it was barely larger than one of the regular crew. ¡°What do you fight for, savages?¡± it asked in a low voice. ¡°Our world,¡± Evie called out defiantly. ¡°A world? I can see the sense. You have such limited experience. This is my world,¡± a tentacle waved around at the surrounding walls and screens. ¡°What would you give for your world, little savage?¡± Evie in her armour towered over the collapsed alien but she took a moment to prepare her answer. The tone of the Shrell commanded respect. ¡°Anything,¡± she replied. ¡°Anything. Your life? Don¡¯t bother to answer. I can see more than you would understand. You are bound to the war in ways that are beyond my species, woman. You have taken control of the vessel.¡± A tentacle flicked out causing the humans to flinch and parts of the wall flickered into blazing colours for a moment. ¡°We¡¯ve got the worst of it under control,¡± said a Bob-bot. ¡°I can see. What will you do with the rebels?¡± asked the Captain as its eyes shifted from the illusory screens back to the team. ¡°Hand them over to the system,¡± said Vic. The bubbling farting noises this comment caused lasted for almost a minute. The team shifted uncomfortably as they glanced back and forth. ¡°Just kill them to take the Essence. It would be the¡­ Just do it.¡± ¡°They¡¯re not giving us any Essence,¡± grumbled Evie. Us killing these guys is basically pointless. What was this stupid fucking mission? How are you guys so useless you couldn¡¯t put the rebels down?¡± ¡°Kiddo. Neck. Wind it in.¡± John¡¯s voice was cold. It had been a long time since Evie heard her father sound that way and she bit her tongue long enough for someone else to step in and redirect the conversation. ¡°We won¡¯t kill these people,¡± said Bob. ¡°I will not force you to,¡± the Captain replied. ¡°I can only recommend it.¡± ¡°Why?¡± demanded Raoul as he flexed his shoulders and his helmet flicked over the rest of the room. ¡°Savages. What were your orders?¡± ¡°Anything moving is to be considered hostile,¡± said Evie quietly. A tentacle flicked in her direction and bounced off a forcefield she threw up. ¡°That was the wording?¡± the Captain asked quietly, ignoring the battered limb tip that was retracted back into the nest below its main body. ¡°Literally what I said,¡± Evie enunciated slowly. ¡°Then there can be nothing left alive on this ship for you to complete your mission.¡± The Captain turned slowly and undulated over to a wall that retracted to reveal a starfield on the other side. ¡°To think it has come to this after so many cycles.¡± None of the Carnival moved for a minute while the Captain stared blankly through the window. ¡°You know what you have to do. Kill everything that was aboard when you arrived,¡± the Captain sighed. ¡°Some of the survivors are our own species!¡± said Felix. ¡°Species! The Alliance of Light must be better than this!¡± snapped Felicity in support. ¡°Go, children. Do what you must.¡± After it spoke the Shrell spun round and as it did so its eyes opened wide, its jaw dropped open. ¡°You aren¡¯t without options. Put my crew in your pocket dimension. Save their lives at least,¡± it rumbled, a shiver running from the floor up to the top of its head. ¡°Please, help my children,¡± it ground out in a guttural voice.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Teamchat: NumberOne DorisDayFan: We might have another option. Traveller: We can¡¯t stick them all in the stash so another option would be good, Bob. Titan: Feed them to Zeeg? BestDoggo: I don¡¯t eat humans. Or aliens. As a rule. OWA: We can¡¯t support them in the stash for long. What do the aliens even eat? We know the Shrell like booze but the other species? Is it nutritious for them? No fucking clue chaps. Sunstrike: Plenty of calories in alcohol. Is it a temporary option perhaps? NumberOne DorisDayFan: There is another possibility. John, you can open a portal back to Wayfaire from anywhere in the universe, right? That¡¯s what the modification said! Traveller: That¡¯s what it says. I can¡¯t promise it will work though. NumberOne DorisDayFan: It¡¯s worth a shot. We¡¯ll keep Captain Depression occupied for a moment, you go check. John didn¡¯t say anything, he simply blipped himself back to the hold they had arrived in. Nearly a hundred aliens were collared and sitting on the ground, eating and drinking whatever the spiderbots brought out for them. At least they weren¡¯t lactose intolerant or had a peanut allergy. That would help with any supply issues if they had to stash this lot in Doris¡¯ storage space. The aliens were all down beat. Heads hung low. Or the nodules that passed for heads. Having spent time around Pete John didn¡¯t have any real sense of anthropocentrism. Snake-spider hybrid things were the norm for Pete and Shelly, the lack of a human physical baseline didn¡¯t phase him intellectually. If he was being honest he felt at some level that intelligent creatures should look like humans, or at the least dogs. Drones were passing among them while a handful of B-3000s handed out rations. John glanced away from the four armed dudes as they apparently kept their mouths in their chest and it looked horrific as the damn things opened their mouths to eat. John reached out and tested the waters with his ability. He could feel the incipient connection, a bridge between here and there. With a mental flex he made the link. Beneath his armour he grinned and walked forward only to bounce off the event horizon of the portal. ¡°Fuck. Bob?¡± he asked. A drone rushed through the portal and came back a moment later. ¡°I¡¯m fine. Well, this ¡®me¡¯ is.¡± ¡°Is that a real you? Or is it remote controlled?¡± John grumped. He¡¯d wanted to go see Ryn. The situation on the rest of the planet was also high on his list of interests but mostly he wanted to spend some time with Vic and his daughter back home. ¡°It¡¯s just a drone. I guess I¡¯m kind of here and there at the same time,¡± said the nearest drone. ¡°Oi! What the fuck is that?¡± demanded a voice in English. One of the humans who¡¯d been taken had risen to their feet and was pointing at the portal. ¡°When did you leave Earth?¡± John replied. ¡°You¡¯re him, aren¡¯t you?¡± asked the woman next to him. Her dark skin shone as the lights around the hold gleamed as the lights scattered around the hold caught on the sharp angles of her cheeks. ¡°John Borrows,¡± John ground out. ¡°Traveller.¡± John cringed as his nickname was almost whispered. ¡°Let us go back?¡± asked the man who had called out at first. ¡°How long?¡± he reiterated. ¡°just over a year. There¡¯s only five of us left. Let us go home.¡± ¡°Can you go through the portal?¡± John wondered aloud. Rather than any kind of discussion the black woman moved. Despite the collar she vanished into the portal before John could think to react. A moment later she backed through again, arms raised as several slightly out of date Bob-bots came through with weapons trained on her. As soon as they came through one of them turned and bolted back to the other side of the portal. ¡°We¡¯re good. I can come and go and the humans are ok as well,¡± said the drone. The new drones lowered their weapons and made reassuring hand movements in the direction of the other human team. After a brief period of awkward discussion they persuaded one of the aliens to go through the portal. John felt a little guilty as the motivation they employed was more along the line of ¡°do this or else¡±, communicated by non verbal gestures. As the alien returned, limbs raised carefully, John sighed. The surrender gesture appeared to be universal, which was good to know, and the creatures on the ship before the Carnival were deployed all seemed to be able to go back to Earth. ¡°So all these outcasts can come and go through a portal but we can¡¯t. Has anyone from Earth tried to come through?¡± he asked Bob quietly. ¡°Yep and it¡¯s a nope, mate. But this is an interesting opportunity,¡± the drone replied. ¡°We can have a reserve force, if we can get them on side. What about Claire, Flash¡¯s sister, not the healer. She can talk to anyone, right?¡± ¡°She¡¯s on her way to Wayfaire. I say we dump this lot on Mars or the Moon and keep them in reserve until we know what they can do. They seem pretty weak overall.¡± ¡°Low levels.¡± John sighed and his armour settled into a crouch. Doris pivoted and moved forward slightly, causing all the captured beings to shiver and back away. She stepped carefully forward until she was standing with the portal between her ankles then held still, once again becoming a giant armoured statue. "Excuse me?¡± asked one of the women on the human team they¡¯d rescued. John craned his neck up to look at her. Tall and slender with long dark hair tied up behind her head. Her skin was almost ebony and the artificial lights in the hold reflected harshly on her damp cheeks. She had stopped weeping but her voice was weak and reedy. He stood up, towering over her, and reached up slowly with one hand to remove his helmet. As the bulky piece of armour came up over his head she blanched. ¡°Are you even human?¡± she asked. Ah. The ruby eyes and the scars and the freaky runes Magic had carved into his face. Perhaps he should have kept the mask on? ¡°I am. I¡¯m John. When did you leave Earth?¡± he asked again. ¡°About a year ago,¡± she stammered back. ¡°You¡¯re¡­ him. The baron of the Topping?¡± John grimaced and went silent for a moment. ¡°I was, sometimes. The Topping is gone though. A year of your time?¡± She nodded shakily. ¡°So probably a lot longer than that back on Earth. Time dilation,¡± he finished in response to her confused look. ¡°Can we go back to Earth through that?¡± she waved a hand at the portal. She clearly knew it was possible, she was asking for permission. ¡°You¡¯re valuable. We¡¯ll keep you somewhere safe while we assess what happens to you long term. We won¡¯t hurt you or any of these creatures as long as none of you attack our people back home. A lot has changed while you¡¯ve been away.¡± ¡°The Accords are still keeping everyone down?¡± she asked. ¡°No. Some people came back from one of these jaunts. So powerful they turned everything on its head. The Sigs are still some of the strongest but they are small fry compared to the Monarchs,¡± he answered. ¡°Where will you keep us?¡± her friend called out from where she huddled on the floor. "And when are you going to take this fucking collar off?¡± ¡°Once you¡¯re back and we¡¯ve checked you over, the collars will come off,¡± Bob chimed in from a nearby drone. They had been having a rapid conversation in the background as they made plans. They didn¡¯t want to kill these rebels so they only really had one option. ¡°Be careful when you level. You got some Essence from this so far? And you need to kill the big bad Shrell on the bridge?¡± John shrugged. ¡°Not very much so far. Most of them were below level thirty and we were trying to take prisoners rather than just kill everything.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get creative with your orders. You don¡¯t want to be an outcast,¡± the black woman muttered. ¡°You think us going back to Earth will count as completing the mission?¡± ¡°Hopefully,¡± John replied. ¡°We needed to sterilise the ship. If you ain¡¯t here then it¡¯s sterile.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll go. Hope it works out for you, Signatory,¡± the tone in her voice at the end suggested she was not a fan. She moved over and gathered her friends then marched them back to Earth under a heavy escort of drones. ¡°You got bots ready to receive the aliens as well?¡± John asked Bob. The drone nodded and they began shepherding the rest of the prisoners through the portal. ¡°I want to strip a load of tech out of this beauty as well.¡± The B-3000 gestured around the walls. Bring the rest of them back. We can figure out what to do with the Captain later.¡± John stood in silence for a moment then replaced his helmet, watching as the captured aliens were forced through the portal back to Earth. A portal that the team couldn¡¯t use themselves. Chapter 193 - Deferred gratification The team had all retreated back to the hold which was now clear of prisoners. Evie plinked a finger against the event horizon of the portal and scoffed. ¡°This is shit. We¡¯re a step away from home,¡± complained Sam. ¡°Nothing we can do,¡± grunted Raoul stoically. Bob had spent the last few hours stripmining the Hagrutship for materials and devices. He had become intolerable. All he would talk about was improved schematics and increasing the effectiveness of the fleet he was building above Earth and on the moon. ¡°The humans started the rebellion and the rest of the passengers got dragged in when the Shrell panicked. What does that tell you?¡± asked Flash. ¡°Rebellion results in collective punishment. It was merely unfortunate that there were no higher levelled passengers to maintain order. The Shrell are strangely ineffective when it comes to combat," said Felicity. ¡°Combat. Even their abilities all sound like manual or tech workers. The only reason they lasted as long as they did was because they were largely immune to casters. We would not have a similar problem on the Kipragtsek,¡± Felix added. Felicity shot him a scandalised look. ¡°Not that we would!¡± he added hurriedly. ¡°The mission isn¡¯t complete. There are a handful of Shrell left in the engineering sections. We need to get rid of them. Move them I meant! They won¡¯t let me go over the systems in there!¡± said a passing drone carrying half a ton of bronze looking metal it had pulled from the corridor''s walls. ¡°Don¡¯t go messing with those machines Bob! How long are we going to be stuck here until another ship comes by to pick us up? Weeks? Months? We need the life support systems.¡± Vic¡¯s voice brooked no argument and while the drone paused for a moment it gave a spidery shrug then scuttled off on six legs. ¡°Nah, we¡¯d be fine on our own.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather have a bloody spaceship around us,¡± muttered Reg. ¡°What¡¯s Zeeg up to?¡± asked Evie. *** ¡°So you wish to die?¡± asked the giant lurcher, from where she was sitting opposite the Captain. ¡°I am an outcast. You do not understand what that means?¡± it replied. ¡°I do not. Please elaborate?¡± she said gently. Zeeg was fiercely loyal and protective of her team and packs but found it difficult to empathise with beings outside of that circle. ¡°You don¡¯t want to know,¡± the Captain bubbled. ¡°Let us just say that I am now fair game to every being in the universe. I had it all,¡± it deflated with a farting noise and its tentacles curled up. It looked like it was giving itself a many-limbed hug. ¡°Why not return to Earth? Someone with your knowledge and experience would be highly valued.¡± Zeeg was confused by the nihilistic apathy the creature was exhibiting. ¡°I will not leave my ship.¡± ¡°Why were we ordered to sterilise it? Why not rescue the crew?¡± ¡°The Alliance takes a harsh view on mutiny. If you allow one to happen you are treated the same way as the rebels,¡± it said sadly. ¡°How is that motivation? How often does this kind of thing happen?¡± ¡°It never happens! I am the first in ten thousand years to lose control of a voidliner! It is motivation,¡± the Captain continued in an icy voice, ¡°because if you don¡¯t immediately contain the rebels you are dead as well. Outcasts never live for long.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t lose access to the system?¡± Zeeg queried. ¡°Of course not. Once you start gaining Essence it cannot be taken back. Sometimes savage worlds go rogue. I¡¯ve sent many teams on missions to eradicate them. The only way to take back the system is to kill the species.¡± ¡°Noted. How did your rebellion take place?¡± Her voice was even and steady but the Captain became agitated, violently twitching with limbs thrashing around. Zeeg was keeping herself intangible so the occasional flailing arm that passed through her wasn¡¯t an issue. ¡°Your species-¡± it snarled, ¡°-refused an order. Life support was deactivated but they escaped their hold and went on a rampage. They released the other species! They kept yelling something about Spardatus.¡± Zeeg gave a half bark, half laugh. ¡°You mock me?¡± demanded the Captain, drawing itself back up to its full height. ¡°No. They were making a joke with what they yelled. What was their mission?¡± Zeeg cocked her head to one side and focussed on the twitching squid-thing. ¡°They were to go and serve as a second wave trial for a newly assimilated world.¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°They were mostly over level thirty, what kind of species would it be fair to send them against?¡± ¡°Oh, it scales on a number of factors. Levels aren¡¯t the be all and end all, savage,¡± grumped the Captain. Zeeg carefully ignored the insult but she was filing them all away in her mind. She found herself content with this being''s fate. ¡°I am a canine, not a savage,¡± she replied mildly. ¡°What will you do now?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll deal with it myself!¡± with a manic bubbling sound it rushed over to a panel and began tapping at screens. Zeeg felt her hackles rise. The alien was insane. How an entire species could be kept caged on these ships, with no grass or skies, for generations and convinced they were blessed escaped her but she had seen fanatics in the past. People who kept cats came to the top of her mind in that category. If this Shrell was like a cat owner the creature should be treated with extreme caution. And disdain but in the current circumstances caution felt more appropriate. ¡°The engineers are countering me. Savage, go kill them!¡± barked the Captain as it moved to a new set of screens and began poking at them with multiple tentacles. ¡°Countering you?¡± Zeeg asked. ¡°Opposing my commands. Shorting the logic loops to trigger the final defense. They are without honour! Kill them, now you filthy beast!¡± Definitely a cat person. Zeeg considered her options for a moment. Zeeg! Kill the Captain now! It¡¯s trying to blow the fucking ship! Bob sent via her implant. She leapt forward, phasing back into the physical world and snatched the beast around what passed for its neck. With a savage shake, which she made as savage as possible, she flicked the creature across the room where it smacked into the wall with a wet splashing noise. It slid down the wall as its limbs organised themselves underneath the main body and then drew itself back to its ¡°feet¡±, turning to narrow its coal black eyes at the dog. ¡°So now you want to kill me?¡± it hissed. ¡°You were trying to kill us all. I¡¯ve heard that over short distances bipeds can outrun a quadruped. They have less limbs to organise before they can get up to speed.¡± Zeeg grinned, two inch fangs gleaming in the lights reflecting off the polished walls. ¡°I suspect I have the advantage here.¡± She blurred forward and slammed the Captain back against the wall. Tentacles squirmed out and wrapped around her torso, starting to constrict. She phased out, the tightening bonds snapping through her body to smack against themselves. With its main limbs tangled after her escape she re-entered the physical universe and did something she generally considered to be beneath her. She had seen the Dragon fight. Its body transforming into an amorphous thing, every inch of its flesh capable of becoming a weapon at a thought. Zeeg found the idea distasteful but in the current circumstances, due to the level difference it seemed better to swallow her pride. Among other things. She dissolved into a series of flashing jaws that shot forward on columns of flesh to rip and tear at the Captain. Grey blood sprayed as tentacles were ripped away and flesh gashed open. The bulk of her body dragged itself along, using the clinging mouths to heave forwards and envelop the body of the Captain. A blur of violence followed. Tentacles would slip out and lash at the ever shifting dog, most of the time landing in a spawned mouth lined with fangs. A few landed, knocking bits of the dog away but the blows were never enough to break off a part of the shapeshifter and deal real damage. Less than ten seconds later the Captain was a bloody rag of a creature, dripping grey where the many maws gripped it, shoving it against the wall. Zeeg¡¯s normal head grew out of the back of the thing the rest of her body had become and she sniffed at the Captain''s face. A tongue slid out and swiped up its right cheek, leaving a line cleared of the grey goo that passed for blood in a Shrell. She coughed, spat out the aliens blood, and her multivariate form contracted. There was a popping noise and grey liquid poured out of the bottom of the tangle the two fighters had made of themselves. With heavy breaths she gradually returned to her normal form, shaking vigorously before briefly turning incorporeal to let the rest of the muck fall away from her fur. Team report: 1 Outcast Shrell Captain killed. Essence per kill: 17167680177564 Essence gained per team member: 17167680177564 Teamchat: Traveller: Holy shit. Stormwitch: Now that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about! Good girl! BestDoggo: Bob asked me to end the Captain. It was attempting to destroy the ship. NumberOneDorisDayFan: Good girl. I¡¯m sending a drone up to harvest the body. Felix: Have you no respect? NumberOneDorisDayFan: Waste not want not. BestDoggo: There isn¡¯t much left. I can confirm that it tasted bad. Worse than a cat! John blipped Zeeg back to the hold and sent a spiderbot over to gather up what was left of the Captain as well as begin examining the technology on the bridge. Zeeg sat down and shared a doggy grin with the rest of the team. Evie gave her a thumbs up as Raoul walked over and gave her a rub behind her left ear. She tilted her head and leaned into it. ¡°I cannot condone harvesting the body of a sentient,¡± said Felix. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll just take some samples and then we can bury it,¡± snapped Bob. They all glanced around at the floor of shiny metal. ¡°We can do the whole Spock thing. John can blip the body into space,¡± the drone offered as a compromise. ¡°We should get them levels!¡± chuckled Evie, utterly unconcerned about the corpse of the Captain and trying to get everyone else back to what mattered. ¡°No. If we level we¡¯ll face tougher challenges. It¡¯s like the fucking waves,¡± said Vic angrily. ¡°If we keep the Essence unspent we won¡¯t get dropped in the deep end and can level our way out of a tough situation.¡± ¡°Oh c¡¯mon! We¡¯d be a match for the Monarchs with all of us at level sixty three! We could just go home!¡± Evie replied. ¡°How? We can¡¯t just portal there. We¡¯re on tour and there¡¯s no going home early. Best to hold on, kiddo. If we face a problem we can¡¯t deal with, then we can jump up and cheese it,¡± John said, crossing his arms which clanged against his armoured chest. Evie snatched off her helmet and scowled at her dad. He reciprocated and his gleaming ruby eyes made her look down. She threw her helmet off to one side and it skidded up against Doris¡¯ foot. ¡°Fine.¡± She looked up and grinned, mercurial as ever. ¡°At least we¡¯ve got a shit load of levels when we do decide to get them! How awesome is it going to be to jump up so many levels at once! Hell, I can almost see the appeal! Deferred gratification, you know? We could end up with enough Essence to jump like fifty levels at once! That will be a rush!¡± she finished happily, moving to pick up her helmet. ¡°What about the engineers? They didn¡¯t want to die. Maybe we can get them back to Mars?¡± said Flash. Chapter 194 - Teenagers Ryn approached Kev¡¯s door slowly. Her old friend had been increasingly withdrawn ever since the fighting in France. He hadn¡¯t wanted to hang out, hadn¡¯t been interested in anything other than training and meditating. She reached up her hand to knock and paused once again. Kev had been in seclusion from the team for the last few days. Ever since the outcast aliens had come through the portal. Ryn was delighted to get confirmation her parents were ok but when she¡¯d laid a hand on the portal and been denied a wave of sadness had washed over her. If Kev refused to see her now it would feel almost the same. Come in, Ryn, the thoughts appeared in her mind. It was like his voice simply imposed itself in her head. Her hand dropped and turned the oddly old fashioned handle, pushing the door open and stepping in. Kev was floating cross legged, hovering a couple of feet above his settee. As she entered his legs stretched out and he lowered himself gently to the ground. ¡°I¡¯m sorry you¡¯re worried about me,¡± he smiled sadly. ¡°I¡¯ll make you some tea.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Ryn walked over and sat down to the side of where he had been meditating. ¡°Is it hard?¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying to keep the voices out.¡± He paused before placing two cups on the counter and flicking the kettle on. ¡°It was easier before,¡± he muttered, reaching over to get a pair of teabags. ¡°Before what?¡± Ryn asked. ¡°Before the aliens came through. Humans think a certain way. They¡¯re all very different but the basic pattern is the same. The aliens are¡­ new. Difficult.¡± Hot water was poured and he stirred the cups before reaching for the milk. ¡°You still take sugar?¡± he asked. ¡°You know I do.¡± ¡°I like to pretend I don¡¯t.¡± He brought the cups over and put one in front of Ryn before moving to the far end of the settee and sitting himself. He blew on the steaming liquid before taking a sip. ¡°I can¡¯t go back to Earth.¡± Ryn picked up her cup and held it in both hands but didn¡¯t take a drink. ¡°We¡¯ll need you. Whatever Mum and Dad found on this ship they had to clear, it¡¯s changed everything for his plans. We can go back soon.¡± He chuckled, the bitterness in his voice made her cringe a little on the inside. She hated that he knew what she¡¯d felt despite her saying nothing or even twitching. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. None of us can help what we are. I¡¯m¡­ Ryn, can I tell you a secret?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± she pivoted to look him in the face. ¡°I¡¯ve been taking copies of minds.¡± ¡°Your mind clone thing?¡± ¡°Eater. Mind Eater. It is¡­ very strong. I¡¯ve got Bob, Amit, the team that came back from Hagrutship and a bunch of the more prominent aliens. We can¡¯t trust Mindscar anymore. She and Belisarius are behind a lot of the troubles on Earth.¡± ¡°How the hell do you know that?¡± she demanded, shocked that a pair of prominent Signatories were stirring up the rebels. ¡°I¡¯ve got a copy of Mindscar. I¡¯ve got a copy of War and Life as well. They¡¯re the two that give me the most problems. They¡¯re so strong!¡± "You got their permission?¡± she asked. ¡°No. No one knows if I copy them. Look, we''re getting off topic. The aliens make being here difficult for me.¡± ¡°Have you copied me? No, don¡¯t answer that. Why not just come back to Earth when we go!¡± Ryn snapped, her exasperation getting the better of her. ¡°Exasperation is such a beautiful colour,¡± the boy replied. ¡°I can¡¯t. I¡¯m proscribed.¡± Ryn gasped and reached a shaky hand out to reclaim her cup and take a long, scalding mouthful of tea. ¡°Mind Eater-¡± ¡°It¡¯s not Mind Eater. I got another ability. I can take control of people. Temporarily!¡± he raised a hand as she drew a breath to launch into a rant. Her parents'' views on control powers were deeply ingrained. "But the Accords are over! The Reavers made that obvious! Earth is being strip mined for Essence, it¡¯s a wreck now! We can help. You can help, Kev. You¡¯ll know a Reaver or a Culler if they come within a hundred miles of you! You won¡¯t be collared!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not scared of being collared, Ryn,¡± he said softly, staring deeply into his mug. The girl deflated a little, her shoulders fell and she put her cup down on the table. ¡°What is it then?¡± she asked, not looking at him.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°It¡¯s me,¡± he sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t want the temptation.¡± ¡°The what?¡± she demanded, beginning to lose patience. She needed her friend to join them when they went back. They all needed his power and his support. ¡°Temptation. You don¡¯t¡­ Imagine being able to take someone over, completely. As long as I concentrate they''ll just obey me. It''s like¡­ I don¡¯t have the words. You¡¯ve been worried about me. You think I¡¯m withdrawn and that I¡¯ve changed. You think of me and you don¡¯t think of the same person you¡¯ve known for years.¡± Ryn flinched as her thoughts were spoken aloud by her friend. ¡°Even this scares you. I know too much. Ryn, you¡¯re like a sister to me and you are scared of me.¡± she shook her head and he laughed softly. ¡°Yes you are, it hangs around you like a yellow cloud. If even a sister is scared of me what will strangers feel?¡± ¡°They won¡¯t even know you! We need you Kev!¡± she blurted out. ¡°I¡¯ll be there for you,¡± he said quietly. Never fear on that score, the words burned in her mind. ¡°I¡¯m not ready yet though.¡± ¡°If there¡¯s anything we can do¡­¡± she offered, finishing her tea and rising to her feet. ¡°Thanks Ryn. I¡¯ll get a handle on it eventually.¡± She leant down and gently kissed him on the forehead, resting a hand on his shoulder. He looked up as she pulled her head back and smiled slightly, half his mouth quirking upwards. Then he nodded slightly and she turned, moving to the door. As it closed behind her she fought down her feelings and headed back to the shared living space the team used between training missions. ¡°Any joy?¡± asked Simon, looking up from the swirl of grey mist in his hands as she entered. The rest of the team were spread around the room, lounging or pacing depending on their nature. ¡°He won¡¯t go back to Earth anytime soon,¡± she said flatly. ¡°Ah for gods sake Kev. No ones going to collar you!¡± Sally yelled at the roof. ¡°This is not helpful. He knows what you¡¯re thinking Sally, there¡¯s no need for dramatics,¡± said Andrea. The shy girl flinched slightly as Sally turned a baleful gaze her way. Sally exhaled a deep breath and shrugged. ¡°Fair enough. But if we¡¯re a team we should act like a team and work together. So there¡¯s some bloody aliens and their brains are weird? So what!¡± ¡°He¡¯s been struggling dealing with a few hundred people, now there¡¯s a bunch more of them, including some humans who are not the kind of people we would have liked before the Monarchs came along,¡± said Bad. ¡°What do you mean we wouldn¡¯t have liked them? Leaving the aliens aside for now, I can see that would be weird for him, what¡¯s up with the team that Carnival rescued?¡± demanded Jane angrily. ¡°They¡¯re humans like us!¡± The girl made of fire rose to her feet and spun towards Bad. ¡°Easy, hothead!¡± Bad smirked as Jane appeared to steam, the glow from her body increasing noticeably at the jibe. ¡°They were anti-Accords. They hate the Sigs.¡± ¡°And now the Accords are dead. We¡¯ve got Reavers laying waste to half the planet and Cullers sneaking around in the shadows murdering high levelled folks. They¡¯d love Earth now!¡± snapped Jane, fighting to contain her emotions and lower her temperature. I¡¯d love Earth now but that¡¯s the problem. Please guys, just give me some more time. I need to find stability before I expose my mind to the thousands and millions on Earth. You can¡¯t understand. I ask you to trust me and be patient. They all glanced around, looking up at the ceiling and across at the walls. The voice seemed to have come from everywhere. ¡°That¡¯s weird you lanky prick!¡± called Bad. ¡°If you¡¯re going to spy on us, why not just attend the meeting?¡± He looked back and forth, waiting for a reply that would never come. ¡°Teenagers,¡± Bob grumbled from a wall speaker. ¡°Give the lanky kid a few more days before you start beating down his door. We¡¯re going to have the Necklace at a reasonable state of readiness in a week''s time. The new tech I¡¯ve got back from other-Bob has changed everything.¡± ¡°It¡¯s that significant?¡± asked Simon, his eyes lighting up at the thought of finally getting his hands on some of the new materials. ¡°Wind your neck in, Batman. You¡¯ll get access once I figure out how to make more of the stuff. That might take a while.¡± ¡°I¡¯m a bloody Urchemist, Bob, you metal asshole. I can literally make more of it out of dirt if I can get a look at the bloody stuff!¡± Simon threw up his hands in frustration. The walls, for once, were silent. ¡°You sulking metal man?¡± Jane scoffed. "Fucking kids. Evie was a handful, back in the day, but you lot¡­¡± the walls muttered. ¡°Ok. I¡¯ll get you a sample. If you can mass produce it you¡¯ll get a raise. I need lots and lots and lots of the stuff. It¡¯s not quite a match for dragonmetal but it''s entirely inorganic, which makes things easier.¡± ¡°You mean you don¡¯t have to profit share with the Dragon?¡± asked Claire brightly. ¡°Yes. That.¡± Bob replied flatly. ¡°As long as we¡¯re clear on your motivations. And I will want a raise if I can synthesise the stuff,¡± muttered Simon. ¡°Children. I try not to use that word, you¡¯re all powerful, more powerful than most humans. But in this case you¡¯re being children and I have to. Our goals are the same but I¡¯m nearly eighty years old. I know, I know, age doesn¡¯t make you right but it gives you perspective. None of you lived through the Advent, none of you knew the mundane wars across the decades leading up to the Advent. You¡¯ve only seen the harshness of the world from behind your mothers skirts! Behind my fucking skirts!¡± barked Bob. ¡°I would ask that you not question my motivations again. I¡¯m in it for the species, even if I¡¯m not technically a human anymore. Sure I¡¯m happy to make some ¡®money¡¯, the vast majority of which gets ploughed back into more defences and better bots, it gives me the resources I need to build up our world!¡± A pin dropping would have rung like a bell at that moment in time. Ryn¡¯s friends looked back and forth at each other and the room erupted in angry shouts, calmly stated thoughts and everything in between. ENOUGH! The word overrode all their thoughts and the babble suddenly fell back into silence, the kids glancing around and rubbing their temples. Dammit. Bob is an arse but he¡¯s right. We need to be ready before we go back. We¡¯ll have a lot on our plate when we do and I AM NOT READY YET. Help Bob and fucking grow up, guys. Kev¡¯s telepathic rebuke elicited a round of muttering but the kids shook it off and began to settle down. ¡°So how long are we going to keep sitting on our hands?¡± asked Jane. ¡°Can we use the aliens as support when we go home?¡± ¡°No. They¡¯re being held in reserve. They might be deployed to support the Carnival if they get into trouble,¡± said Bob. ¡°Against their will?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Girl, I love you like a daughter so I¡¯m going to pretend that question didn¡¯t occur to you. For the record: no.¡± Chapter 195 - We have plans A week had passed since the death of the Lord-Captain. John was currently in negotiations with the remaining Shrell, the last of the original inhabitants that remained aboard the Hargrutship. His ruby eyes unfocused and he looked through the many heavy bulwarks between his delegation and the rest of the team. Vic was out of her power armour, one hand pressed against the impassable portal¡¯s event horizon with her head bowed and her eyes closed. She had made this a ritual over the last few days. They had set up a shuttle service, bots passing back and forth to transmit messages in not-quite-real-time. They had ¡°spoken¡± with Ryn everyday. Events on Earth had spiralled dramatically since they left. Newly unfettered people who had chafed at the Accords had run wild and the Monarchs were spending almost as much time dealing with Reavers and Cullers as they were preparing for the invasion. It varied from territory to territory. Magic and Death weren¡¯t putting up with any shit, to put it mildly, so east Asia and Africa had been spared the worst of the troubles. South America, as well as the entire world, were terrified of Frost after she put down a small band of Reavers, entombing them in ice but somehow keeping them alive. The unfortunate Reavers had been dragged through portals, trapped in their icy prison, and paraded through every settlement, their muffled screams of pain echoing faintly through their cryonic tombs. Death had invested his territory with millions of flying, undead drones. They were a mishmash of shapes and sizes, none the same as any other but all were equally grotesque. As soon as one spotted a Reaver it emitted some kind of silent summons that drew a vast swarm of the things together in order to kill the criminals, adding their biomass to his ever growing reserve of matter to craft yet more minions. The new mass would then dissolve into the small flyers again and spread out. No one messed around in Death''s territory anymore. Magic was seemingly some kind of teleporter, ritual circles appearing just in advance of his arrival. His mad laughter and insane ranting presaging the deaths of any Reavers or Cullers in his territory. Earth Bob had no idea what kind of monitoring system he was using, his best guess was that it was some kind of magical array across the whole continent, akin to something from a fantasy story. Liberty seemed to be less concerned about Reavers, she only put them down when their rampages came close to damaging towns and cities or impeding the construction of the new fortresses that were springing up. She spent most of her time hunting Cullers, the murderers seeking to level up by killing other humans operated in her lands only at great risk. Life had Europe in an iron fist with a velvet glove. Perhaps too much velvet glove and not enough iron, according to Bob. The factions and settlements in Europe were largely self governing and had to call on him to get him to intercede. As a result some areas had suffered badly, the weaker zones being wiped out, whereas more powerful locales, such as Wayfaire, were largely untouched by the new powerhouses. John was glad Ryn was on Mars. Large parts of the population from Wayfaire¡¯s allies, such as Ascension, had been moved to extraplanetary sites on the moon and in orbit. They commuted back to Earth for hunting and trading, the portals to the new colonies were fiercely guarded and no strangers were permitted to use them. Some had taken to living away from the pale blue ball of their birth with surprising enthusiasm while others naturally felt a great homesickness creating an almost bipolar feeling in those new cities with many ecstatic but with just as much melancholy. John watched as Vic turned and walked back into the stash at Doris¡¯ foot, vanishing from his new vision. He turned his gaze back to the conversation at hand. They had reached an impasse and had been going round in circles for days. The Shrell had to leave for their mission to flag as complete. The squid-things had to leave or be killed, and as the negotiations dragged on John had gradually been coming to terms with simply murdering the irritating, arrogant little bastards to solve the problem. ¡°I am now the Lord-Captain by right of strength!¡± Piop was the highest levelled Shrell left at thirty three. John suppressed a sigh. He wanted to be done with this messed up mission and get on with their little odyssey. ¡°I¡¯m fine with that,¡± he ground out from within his power armour. One reason he worried about Vic wanting to lay her flesh and blood hand on the portal so often was that these squids could vent the ship from the engineering section. ¡°With that acknowledgement I believe we can negotiate fairly,¡± Piop replied, farting smugly. ¡°What are your requests?¡± John asked. He fought off the urge to point out that deciding who was in charge of the Shrell was something the humans had not been involved in. Five days had been wasted while they bickered over who got a promotion in the ashes. ¡°We demand you withdraw from the ship and permit us to get back under way,¡± Piop burbled with its tentacles writhing happily. Easy John. We¡¯re finally getting somewhere, Bob sent via his implant.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°We cannot do that. You are outcasts and we have been ordered to kill everything on this ship. We can offer you another option, though. We would very much prefer not to have to kill you,¡± John said slowly, as though speaking to a child. ¡°We have a new Lord-Captain. Once you savages are off the ship we will be restored to our honourable station.¡± The little squid was apparently wildly optimistic. Some of his comrades shifted and burped uneasily as John crossed his arms and stared down at the newly promoted Shrell. ¡°We have a choice. Either you go back to Earth where you will be allowed to live as you see fit or we have to kill you. The system doesn¡¯t change its mind. You. Are. Outlaws.¡± He angrily spat the last three words in a harsh staccato rhythm. ¡°You savages! We are back in control of the primary systems and I am not without power. You will decamp the ship. There is an asteroid belt around the local star. Another voidliner will collect you once Hagrutship is back underway and blessed by the Light.¡± The Shrell was either ignorant or immune to John¡¯s rapidly diminishing patience. How is our little outpost going? John sent to Bob. We¡¯ve got a comm relay setup and some basic manufacturing. In a few years this system will be swarming with my drones, prepping resources for export back to Earth or wherever else we can set up on our holibobs. This isn¡¯t a fucking holiday, Bob. Could we survive there while we wait for the Kipragtsek? John replied. Sure but would they ever stop for us if we fuck up our first mission? Good point Bob. So either these guys go back to Earth, we kill them or we blip them off the ship. Can they survive in outside the ship? Bob made a snorting noise over the comm link. Dumping them in space is just killing them slowly. They¡¯ll live for a while but not a long while. ¡°We have three options for you. You can go back to our world where being an outcast will not be an issue. You¡¯ll be valued advisors and consultants, able to do whatever work you prefer. Next; we can leave you outside this ship with limited resources. Once you¡¯re off the ship we should get an ¡®atta-boy, mission accomplished¡¯ from the system and perhaps you live, for a while.¡± He took a deep breath before continuing. ¡°Or we kill you. Our assessment is you won¡¯t live for long if we teleport you outside the ship and that you¡¯ll die slowly. Which rules that option out for us. So you can either go back to Earth or we will be forced to remove the obstacle to us completing our mission that your presence represents,¡± he finished in a frigid voice. Very fucking diplomatic! Bob laughed in his head. ¡°You cannot speak to a Lord-Captain in this fashion!¡± bridled Piop but it''s colleagues had all backed away from the armoured giant looming over them. ¡°Piop. Please be realistic. We are currently in control of this vessel,¡± John replied gently. Bob had managed to infiltrate every system except for engine control and had been indescribably smug for the last couple of days as a result. ¡°We have clear instructions from the system to purge this ship. We are taking a fucking gamble because we don¡¯t want to kill anyone we don¡¯t have to.¡± He took yet another deep breath. There was a lot of whisky in his near future. ¡°Even if you¡¯re outcasts.¡± You know I¡¯m going to liquidate them back on Earth if the system doesn¡¯t recognise us as having cleared the ship? Bob sent. I fucking know, dude. Do not let Ryn see if it comes to that. There was a double click on the audio link for confirmation. John suppressed a sigh and marshalled his thoughts to try and deal with whatever crap Piop was about to burble out into the universe. Piop stood perched on its many limbs for a moment then deflated slightly. It slithered back and forth before moving away from John towards a large bank of controls. Next to the controls was a long window revealing the inner workings of the engines. The glass was heavily shielded and tinted so that the blinding energies flowing within the ships propulsion systems didn¡¯t roast all their eyes. John was quietly confident his new eyes wouldn¡¯t have a problem although his skin might if he was out of his battle armour. He could see through the shielding and the containment fields anyway. The intricate spirals of power that threaded through the barriers and fields within a machine John could only describe as insanely complex were like surrealist art in his vision. ¡°Piop, don¡¯t touch that console,¡± said a floating drone from behind John. The Shrell clenched up, bringing all its legs in close and wrapping them around its body. It shrank down till it was barely five feet tall, a tangle of limbs with a grey head and big black eyes popping out of the top of the nest. The head pivoted until the eyes were locked on John. He removed his helmet, the silver mask of his under armour retracting as one hand reached up to scrub over his shaved head. The metal felt cold and hard against his scalp. Christ, he wanted to get this job done. ¡°Piop. If you reach out to any console I will teleport you a million kilometres away from the ship,¡± he said sadly as his hand fell back to his side and his ruby eyes met the aliens black ones. ¡°How far away is that? Your savage measurements don¡¯t make any sense to civilised beings,¡± Piop replied but it was clear from it¡¯s tone the fire had gone out of the being. It was beaten and just needed a way out. A face saving opportunity. John thought for a moment before he opened his mouth and took a risk. ¡°You can never go back into the system, Lord Captain.¡± The Shrell rose up slightly at the use of the title. ¡°You and those of your people that remain will always be outcasts from the Alliance. But that doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t run a voidliner.¡± Shut up, John, Bob sent. John ignored his friend and continued speaking off the top of his head. ¡°We have plans to build our own versions of these vessels. Plans to set up our own runs between the stars. We¡¯ll need good crew-beings to serve on them. It will be a different kind of run, ferrying willing sentients and materials, you¡¯d be the lifeblood of our federation. It wouldn¡¯t matter if you¡¯re an outcast.¡± John you are an utter arsehole on occasion. Saying that shit out loud and outside the stash. Fucks sake man! John ignored Bob and smiled broadly as Piop untangled its limbs and drew itself up, slithering slightly closer to him. ¡°New runs and new ships?¡± it asked quietly, dark eyes gleaming. Chapter 196 - A finger in many pies ¡°So what are they thinking?¡± ¡°It¡¯s bad enough hearing all the voices in my head without the walls talking to me as well,¡± Kev muttered in response to Bob¡¯s question. He settled from his floating meditation, landing softly on the settee. He brought his hands up to rub his temples but it didn¡¯t help. Nothing helped except for being alone. Those hours he spent on the surface of the red world, where he sped through the pathetic dregs of the atmosphere until he was far enough away that his thoughts became his own again were precious, and far too rare. ¡°The first lot of aliens are ok. They figured they were dead as soon as they rebelled because of the atmosphere being turned off on the Hatgrutship. They¡¯ll play ball.¡± ¡°And the squids?¡± Bob asked. ¡°They¡¯re a different kettle of calamari. They¡¯re in it for themselves. Now the portal has closed, they feel stuck here and they are looking for angles and advantages.¡± The boy sighed as he dropped his hands to his lap and clenched them into fists. ¡°Their minds are so¡­ alien. And I¡¯m not being funny. They¡¯ve never seen the sky, never walked in a forest. They¡¯re comfortable with the corridors rather than the terrariums. They¡¯re like lab rats or something,¡± he muttered as he rose to his feet. ¡°I¡¯ll need a breakdown on their history as they understand it please. You¡¯re ready to go back?¡± Bob asked gently from a speaker. ¡°No. But if I don¡¯t I¡¯ll never take that jump. Where are the others?¡± ¡°Waiting by the portal.¡± Kev walked the empty corridors of Mars but he was never alone. The voices in his head kept him company. You¡¯re a devil, little Kevin. Mindscar¡¯s voice. The copy he had taken hated him as much as the real one would if she knew what he had done. Her laughter echoed in his mind. Freak! You should step out an airlock! One of the humans who had been brought back to Earth after being outcast by the system. Monster! One of the aliens. With a mental flex the voices fell away. They babbled away somewhere at the back of his mind but it no longer entered his main train of thought. Don¡¯t worry about them, kid. Bunch of assholes. The certitude flowing from his copy of Amit snuck around his controls, probably due to having a positive sentiment rather than shit talking him from inside his own brain. There was a sense of a fight, some battle of wills within the growing menagerie of minds he curated and Amit emerged triumphant, battering the others into silence. Having a good friend''s dad inside your head was a strange experience but he was glad he¡¯d stolen a copy all those months ago. Corridors flowed by, bland and grey. Endless walls and doors merged into a blur as he navigated using the map in his HUD. ¡°Hey mate!¡± Sally blurred over to him before the door had finished opening and pulled him into a hug. Their armour clanged as his body was pulled against hers before she backed off with a mousy grin and dragged him into the room. Bad smiled broadly at him and the others also either waved or smiled, happy to see him out of his room at last. ¡°So what¡¯s the job?¡± Kev asked as he moved over and sat down in a chair facing the circle of his friends. ¡°Got some Cullers. Might be left over Scunners, we never got all of those bastards. They¡¯re operating out of a small town in Ayrshire. Kirkcudbright, it¡¯s called. Catchy name, I know. It managed to avoid being picked clean by the Scunners all those years ago and has become a bit of a regional capital.¡± ¡°And what are we up against?¡± asked Jane, practically bouncing up and down on her fireproof chair. ¡°Maybe four or five Cullers. Level range is thirty to thirty five. Wayfaire wants to deal with it themselves rather than getting Life or War involved. Keep it in-house,¡± Bob replied. ¡°Local forces?¡± asked Bad, in a matter of fact tone. Kev was studying the air, watching the colours and smells that his friends'' emotions were generating in his warped perception. Enthusiasm, excitement, joy at the thought of release from this exile on Mars were the predominant flavours. A little nervousness but no fear¡­ he sniffed and his head spun. He locked eyes with Ryn and without meaning to dipped into her thoughts. They were a jumble. She was afraid. Afraid of being a disappointment, of failing to live up to the legacy of Sunstrike and the Traveller. Afraid of getting her friends hurt. The battle in France had left deep scars in her mind now she¡¯d had time to assimilate what happened. He pulled back carefully and smiled gently at her. She raised an eyebrow before looking away. He had to keep his power under control, damn it. They were all child soldiers but some of them had taken to it better than others. ¡°Some guardians. Been there since the end of the third wave in some cases, others are newer but they¡¯re all from the local area. Most aren¡¯t even in the twenties so won¡¯t be a problem for you. They are a bit close knit, though. We¡¯ve tagged you to look into it because of certain advantages you have,¡± Bob replied. ¡°You mean me.¡± Armand''s voice was glum. He¡¯d largely come through the depression that had resulted from his fathers death but sometimes it resurfaced at unexpected times.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Yep. You can fudge the teams Identify reports. You¡¯ll go in on foot as caravan escorts,¡± Bob replied gently. ¡°Don¡¯t they get most of their supplies from the airship routes and the portals?¡± asked Jane. ¡°And how the hell is Armand going to hide me?¡± Being made of fire did present an interesting challenge when it came to subterfuge. ¡°You, Sally, Bolf and Bad are being held in reserve. We¡¯ll deploy you separately and you¡¯ll wait a few miles away.¡± ¡°You want to send all the squishies in on their own?¡± Bad snapped. ¡°Let at least one of us go as well?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a deliberate move. The Cullers are bruisers around level thirty five. We send the ¡®squishies¡¯ in showing as high twenties, without bruisers to protect them. Then we let nature take its course.¡± ¡°We¡¯re bait?¡± asked Claire. ¡°I don¡¯t like that!¡± ¡°The heavies will be a couple of minutes out. Ryn can teleport you all out if she needs to. You¡¯ll have discreet drone support as well. This is a collar and catch job. You¡¯re playing Pokemon not Palworld. We want them alive for interrogation,¡± said Bob via a speaker on the wall. ¡°By interrogation do you mean handing them over to the Dragon?¡± asked Ryn, glancing up at the walls. ¡°Probably. Kev will be able to get most of what we need if we can get them somewhere isolated.¡± ¡°Why isolated?¡± Simon demanded. ¡°He can just park up a few miles away and read their bloody minds, right?¡± ¡°I could but I¡¯m not used to the number of voices I¡¯ll be able to hear. Before¡­ It was just feelings, then surface thoughts. Now it¡¯s like everything is laid bare. I have to fight to not know everything about everyone because if I don¡¯t I¡¯ll go mad.¡± Ryn leant over and put a hand on Kev¡¯s arm, smiling sadly at her friend. She straightened up and looked across at her friends. They seemed determined, if a little unhappy at the limitations they¡¯d be working under. ¡°So we identify them with Kev then I blip them out without roasting them too badly. Might it be worth having Claire at the secondary location to handle anyone who gets a bit too toasty?¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine by me!¡± said Claire quickly. Bad and Sally both chuckled at her eagerness to avoid playing bait. The girl was dangerous, extremely so, but she hadn¡¯t come to appreciate just how far beyond most of humanity she now was. ¡°You could serve as an off-tank no problem. Just heal all the damage as it happens. Or return it to the sender and watch them melt,¡± scoffed Simon. Claire looked uncertain, glancing back and forth between the alliance of Bad and Sally and the tinker. ¡°Best you¡¯re ready for the lightly roasted culprits eh?¡± said Jane, for once taking pity on the shy girl and not exploiting an opportunity to tease her. Claire grimaced but nodded. ¡°So Ryn, Simon, Armand, Kev and Andrea will be going in as caravan guards?¡± asked Sally. ¡°No offence guys but you¡¯re all too nice! Anyone who''s dealt with a caravan guard will know you¡¯re not legit.¡± ¡°No they won¡¯t. I¡¯ll deal with that,¡± said Kev. ¡°As will I! Mon Dieu! I can make anyone see anything. We can do this,¡± said Armand firmly. ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky, kid,¡± said a speaker on the wall. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll all be fine but you need to be careful. The ¡®guards¡¯ will be leaving from Killinghall tomorrow. You can portal there, I¡¯ve already done the negotiations for you. I maintain a large number of online personas so I burned one of them setting this up. They¡¯ll be much more careful next time.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to be in the first team,¡± said Simon gently. ¡°I¡¯m not a good fit.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± asked Bob. ¡°I need to prepare the terrain to be valuable. I¡¯d just be a burden. I can prep your lines of retreat in case you need to get out of there.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± Kev nodded. ¡°If that¡¯s what you want.¡± ¡°How do the rest of us get into position?¡± asked Sally, flicking a foot back and forth. ¡°I¡¯ve got an Egg set aside for you all. It will drop you and some drone escorts off when Ryn and the others are in position.¡± ¡°What do we need to know about the caravan?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°They do the run from the Inheritors up to the hill tribes regularly. Someone offered their regular guards a very lucrative job that they couldn¡¯t turn down,¡± said Bob. ¡°An offer they couldn¡¯t refuse?¡± chuckled Bad. ¡°Not like that. A lot of Essence and better conditions to go work in Spain for a few months. They don¡¯t know it was me who made the offer or that it¡¯s me they¡¯re working for on the continent.¡± ¡°Bob, why the hell are you running caravans? You¡¯ve got BFOs, airships, Eggs and the best portal access on the planet!¡± asked Andrea with surprising confidence. ¡°I like to keep a finger in many pies.¡± "Gross, dude,¡± muttered Simon. ¡°Setting aside your dubious business practices, you¡¯re sure the switch will pass muster?¡± ¡°I need to know what goods are being run around off the network. It¡¯s good market research,¡± Bob said slightly defensively. ¡°Whether it passes muster is down to you all but mostly Kev and Armand. Are your illusions up to scratch?¡± ¡°Oui,¡± Armand said curtly, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. ¡°I can help,¡± Kev almost whispered. ¡°What characters are we playing? I¡¯m guessing the fake power name will be vaguely close to what we can actually do, in case we run into any monsters or Cullers on the road?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°You won¡¯t run into anything you can¡¯t handle, that I can promise. You¡¯ll need to not be too obvious. Andrea, it might be worth copying a bruiser, maybe Sally or if you can get a chance maybe someone like Brendan in Wayfaire. That would give you an on hand bruiser. Ryn you¡¯ll be a fire user, so blasting rather than blipping. Simon, you can pass as a tinker. Kev-¡± ¡°I can be a proscribed psyker. Just don¡¯t make it obvious,¡± he glanced at Armand who nodded hesitantly. ¡°What? Why? ¡° asked Sally, confused. ¡°Because I am. It will also give us credibility if this caravan is as off the books as Bob is suggesting,¡± he replied. ¡°You have control powers?¡± asked Bolf, his hackles rising slightly as his back tensed. ¡°I do.¡± ¡°No wonder you¡¯ve been hiding away in your room!¡± said Sally. She stood up and walked over to rest a hand on the lanky boy¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry mate. We¡¯ll stick by you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re all forgetting the Accords and the proscriptions are basically gone. Some places still vet psykers, some don¡¯t, some have been taken over by people who used to be Minders,¡± said Bob. ¡°Mindscar''s little illegal club,¡± Kev muttered then winced as the copy of Mindscar began screaming in his head. ¡°Either way, Kirkcudbright pretends to stick to the rules Wayfaire and Ascension insist on. In reality they aren¡¯t that sticky. A guard with a proscribed power might be just the thing we need to get them to trust you,¡± said Bob. ¡°Can¡¯t Kev just rip the info from them against their will? Why do we need them to trust us?¡± asked Armand. ¡°If they have similar powers to me they¡¯ll have resistance to my ability. So we need to get close, maybe rough them up a bit for me to get in. The other thing is we don¡¯t want to reveal what we¡¯re capable of,¡± Kev said standing up. ¡°Right Bob? Wheels within wheels?¡± ¡°Something like that kid. Got to keep the bastards guessing.¡± Chapter 197 - No choice ¡°So you¡¯re the new guards?¡± Jake was a big guy, towering over everyone except for Kev. He looked them over and the Identify trick Armand was pulling must have worked because he nodded and gestured for them to sit at his table. The pub they¡¯d arranged to meet in was a strange mix of old fashioned bar and modern convenience. Human staff worked the tables rather than drones and the smells of tobacco and stale beer hung thick in the air. ¡°Little young aren¡¯t you?¡± he asked as they sat down in a booth that was somewhat secluded from the main room. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I should order beers for you!¡± ¡°Bluejuice will be fine,¡± said Ryn as she smiled politely at him. ¡°Bluejuice? Expensive tastes for kids like you.¡± ¡°We¡¯re good so we make good money. You¡¯ve seen our references,¡± said Armand. ¡°Aye, I¡¯ve seen them. What happened on the Ponferrada run?¡± he asked as he accepted his drink and asked the waiter to fetch drinks for the teenagers. Ryn waited until the waiter had moved away before answering. ¡°We got caught up in the Imperium¡¯s war. None of the primaries died,¡± Ryn replied defensively. ¡°But you lost the stock?¡± he asked sharply, narrowing his eyes at her. ¡°We had a choice. Protect the stock or protect the people,¡± Ryn snapped back. ¡°Which would you have picked? It was all insured anyway.¡± The old man pushed his grey hair back from his eyes and smiled broadly. ¡°Sometimes the stock is worth more than the people and sometimes it isn¡¯t insured. What would you do then?¡± ¡°Protect the stock.¡± Kev¡¯s voice was firm and he mentally leaned ever so slightly on the man, exerting a touch of his power to establish a bond of trust. ¡°Sure. Sure. Ah, drinks!¡± The waiter delivered a tray to the table and waited patiently while Jake paid with Essence. ¡°Drink up!¡± he said, raising his glass as the waiter retreated to give them some privacy. ¡°We¡¯re a close knit team but I think you guys might be ok.¡± Ryn and her friends lifted their drinks in a toast to their new boss. ¡°We¡¯re leaving Easingwold later today. We¡¯ve got some mobility specialists who¡¯ll keep the carts moving at a fair clip. You guys can keep up?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± said Kev confidently. ¡°Alright.¡± Jake hunched down and leant forward. ¡°We¡¯re running some fun stuff for some fun people. As long as we don¡¯t draw any attention this run will be gravy and you¡¯re up five hundred essence a piece. I see you¡¯re all in the late twenties, in terms of levels.¡± He smirked at Ryn and Andrea before his eyes snapped back to Kev and Armand. ¡°You¡¯ll need to tread carefully too, kid. Some of our merry band aren¡¯t the nicest people left on Earth.¡± ¡°I will be fine but I appreciate your concern,¡± Armand said coldly. ¡°Not worried about you. I¡¯m worried about getting the job done without any fucking drama. You can handle yourself, no doubt, but I need to know you can handle yourself without jeopardising the run.¡± ¡°I will not be a problem, nor will my female colleagues,¡± Armand ground out. He briefly regretted not assuming an illusion to make him seem more mature than his natural form. Jake eyed him for a moment then nodded. ¡°Good. So how did you kids get so strong?¡± he asked, waving at the waiter to come and refill his drink. Kev began to spin a tale. He kept their origins as close to the truth as possible. He and Ryn had been born in the UK but in a remote village that wasn¡¯t on the portal network. After they managed to get their first Essence earlier than they should, they wandered and gained levels quickly, eventually making their way onto the continent via the portal to Toledo in Wayfaire. There they had served as bouncers and caravan guards until they met up with Andrea, or Thea as she was currently. Doing short runs across northern Spain until they had bumped into Armand¡¯s alternative identity. More caravan runs, now stretching into Southern France on occasion, until at last they¡¯d been caught up in the war and had managed to jump into the high twenties as a result of safeguarding the lives of their fictional employers. Without Kev¡¯s deft manipulation of the man¡¯s thoughts there was no chance he would have bought the fanciful story but between that and the electronic records Bob had fabricated their false history fell into place quite convincingly. ¡°So you had to burn a few Imps and a few Sigs?¡± he asked, the alcohol starting to slur his words slightly. ¡°No Sigs. We¡¯re good and we aren¡¯t fucking stupid,¡± Ryn replied. Jake laughed and slapped his leg, sending a thud into the floor that made the glasses rattle on the table. A strong bruiser then, she noted.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Very wise. We stay away from anything against the Accords, even now. No point drawing the attention of the Mech or Traveller.¡± ¡°Traveller went off world I heard,¡± said Ryn, earning a sharp look from Kev. ¡°So they say. Never know with that bastard. I saw him at London. When we took down the worms. Meteors falling from the sky to lay waste to everything, porting us about like game pieces on a board.¡± Jake spat to one side. ¡°Bastard kept all the Essence for himself.¡± Kev reached out and took control of Ryn. Her blood ran cold as she felt this presence take hold of her body and mind. She smiled slightly and laughed. ¡°Those Sigs were all the same,¡± her own voice said without any volition on her part. Wait Ryn. This is a delicate. Don¡¯t blow it before we even get started. Kev¡¯s though was like ice in her veins. She had never felt so violated and she was sure the colours swirling around her made it clear to Kev how she felt about this. ¡°Oui. The fucking Court are just as bad!¡± snapped Armand as he stayed in character. No choice. We know what really happened back then. Your mum nearly died and walking into the fire changed you while you were in her womb. Don¡¯t let this asshole get to you. "No joke? I¡¯ve not gone on the continent but I heard things are pretty fucked up. You¡¯re either a noble, in the Reich or an Imp if you want to get anywhere fairly.¡± Calm down Ryn, Kev repeated in her mind several times as he gradually removed the control he had forced on his friend. ¡°Not much different to here,¡± Ryn hissed, some of her anger at Kev colouring her words. ¡°People with power always abuse it!¡± Jake nodded sagely before standing up and pulling something from his pocket. He laid a slip of paper down on the table and grinned at the teenagers. ¡°Bring the chit to the warehouse at the east end of Mill Lane before five this evening. We¡¯ll get you set up and let you know what the arrangements are.¡± he belched loudly. ¡°See you then.¡± Without any further words he left and moved quickly out of the pub. ¡°Kev¡­¡± Ryn¡¯s voice was thick with rage but she kept it low. ¡°I had to! And I¡¯m Jim, remember?¡± Kev replied. ¡°What happened?¡± asked Armand. ¡°I thought it went very well?¡± He leant back into his chair and took a long drink. ¡°I¡¯m going to order some extra Bluejuice to go into storage for the road.¡± He rose and made his way to the bar, studiously ignoring the muttered comments from other patrons as he went. ¡°It was but Ry- Kat nearly blew it.¡± ¡°Because of what he said about your father?¡± whispered Andrea. She had opted to borrow Sally¡¯s power, making her far stronger and faster than she ought to be, approximately on par with a bruiser of the level she was masquerading as. ¡°Yes,¡± hissed Ryn in reply. ¡°That wasn¡¯t-¡± ¡°We know Kat. I bloody know. I¡¯ve read the memories out of their minds.¡± ¡°K- Jim! What the hell?¡± Ryn replied quietly but fiercely. ¡°It was an accident. While I was doing some work for them with the M¡¯s,¡± Kev said, mugging furiously to try and get Ryn to leave the topic alone. Talking about the Monarchs now would probably be a bad thing. Kev was monitoring the thoughts of everyone in the room and none of them were spying on the team but an overheard word could be passed on casually and have just as catastrophic consequences for their mission as deliberate sabotage. ¡°We are in at least,¡± said Andrea softly. ¡°It will be like the old times eh?¡± she said slightly more loudly, trying to move them back to acting in character. Ryn grimaced but on reflection concluded a small group having a quiet chat with someone who dripped shadiness like Jake would probably involve some hushed whispering afterwards. ¡°It¡¯ll be a good run. Good Ess for low effort,¡± said Kev. They played the parts they had been assigned for a while after Armand got back from the bar. They talked quietly about fake adventures, subtly trying to one up each other in creating a more interesting false story. ¡°And then there was that time on the Line-¡± Armand began but Ryn kicked his shin under the table. No one would believe they¡¯d spent time on the line at their age. ¡°It¡¯s not far off time. Let¡¯s head to this warehouse,¡± said Kev, drawing himself up before he tipped back his glass and finished his drink. As they headed towards the door the waiter approached and whispered something to Kev, leaning up to get close to his ear. Kev grimaced and nodded down at the man before hurrying to catch up with his friends. ¡°What was that?¡± asked Andrea quietly as they wended through the quiet streets of Easingwold. The walls were still there but much of the town now stretched out past those early limits. The monsters in this area of the UK had been thoroughly tamed or destroyed and even level fives could walk around outside the walls without fear. ¡°A warning. Jake isn¡¯t a trustworthy chap it seems and has a reputation for not hiring the same people twice,¡± Kev muttered, ducking past the eaves of a low slung cottage. ¡°What, he always uses new teams?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°He always has to use new teams is what I took to be the meaning,¡± Kev muttered as they moved past a food stall at the end of the street. The blue light of a portal shone round a corner but they ignored it and moved east into rougher parts of town. Easingwold had been under the control of Wayfaire, via the Baroness of Thirsk, since the end of the waves so there were a number of B-1000s patrolling around, all of which somehow managed to avoid going close to the kids. Human fighters also wandered here and there, not following any set pattern. They probably weren¡¯t part of any formal organisation, just locals with half decent levels that allowed them to swan around confidently. The sun was just starting to set as they reached Mill Lane. The long street was cobbled and the buildings on either side were dirtier than the rest of town they had seen. From where the team stood the nearest houses were homes, two up, two down buildings designed for couples or small families. As the shadows stretched behind them down the street they saw the homes began to give way to warehouses and workshops. Prices here must be cheap as the homes would be exposed to the noise of goods handling and crafters and tinkers plying their crafts at all hours of the day. ¡°Nice neighbourhood,¡± muttered Kev as they made their way towards their goal. ¡°This is worse than the Downs in Wayfaire,¡± Ryn whispered back. Despite knowing intellectually that she was stronger than anyone here other than her friends she still hunched down on herself, shoulders clenching up to her neck slightly. One thing her Dad had often pointed out was that it didn¡¯t matter how strong or fast you were, if you didn¡¯t see an attack coming you¡¯d be just as dead. Chapter 198 - This isn’t their first rodeo A slit in the door, at approximately eye height on an average person slammed to one side and a pair of beady eyes narrowed on the other side. ¡°Fuck off kids,¡± said a gruff voice as the slit slid shut again. Kev reached out and knocked again, leaving forward so his eyes were level with the hatch rather than his neck. The hatch opened again and the same beady eyes narrowed into a glare. ¡°Are you fucking deaf? I said get lost!¡± ¡°We¡¯re here at the invitation of Jake,¡± Kev reached out to offer the slip of paper they¡¯d received but the hatch began sliding shut. Kev reached out with his power and forced the man to leave the hatch open and accept the paper. The eyes blinked and Kev read his intentions in his surface thoughts. He leant on the man again and he blinked and turned to take the slip to his colleagues, leaving the hatch open. Ryn glanced through and saw a shambles. Long carts, fifteen feet in length, were laid out with their hitching bars resting on the ground. There were three of the carts and scattered around them haphazardly were crates and piles of materials. The warehouse was dark, poorly lit by strip lights along one wall that threw long shadows across the room. There was some muffled conversation from the other side of the door, out of sight. There was a thwacking noise and a moment later the dark eyes reappeared, glaring at Ryn and her team. The hatch slammed shut and there were a series of clicks as the door was unlocked. It swung open slowly and Kev pushed it aside, knocking the doorman back. ¡°Thanks,¡± he glowered down at the man who backed away slightly. He was only level fifteen so even allowing for the illusory Identify results he knew he was outclassed. ¡°Over here,¡± he grumbled as he righted his shabby coat and shuffled towards a table surrounded by much tougher looking people. Jake sat on one side grinning in approval, the other half dozen people gathered around were glaring at the kids. ¡°So you think you¡¯re tough eh?¡± asked a man in a broad Irish accent. He rose to tower over everyone except Kev before leaning forward and resting his clenched fists on the table. ¡°Take a seat.¡± The kids looked around and found no seats in sight. Armand shrugged and conjured four chairs that could almost pass for thrones opposite the table with the caravan guards. ¡°Fucking illusionists,¡± muttered a woman with the left half of her head shaved. She blew the long blonde strands that fell across her right eye out of the way as the kids sat down. ¡°Not just illusions,¡± Armand replied. ¡°Physical. I can conjure pack animals to pull the carts if you need?¡± The blond snorted and took a long gulp of her drink. ¡°We¡¯re covered in that regard, Frenchie,¡± said the Irishman as he lowered himself back into his chair. ¡°So what do you bring to the table,¡± he asked, waving a hand across the space between the teams and blowing out his insanely bushy moustache like a whale clearing its blowhole after surfacing. ¡°Fire, physical, illusion and mental support,¡± Ryn said calmly. Inside she was in turmoil. These people gave her a bad feeling. ¡°Mental support?¡± asked a Scotsman, his accent as thick as his red hair. He leaned back and crossed his arms revealing explicit tattoos lining his forearms. Andrea winced at the sight and the man grinned. ¡°I can detect monsters and people. Inflict various effects, stuff like that,¡± said Kev, shifting in his seat. ¡°So we won¡¯t run into any trouble? That might be handy,¡± said the blonde. ¡°Call me Jumper.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you Jumper. And your friends¡­ do they have names?¡± asked Kev. ¡°Use Identify,¡± ground out the Irishman. The kids ran their eyes around the group. Name: Jonas Shea Level: 27 Ability: Brute Name: Sarah Ward Level: 24 Ability: Flea Limbs Name: Harold Percival Level: 28 Ability: Telekinesis Name: Shia Hardy Level: 25 Ability: Electrokinesis Name: Alex Shea Level: 26 Ability: Hound Dog ¡°Ok Jonas. What do you need us for?¡± asked Armand. ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m wondering,¡± muttered Sarah, the blonde. ¡°Well Jean, we sometimes need a little extra muscle in case we run into something unexpected along the way. You lot are level twenty nine and shouldn¡¯t have any issues with the kind of stuff living between here and there.¡± Jonas smiled and pulled out a cigarette that he lit with a BME lighter. Ryn briefly wondered how much tech was in that lighter, listening devices, B-net connectivity, she wouldn¡¯t put any of that past Bob these days after living in his little world on Mars for so long.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°So what¡¯s the stock?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Does it matter?¡± Jonas narrowed his eyes on her. ¡°Not really. Just need to know if anything will go boom if it gets a bit warm.¡± Ryn raised a hand and a bright blue flame flared up from her palm. ¡°No, nothing explosive but some of the goods need to be respected.¡± ¡°No problem. I can snuff a fire as easily as make one,¡± Ryn replied with a nod. ¡°Good to know girly. How¡¯d you fall in with this bunch?¡± Sarah asked, waving a hand at the rest of Ryn¡¯s team. ¡°Bad luck,¡± Ryn deadpanned, earning a snort from Armand. ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem like bad luck to me. You¡¯re all pretty strong. Signatory material maybe.¡± ¡°Nah. We¡¯d never have gotten to serve on the Lines or the Wall. Bad families, or no families. Let¡¯s just leave it at that?¡± Ryn wasn¡¯t sure if it was her words or Kev messing with their heads but they accepted her reply and didn¡¯t push further on the subject. ¡°Fine. Suffice to say that you don¡¯t need to know what we¡¯re shipping but it is to be treated with the utmost fucking care.¡± Jonas¡¯ voice was flat and cold. ¡°We¡¯ve got a few stops to make along the way before we get to Kirky-cud. Then we unload, grab some local goods and head back south. If you¡¯re any good you¡¯d be welcome to join us on the return trip.¡± He became more jolly as he spoke but Ryn felt a threatening undertone throughout. ¡°We¡¯re heading further north after this. Just looking for a job along the way,¡± said Kev. ¡°That¡¯s fine, Jim. Where¡¯s your final destination?¡± asked Alex. Another Irish accent, probably Jonas¡¯ little brother unless Kev missed his guess. ¡°Up in the islands. Beyond that, it¡¯s as much your business as the contents of your crates is ours. It won¡¯t blow up in your face as long as we all play nicely.¡± ¡°Ha!¡± Jonas slapped the table, making all the glasses bounce. ¡°I like you kid. Just keep an eye out and put anything we can¡¯t handle down and we¡¯re golden.¡± ¡°I¡¯m happy you¡¯re happy. So when do we get going?¡± ¡°In the morning. Travelling at night is too suspicious and it¡¯s bad for the horses.¡± Harold, who hadn¡¯t spoken yet, snorted. ¡°Where are you spending the night?¡± Jonas finished. "Wherever. We can camp outside town or wait here if you prefer,¡± said Armand. ¡°Bed down over there. Best we¡¯re all ready for an early start in the morning. You need anything?¡± offered Jake, speaking for the first time in the meeting. He¡¯d been watching the team carefully throughout. ¡°Non merci,¡± replied Armand, summoning a plate of food from his storage space as he rose and walked off in the direction Jonas had pointed. He looked at the space then began summoning a modest building inside the warehouse. Walls, screened windows and a door. As they materialised a light sprang on inside, throwing shadows away from the single floor cottage. ¡°We¡¯ll see you in the morning,¡± said Kev, nodding at their new employers. "G¡¯night kids. Sweet dreams,¡± smirked Sarah. Ryn and Andrea joined Kev in walking away from the table. Armand opened the door and went inside, leaving it ajar for his friends. They entered and Kev, bringing up the rear, slammed the door shut behind them. We¡¯re safe to talk in here, Kev sent to the team. ¡°Thank Christ!¡± muttered Armand. ¡°Did anyone else feel like we were a starter dish being eyed by hungry gourmands out there?¡± He threw himself down on a settee and twisted so he could pull off his boots. ¡°Like little snacks,¡± grumbled Andrea as she moved over and began picking at the food Armand had pulled from his storage space. She nibbled on a spiced nugget of monster meat and waved it around. ¡°What¡¯s the cargo they didn¡¯t want to talk about Kevin?¡± she asked. ¡°Us.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± asked Ryn, confused. ¡°We¡¯re the cargo, to be fed to the Cullers. They¡¯ve got some shit in the carts, mostly dodgy tech from the US but we¡¯re the main course,¡± he said, settling down into an armchair and putting his head in his hands. ¡°Why not just lead us out of town and off us?¡± asked Andrea, grabbing some kind of sliced vegetables onto a plate with a fork and moving over to sit down next to Armand, pushing his feet out of the way and forcing him to sit upright. ¡°It¡¯s a case of getting people in the right level bracket. They can¡¯t gain levels without arousing suspicion in towns and they couldn¡¯t beat us anyway, even if we had the levels they think we do,¡± said Kev. ¡°So they get some kind of kickback in exchange for feeding slightly more powerful people to these Cullers? What level are these bastards?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Mid thirties. And this isn¡¯t their first rodeo. The Cullers will have plenty of Essence in reserve to jump up levels if we don¡¯t take them down quickly,¡± Kev replied with a sigh. ¡°I¡¯m really starting to wish we¡¯d passed this off to War.¡± No need to trouble the Monarchs with this. You¡¯ll do fine, Bob sent over their implants. ¡°Why not send it up the food chain? This feels like¡­ I don¡¯t know. Like we¡¯re bait or something,¡± said Andrea softly as she cleaned off her plate and stood to go and wash up. Conjured homes included running water when Armand was making them. Armand immediately pulled his feet back onto the settee and sighed contentedly. ¡°We are. But we¡¯re bait with teeth. We just need to make it to the targets, let them come at us then blip, blip, blip with the collars and we¡¯re out. We can intimidate the ¡®guards¡¯ outside,¡± Kev waved a hand back towards the centre of the warehouse. ¡°They¡¯ve sent the hound bloke to sniff around and try and listen to us but he¡¯s not hearing anything.¡± ¡°Just how much can you mess with someone¡¯s head, mon amis?¡± ¡°More than I want to be able to.¡± Kev whispered. ¡°How are you holding up? With all the extra, uh, voices?¡± asked Ryn gently. ¡°Better than I thought I would. You know the Inheritors are currently trying to set up a false flag with the Beastfolk and force Sylvia into attacking them? Then there¡¯s the Scunner captain on her airship who¡¯s floating out over the North Sea. She¡¯s been raiding the Netherlands and Denmark but her home base is just south of where Edinburgh used to be. Then there¡¯s-¡± ¡°We get it mate. Just try and focus on the local area,¡± said Ryn. ¡°Oui. Eyes on the prize as you roast beef like to say,¡± added Armand. ¡°It¡¯s not so bad. I just feel like a perv. If I don¡¯t limit my range- hell even when I do¡­ Do you know what the hell is going on just in the houses on this street?¡± ¡°Anything we should worry about?¡± asked Andrea moving back and shoving Armand''s feet off the settee again as he swore in French. ¡°French swearing always sounds so nice,¡± she smirked as the boy shuffled up to give her some space. ¡°Unless you¡¯re overly worried about Keith Jones¡¯ wife finding out he gave her the clap because he¡¯s been sleeping with her sister, who is apparently something of a slut -his words- or if you care about the shop at the end manipulating prices in the breakfast snacking market in conjunction with their competitors¡­ It¡¯s mostly bullshit.¡± "You could do a BV show. Streaming live: Kev exposes all your darkest and saddest secrets!¡± chuckled Armand. Andrea slapped his leg making him yip in pain. ¡°I¡¯m not going on Bob-vision,¡± laughed Kev, breaking out of his sinking mood. ¡°You think you know people, right? Well turns out you really fucking don¡¯t.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s happening with the hound bloke?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Oh he got bored. He gets enhanced smell and hearing and he can transform into a shitty version of Bolf¡¯s war-form. None of them are a real problem. The telekinetic will have to be put down fast. He can fly, fast, and throw up shields and rip out eyeballs with his mind and stuff,¡± said Kev. ¡°And the rest?¡± asked Andrea. ¡°Captain Shea is bog standard bruiser. Much stronger than he ought to be and he can hulk out for a while. Sarah is dangerous up close. Ultrafast limb movements so she can jump really well, punch and kick really hard. Shia is a budget version of Evie, electrical control. His power should bounce off us due to the level difference but he¡¯s the one who shorts out peoples nervous systems to make them easy kills for the Cullers. His internal monologue is really out there. If you want a stereotypical villain, asshole, psycho murderer. His thoughts are¡­ fucked up.¡± ¡°So they¡¯re all evil?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Nah. Shia is tapped in the head. Alex is just following his big brother. Sarah went through some shit and ended up crazy but she tries to do the right thing when she thinks she can. She doesn¡¯t like what they do. Harold is in love with her and goes where she goes. It¡¯s a right mess, guys. But they¡¯re feeding people to the Cullers to try and keep it off the radar.¡± Chapter 199 - A swarm of pugs? Harold was pulling the wagons with his ability. There were no ghostly horses or oxen or conjured vehicles. The man floated along ahead of the carts and they followed him like baby ducks in a row. They were making good time, fifteen miles an hour or so and they¡¯d been on the road before the sun came up. ¡°Anything nearby?¡± called Jonas from a perch on the leading wagon. ¡°Nothing that¡¯s worth worrying about,¡± replied Kev from where he was jogging along next to the lead cart. Ryn was orbiting them in the sky in between taking breaks on the last cart to regenerate her reserves. She didn¡¯t need to but it helped maintain the illusion the team was a lot lower level than they actually were. ¡°I will send out some summons to provide cover on the flanks, in case anything slips past Jim,¡± offered Armand. Hundreds of pugs sprang up from the ground around him and began bolting into the scrub lining the road with happy yips. ¡°A swarm of pugs? Really Jean?¡± demanded Jumper as she watched the dogs scatter out to run along the road ahead of the carts. ¡°What could you miss?¡± She was resting on top of a crate at the back of the leading wagon but keeping a vigilant eye out. Her head was constantly scanning back and forth as she watched the horizon and any bush or tree that provided cover close to the road. Armand shrugged. ¡°They are cute, non?¡± he smiled as he ran next to Kev. The woman snorted and resumed scanning the edges of the trees a hundred feet from the road. ¡°We¡¯ve got some critters coming up on the left. Kat?¡± called Kev. ¡°On it!¡± Ryn leapt down from the cart and into a flat sprint, outpacing the racing wagons. As soon as she was far enough away from the cart she launched herself into the sky on columns of fire, shooting ahead of the group. She found the monsters, little cockroach-like things that were swarming out of a hole in the ground, attracted by the rumble of the rapidly moving cart wheels. She fell into a holding pattern, circling above the nest and raining fire down. The beasts couldn¡¯t reach her and her actinic flames cut through them, leaving them as carbonised shells that crumbled in the wind. She paid some extra attention to the nest¡¯s entrance, reducing the dirt around it to glowing magma before she was satisfied and flew back over. She landed gracefully a little ahead of the wagons and leapt up to resume her spot at the rear as the wheels clattered past her. ¡°Sorted!¡± she said brightly. ¡°You guys are wasted here!¡± chuckled Alex. He was bounding along on strangely distended legs behind the last cart. ¡°We¡¯re worth the money,¡± called Andrea from the other side of the carts to Kev and Armand where she was watching their left flank. ¡°Maybe. What if we run into a Reaver?¡± sneered Harold from up front. ¡°Depends on their level. We¡¯re not stupid. Can¡¯t spend the pay if you¡¯re dead, ya know?¡± replied Kev. ¡°So you¡¯d run?¡± barked Jonas. ¡°You aren¡¯t paying us to die. There¡¯s no way we¡¯ll run into a Reaver anyway. This is Wayfaire¡¯s territory after all. They don¡¯t fuck about when it comes to those bastards,¡± called Kev. ¡°I need a break.¡± He leapt up onto the second wagon, landing on the bench the driver would normally use and stretched out his legs before pulling them in close and rubbing his calves. ¡°You sure about that?¡± asked Jumper, still scanning the surroundings like an automated turret. ¡°From what we¡¯ve heard Wayfaire¡¯s land is some of the safest on Earth as far as Reavers go. They¡¯re tied to the Beastfolk pretty tightly, right?¡± said Armand. ¡°Those monkey-fuckers don¡¯t like monster hunters!¡± agreed Jumper as she glanced down and clenched one fist. ¡°Do you have a history with them?¡± asked Kev. ¡°Not that they¡¯d remember. Watch your fucking section!¡± Jumper sneered. ¡°Ok! Sheesh! Didn¡¯t mean to poke an old wound! Those pricks don¡¯t like folks like us either,¡± Kev offered, although he knew exactly what had happened to the woman as well as what she¡¯d done to warrant it. ¡°Kat and I did a fair bit of unsanctioned hunting last year down south in the UK.¡± Jumper glowered at him before spitting over the side of the wagon, causing Alex to curse as he dodged the saliva. ¡°I don¡¯t trust your senses. I¡¯m going to have a look for myself,¡± she muttered, leaping down before hurling herself into the sky with a massive jump. ¡°Guess we know how she got the nickname!¡± said Andrea as she watched Jumper bouncing along, leaping hundreds of feet into the air each time before slamming down and throwing up a cloud of dust only to erupt upwards again a moment later. ¡°She¡¯s good at her job,¡± barked Alex, his face slightly distended giving him the appearance of almost having a snout. ¡°Can you do a full transformation?¡± asked Ryn, leaning back against a rattling crate. ¡°No,¡± Alex replied curtly. They knew he was lying, Kev had briefed the team on their ¡°allies¡± capabilities. ¡°How the hell are your casters keeping up?¡± he asked suspiciously. ¡°I¡¯m knackered after five hours and I¡¯m a bruiser!¡± ¡°We all took physical enhancement for the class one pick. We¡¯re a lot faster and stronger than we should be but we¡¯ll need to rest soon,¡± said Armand. ¡°Speaking of which, I¡¯m going to take a break and catch my breath!¡± He leapt up and joined Kev on the middle cart.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Something to eat?¡± he asked, offering sandwiches he pulled from his storage around. He tossed one to Ryn who caught it deftly and began eating. ¡°I¡¯ll take one,¡± said Jonas from the front wagon. Another throw and Jonas fumbled the catch, picking the wrapped snack up from the floor of the cart where it landed before unwrapping it and biting down. ¡°Good stuff! Is this puck meat?¡± he mumbled loudly. ¡°Oui. No point slumming it if you don¡¯t have to, correct?¡± Armand laughed. This was going too well, as far as Ryn could tell they had instantly inserted themselves into a criminal enterprise without any problems. She was quietly convinced that Jumper and Harold being so stand-offish was a ploy by Kev. It is. I¡¯m limiting my influence. If they all just started acting like robots with us they¡¯d resist and maybe break free. Mind control isn¡¯t a straightforward process. By letting Sarah and Harold act on their doubts, at least a little, it makes it easier to control all of them. At this point I¡¯m hardly doing anything. You know the phrase ¡®train of thought¡¯? People are like trains if their thoughts are on rails and most people, I¡¯m sorry to say, are always on rails. Ryn blinked at the telepathic message and hurriedly finished up her sandwich. The implications of Kev¡¯s ability were terrifying to her. If he went bad he would be incredibly dangerous. Then help keep me on the straight and narrow mate. The fact that he could hear her doubts and worries wasn¡¯t making dealing with the new reality any easier. ¡°How long until we camp?¡± called Armand. Harold orbited back to hover over the lead cart, maintaining the pace despite no longer looking where he was going. His face was lined with concentration but his eyes were arrogant as he looked down on his passengers. ¡°Another couple of hours. Then we should arrive sometime tomorrow morning. No point pushing through the night for this gear,¡± he sneered. ¡°If you¡¯re ok to keep going we¡¯re all good!¡± called Armand as he leapt down and began running along. ¡°I¡¯ll lighten the load for you a bit!¡± he joked. ¡°What¡¯s up with your pug swarm?¡± demanded Harold. ¡°How do they help?¡± ¡°They¡¯ll get very noisy if they stumble on something dangerous, of course,¡± the boy replied. ¡°They can¡¯t fight?¡± asked Jonas. ¡°You can¡¯t see through their eyes or any shit like that?¡± ¡°Non. Just distractions but very effective ones. I know if one gets ¡®killed¡¯, that is all.¡± Let them probe us for information about our abilities. We¡¯ll be met tomorrow by the Cullers while we¡¯re on the road. This is the normal process for them, Kev sent to them all. Yes, the rest of the team is in position. No, I don¡¯t think the Cullers are going to be any problem. We¡¯ll have the drop on them. Anything else? Kev was clearly reading the questions in his friends minds and answering them as they were formed. Ryn found that even creepier than the pseudo-telepathy of their implants or the teamchat function. ¡°Where are we making camp?¡± asked Ryn as Harold spun to face forwards along the road again and moved back up to fly ahead of the carts. ¡°Safe place we know. A little off the beaten path but don¡¯t worry about that. We¡¯ve got some monitors to keep watch over night so there¡¯s no need to take shifts,¡± Jonas called. ¡°Any objections to us keeping a watch anyway?¡± asked Kev. Jonas shrugged. ¡°None at all. If you don¡¯t need the sleep you¡¯re welcome to stay up.¡± The conversation lapsed for a while. Ryn did the occasional orbit of their path while Armand and Kev continued to run. Andrea took a break at the same time as Alex, sitting in the rear wagon and joking with each other. Alex seemed like the most agreeable member of this gang, just a simple guy who liked to laugh. His laugh had a chuffing sound to it that only reinforced his faintly canine appearance. Eventually Jumper came bounding back down the road ahead of them and landed near a cart that she jumped up onto carefully as it rumbled onwards. ¡°Good trip?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Nothing ahead,¡± Jumper called to Jonas. Ryn was confused by the woman. She had seemed one of the more friendly people at the meeting yesterday, now she was tense and rude. She was like claws down a blackboard personified, setting everyone else on edge by her presence. Ryn shrugged at being ignored and settled back to stare at the sky as the clouds scudded past above them. Moving like this felt so antiquated. The portals, the airship networks, people with storage spaces who could run at a hundred miles an hour¡­ this was deliberately inefficient. You¡¯re right. They could do this a lot more efficiently. Jonas has a storage space that could fit all three carts. They do this run to hook people like us. Or who they think we are, at any rate, Kev sent. How many times? She thought back at him. On this run, we¡¯re the third group. They¡¯ve done something similar in half a dozen places in the UK and across Europe. Do two or three runs to feed some local Cullers then move on to avoid suspicion. Most of the team changes when they move on. Usually because they kill them. Jonas, Alex and Sarah are the core team. They¡¯re going to kill Harold and Shia? What about Jake? Ryn thought. Shia, who has been sleeping the whole run so far, isn¡¯t reliable. Harold is a convenience but he¡¯s unstable. He wants to be a Culler himself but this shadow society doesn¡¯t like wannabes. So you know where all the Cullers are and how they stay in touch? No Ryn. Too many cutouts. There are people like Jake in various places who know the local cult and serve as intermediaries. I¡¯ve got enough to wrap up half a dozen of the bastards but that looks like it¡¯s a drop in the bucket. The cults have had to adapt as a result of War and Life coming down on them. Ryn leaned back and thought about the implications. This was the tip of the iceberg. Dozens, hundreds of these psychos were getting smart and learning to operate their murder gangs in the shadows and avoid the consequences of a Monarch catching up with them. Not all. Death and Magic have largely stamped the cults out. Liberty has scared the shit out of them and they¡¯ve bolted from North America. Europe and South America are infested with them though. Hopefully we can crack the organisation open and put an end to it, Kev sent from where he maintained a steady run that would have been inhumanely fast before the Advent. Ryn blinked slowly at the clouds. She very much hoped they could make a difference on this job. After France she had struggled with the idea of killing people. Monsters were fine but having murdered, in self defence no doubt, so many people she had been left confused and conflicted. Even worse she had enjoyed it at the time, that sense of power and accomplishment as she had won. That had left her sick to her stomach, rather than the act itself. A thread of fear wormed its way into her heart as she began to understand why the Cullers did what they did. Kev stumbled and cursed before catching his rhythm again and shooting his friend a worried look. Chapter 200 - Plan B The campsite was in a depression half a mile off the road, shielded from the road and the sky by a copse of trees. Armand had set up his little cottage with some difficulty, having to create a weirdly shaped property that fitted around the bases of the trunks. They¡¯d had a tense evening, eating and sleeping separately from Jonas¡¯ team. The few interactions they¡¯d had were cordial, the tension of being on the road having faded. Ryn and her friends had turned in early and after a brief discussion of plans for the next day they¡¯d gone to their beds and gotten some fitful sleep. ¡°Morning,¡± yawned Ryn as she poured herself a cup of bluejuice. ¡°Urgh, how can you drink that at this time in the morning?¡± muttered Armand as he made coffee for himself and Andrea. ¡°How can you drink that stuff? Caffeine is bad for you!¡± scowled Kev as he also helped himself to fruit juice. ¡°Anything from our friends?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Nothing new.¡± Kev shrugged. ¡°The targets will try and hit us on the road this morning. We can expect the three Cullers who¡¯ll be supported by Jonas¡¯ people.¡± ¡°So nothing to worry about then?¡± Ryn grinned. ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky. We need to take this seriously.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon Kev, my summons can take them all down solo!¡± scoffed Armand. ¡°Kev¡¯s right, we should treat this like a run through the hive on Mars. We¡¯re under test conditions and need to excel,¡± said Andrea. ¡°Yeah, ok. Still seems like a joke. We¡¯ve got another six level forty ones in position to support but it¡¯s best to play it safe,¡± Ryn said sarcastically. ¡°I swear Jane is a bad influence on you,¡± Kev grumbled as he grabbed some toast and began buttering it. Once they¡¯d eaten they tidied away and prepared to face the day. ¡°We all good? Anyone need the loo?¡± asked Ryn. She received flat stares. Her dad¡¯s habit of checking if people needed the toilet before a fight was well known. Kev pushed the door open and ducked down to step out into a bright autumn morning. The leaves were just turning golden and while it was still too warm for frost but dew lay thick on the grass. ¡°Morning, How long is it going to take to pack up that thing?¡± asked Jumper, waving at the misshapen cottage. Armand winked at her and the building dissolved. ¡°Not long, mon amis,¡± he replied with a smirk. ¡°Good. We¡¯ll be on the road in ten minutes. Send out your scouts. Kat, if you want to do a quick orbit feel free. Jim, anything in range?¡± Kev made a show of glancing around, narrowing his eyes in concentration before he shrugged. ¡°There¡¯s some travellers heading south that we¡¯ll bump into in a few hours, no monsters of note anywhere nearby. There¡¯s a few low level critters but they¡¯ll run from us if they¡¯ve got any sense of self preservation at all,¡± he replied. ¡°Ha! Monsters that run? Where have you been? They never fucking run,¡± Alex called bitterly. ¡°They do sometimes,¡± muttered Andrea. ¡°Well let¡¯s get our shit together and get on the road,¡± called Jonas as he began packing his stuff onto the back of the rear cart. A few minutes later they were back on the road, rocking along at twenty miles an hour as Harold pulled the carts in a line behind him. ¡°So, you guys sleep well?¡± asked Ryn after she got back from a quick orbit and settled into the middle cart. ¡°Would have been nicer if you''d have kept me warm in the night,¡± called Harold with a throaty laugh. ¡°I¡¯m fifteen you perv!¡± she barked back. Harold glanced over his shoulder and shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve had younger,¡± he smirked. Ok so he isn¡¯t on the ¡®take them alive¡¯ list, Ryn thought to herself. Kev glanced over and nodded once. They rattled along for another hour, peaceful greenery passing them by, before Jonas stood up and waved at Harold to slow down. ¡°What for?¡± the floating man demanded. ¡°Need to go carefully here. We might not be alone,¡± Jonas replied. ¡°We are,¡± said Kev firmly. ¡°The travellers ahead are still a few miles out. What¡¯s got you spooked?¡± Jonas scowled at Kev and opened his mouth to snap back before closing it with a clop sound. ¡°There¡¯ve been flights out of Wayfaire passing by. Unusual ones. Can you detect BME drones?¡± His voice was laced with acid. ¡°No, I can¡¯t. I can detect people controlling them though and there¡¯s nothing suspicious for fifty miles,¡± Kev shrugged. ¡°Fifty miles eh? That¡¯s an impressive range,¡± said Jumper casually. ¡°It all gets a bit fuzzy that far out but I¡¯d know if someone was planning anything against my interests,¡± Kev added, carefully avoiding rushing through the explanation. ¡°Well I¡¯ve got access to other sources of intel. My sources say we need to go carefully here so Harry; slow it right down to walking speed,¡± Jonas ordered. With a series of muttered complaints and foul language the carts stopped rushing along and began to move at about three miles an hour. ¡°This¡¯ll take forever! We should be at Kirkycud by lunchtime but we won¡¯t fucking get there today at this rate!¡± snarled Alex, his face distending into a snout as he became frustrated.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. He¡¯s acting. He has perfect control of his transformation. Something is off. You all need to be ready, Kev sent to the entire team, including their aces in the hole stashed a mile away around a very small fire. What are you getting from Jonas? Andrea replied, Kev relaying it to the team. That something is wrong. This wasn¡¯t part of the deal but he¡¯s received some new instructions. No info, just a message to slow down and brace. I think we might be rumbled folks, Kev replied. The team all stretched out on their carts and tried to look as relaxed as possible. Some were more successful than others. Armand summoned a series of purple butterflies and focussed on having them perform aerobatics above his head. ¡°We¡¯ll get there sooner or later. What¡¯s the rush?¡± Jonas said. Andrea had visibly tensed up but at a gentle nudge from Kev she relaxed. Ryn had managed to keep herself under control and didn¡¯t react at all. ¡°Well we¡¯re paid a flat fee, not by the hour so the longer it takes the worse it is for us,¡± called Armand as butterflies formed intricate patterns above him. ¡°You¡¯ll get a bonus,¡± Jonas ground out. Time dragged by second by second. Seconds stretched into minutes that felt like hours as the team feigned nonchalance. It began with an undignified squawk as a chain flew out of some bushes and snared Kev, throwing him to the ground, unable to move his arms. Andrea was the first to react, blurring into motion and slamming into Alex running alongside her. She knocked him over with a shoulder and viciously kicked him in the head twice before rushing at Jumper. Jumper had pivoted and launched a lightning fast kick at Ryn who vanished before it could connect. A moment later Ryn was in the sky in her fire form and she reached out to the little fire her other friends had been gathered around. Being able to see out of fire was an ability her mum had always neglected but in this case it allowed her to obviate the line of sight requirements for her teleport ability. A giant hound appeared ahead of the carts and grew to a monstrous size, sprouting extra heads and tails. As Simon crouched next to Kev he began converting the chain tangling the boy into sand, a moment later they both rose to their feet and glared around. Kev began snapping out telepathic orders but they were largely unnecessary. Jane had already commenced bombing runs, leaving burning brush behind as she overflew the sites the initial attacks had come from. Graceful machines flowed out of the fire, largely unharmed if a little charred. Ryn immediately took them apart by shrouding parts of them in fire and blipping them to pieces. ¡°Shit! Plan B!¡± yelled Jonas as he accelerated away to the north. Alex shook his now shaggy mane out and began loping along on all fours. Jumper leapt upwards, aiming to cross paths with Ryn in the air, both fists extended in front of her body as it rocketed upwards. Ryn blipped to the side and the startled woman continued a nearly vertical trajectory. Collars that had been hidden in their backpacks and on their belts came out and began slapping closed. Harold had started fighting for altitude as soon as things went sideways but Ryn appeared behind him and the wrist blade on her right arm slid out. A flicker of movement later and his head and his body fell to the ground separately. The Shia hadn¡¯t been sleeping, it seemed he hadn¡¯t been sleeping at all on the journey. He flashed into electricity and blurred towards Kev and Simon. Kev flinched back but Simon casually pulled something from his pocket and gently tossed it to intercept the line of the lightning-man. There was a fat spark and a stink of ozone as Shia¡¯s normal body tumbled to a stop at his feet. He casually bent down and clipped a collar around the lightning-users neck. Ryn glared up at the still vanishing form of Jumper before disappearing. ¡°You sure messed up didn¡¯t you?¡± she asked as she blipped along to keep pace with Sarah. ¡°Who the fuck are you people?¡± snarled Jumper as she pivoted in the air to face the girl. ¡°Dealing with people like the Cullers has a long and glorious history in my family. They were called Scunners back then.¡± Jumper went pale and began thrashing her limbs to change her direction but Ryn wrapped her in fire and blipped her to change the woman¡¯s momentum to drag her back to earth. Jumper shot straight down towards the dirt with a scream, trailing smoke and the scent of burnt meat behind her. Ryn blipped down, and slapped a collar around her throat before bringing her to a less than gentle landing. Jumper appeared gasping for breath then gagged as she found herself facing Harold''s head that was staring sightlessly into her eyes. She vomited and began scrabbling at the collar as her feet dug into the soft earth to push her away from the macabre trophy. More mechanical fighting machines dug themselves out of the dirt on either side of the road and began rushing in towards the carts. Bad and Sally intercepted them, brutally crushing the devices into the soil. ¡°The Cullers are running. They aren¡¯t waiting for Jonas. Ryn, collar him then bring us all up to have a chat with our buyers,¡± called Kev as he reached out with his mind. Over a mile away Jonas stopped moving and crashed to the ground, throwing up a trail of dust as he decelerated from somewhere around sixty miles an hour to zero on his face. Kev winced at the flash of pain but Ryn appeared over the man a second later and collared him. Kev tracked his friend''s mind as she moved ahead, zeroing in on the Cullers who were moving at breakneck speed back towards their base outside Kirkcudbright. He gave her directions as needed and a warning. He couldn¡¯t interfere with their minds. They must be shielded by some ability or tech that blocked him. He could still borrow their senses and he felt the rush of fear go through them as a figure of fire appeared in the sky ahead of them, bringing them to a stumbling halt. The rest of the team began appearing below Ryn and he felt a moment of profound disorientation as he suddenly found he was looking at himself from someone else''s eyes. He decoupled from the lead Cullers senses and shook his head to clear it. Even as Kev was gathering his thoughts Bad and Sally leapt forward only to be met with an equal fight. The three villains were capable close combat fighters and managed to fend the pair of them off despite the level difference. ¡°They¡¯ve jumped up in levels. They¡¯re forty now. Ryn, collar them if you can!¡± sent Kev on the team comm channel. Ryn vanished and began a game of cat and mouse. Everytime time she appeared behind one of them they would spin to dodge or pivot to lash out, forcing her away. As Andrea joined the melee fighters it became easier. Three vs three leaned the odds back in Ignitions favour and the rest of the team joined in to increase their odds even further. Bolf was leaping around, incorporeal and distracting them at the same time as Armands summoned butterflies began getting in their eyes and noses. Within a few seconds the first one left enough of an opening for Ryn to collar him, then his companions fell in quick succession. ¡°Eat shit!¡± snarled one of them as they snatched something from their belt and threw it at their feet. Ryn blipped back as fire blossomed from the vial the man had thrown down. The rest of the team leapt back as the green flames rose up but Ryn immediately quashed the burning. As she blipped back in she saw all three of them were shaking and frothing at the mouth. ¡°Claire!¡± Ryn called, blipping the timid girl close, ¡°Help them!¡± Not needing any further prompting Claire rushed forward and laid a hand on one of the Cullers. The woman had brown hair, cut short and her eyes were arctic blue as she thrashed back and forth. As soon as Claire laid a hand on her she calmed and became still. ¡°I can¡¯t cure it! All I can do is contain the poison,¡± she called as she laid another hand on the suicidal Culler. ¡°What about the others?¡± asked Kev as he hurried over with the rest of the team. ¡°Already too far gone. Another couple of¡­ nope. There they go. I¡¯ll keep this one alive until we can get her back to Wayfaire. This will need the Dragon. She needs modifying to be resistant to whatever this stuff is. I can¡¯t stop it. It must be some kind of alchemy or something!¡± ¡°Keep her stable. Bob¡¯s got an egg and some drones inbound. We can air lift her back to Wayfaire the easy way, without charbroiling her!¡± Kev glanced at Ryn who shrugged then grinned. The adrenaline of the fight was still running strong in the girl. ¡°Ryn, Go grab the rest of the assholes who made it will you? Relatively cool flames for when you teleport them please?¡± Ryn nodded and vanished. ¡°Well that was a bust. I only got to burn some bloody trees!¡± complained Jane as she landed next to Kev, carefully making sure her jets of flame didn¡¯t get too close to the others. ¡°It went pretty well considering we got ambushed. What were those drones? Hijacked BME gear?¡± asked Simon. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. I think they were North American tech,¡± said Andrea softly. ¡°Ah shit. Belisarius.¡± said Jane. Chapter 201 - Maybe we should be more proactive? Ryn stood and stared in silence as a dragon bent down to glower at a prisoner only kept alive by Claire constantly healing the damage the poison she had taken was doing. The woman''s muscles had withered, her limbs were now stick thin, her skin sallow and a sickly yellow colour. She had long since lapsed into unconsciousness, drool marking the top of her tunic where it had dribbled from the sides of her mouth. The light green cloth was stained dark to either side of her throat. ¡°I am losing this battle. She won¡¯t last much longer. The rot has spread to her major organs and I can¡¯t hold it back. It¡¯s adapting to everything I try like it¡¯s alive,¡± Claire grunted as the dragon delicately extended a four foot claw to rest gently on the prone woman''s neck. ¡°Interesting. Shelly?¡± rumbled the giant beast. ¡°Yes Maker?¡± One of the resident Shelly¡¯s skittered forwards and turned her multiple eyes up towards Pete. ¡°Can you sample this?¡± Another claw bent down from the paw held at the woman''s throat. It bent awkwardly and plunged carefully into her chest, coming back out coated with a mix of red blood and blue brown ooze. ¡°That wasn¡¯t helpful,¡± muttered Claire as sweat broke out on her forehead. Shelly leaned forward and delicately placed her mandibles around the sample. Ryn fought down an urge to gag. Some of the others present lacked her self control. Jane wretched and turned away. Andrea became even paler, her usually dusky skin fading to the colour of milk. Kev narrowed his eyes and managed to control himself. The others all made disgusted faces, the spider made a faint slurping sound as she stripped the sample from the claw before clicking her mandibles together. ¡°Interesting. A biotoxin keyed to the person who took it. This is powerful stuff, Maker,¡± Shelly offered thoughtfully in her scratchy voice. ¡°That is my view as well,¡± rumbled the dragon. ¡°I could make something like this but I would never have thought to. The risk of mutation¡­ Claire would kill me!¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t but I will if you don¡¯t save her!¡± muttered the healer. ¡°Not you, my sister is also called Claire. I am not sure I can save this woman. Not as she is anyway,¡± replied Pete sadly. ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked a Bob-bot standing to one side. ¡°The toxin has avoided her mind so far, for some reason I cannot explain. If we remove the head and attach it to another body we should be able to rouse her back to consciousness and get some answers.¡± ¡°Do it,¡± said Bob at the same time as Claire and the rest of Ryn¡¯s team recoiled in horror. ¡°What? No way!¡± were among the mildest of the exclamations that echoed around the large chamber. ¡°Shelly, can you have some biomass brought here quickly please?¡± asked Pete. The human sized door at the far end of the room opened and worker drones, two metre long woodlice with flat backs and their sides lined with flickering tentacles moved in, laden down with, for lack of a better phrase, undifferentiated meat products. ¡°Already on the way,¡± replied Shelly doing a little tap dance, pleased to have anticipated Pete¡¯s request. As the nightmarish servitors deposited their payload behind the dragon, its tail uncurled and touched the pile of flesh. A silver mist covered the pile and the tail looped around the thing it had transformed the meat into. The headless body of a young woman was pulled clear as the mist dissipated. The neck was a gory blank, like a chopped steak, but nothing dripped out as the tail moved the replicant over to the dying woman and laid it gently down next to her. ¡°Claire, I¡¯ll need you to act quickly. Shelly will sever the head precisely. We will have about 90 seconds before irrevocable brain damage sets in due to lack of oxygen. This body is a perfect clone of the original so there will be no risk of rejection, I need you to make the nervous and blood vessel connections as quickly as possible,¡± said Pete. Claire swallowed audibly and nodded jerkily. ¡°I can do that.¡± ¡°Thank you. Shelly, when Claire gives you the word, make the cut.¡± The giant spider pivoted, her legs clattering on the stone floor as she pivoted to bring her many eyes to focus on the teenager. Claire nodded again, more confidently this time and the spider skittered forwards. One limb flashed out, slicing cleanly across the neck. Blood began to spill but the head had been grabbed by a pseudopod of flesh growing from the dragons palm. The Cullers mouth hung open as it was lifted and positioned carefully over the vacant neck of the replicant. Claire rushed round and laid one hand on the forehead, another on a naked shoulder. The flesh at the throat began to knit together as Claire frowned in concentration. Thirty seconds later she stepped back at the same moment the eyes on the recently disembodied head snapped open.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. ¡°Shit!¡± Claire leapt back as the replicant lurched into a sitting position and emitted a horrified wail. ¡°Why? I have to die! Let me go!¡± An armoured paw the size of a car gently pushed her back onto the table. More raving and screaming came from the transplanted woman until silver mist flowed over her and she fell silent. ¡°Kevin, did you get a copy of her?¡± asked Bob. ¡°Yes. She¡¯s insane. She¡¯s been tinkered with,¡± replied the lanky boy. Ryn turned to stare at him and he grimaced at her shocked expression. ¡°Why did you copy her?¡± Ryn demanded. ¡°In case she found some other way to self terminate,¡± Kev replied softly. ¡°Self terminate? You¡¯re spending too much time with Bob!¡± she snapped. ¡°I spend less time with Bob than almost anyone else. He¡¯s a closed book to me,¡± said Kev. ¡°She¡¯s been programmed to end her life if she is captured and it includes a mental self-destruct. She was driving herself mad before you put her down. She¡¯d been forced to do that. Whoever was in her head was powerful. At least as strong as me but with some really nasty modifications to be able to do this,¡± he waved at the now peaceful looking woman. ¡°Did you get anything useful?¡± asked Bob quickly. The dragon settled down onto its haunches, forcing the rest of Ryn¡¯s team to back away slightly. ¡°Maybe. It¡¯ll take me some time to get much out of her. She was already mental before the trigger kicked in. Can you modify her brain?¡± Kev looked up at the dragon staring down with red-gold eyes at him. ¡°Perhaps. I can prevent emotional responses, limit neurotransmitter production and a few other tricks but I suspect that would only slow the process down, correct?¡± replied Pete. ¡°Probably. Shit, it¡¯s like having an angry wasp in my mind! She¡¯s buzzing against the barriers!¡± grumbled Kev as he raised his hands to his temples. ¡°What about the tech?¡± asked the dragon, pivoting to look at the Bob-bot. ¡°Belisarius¡¯ gear, like we thought. Hard to prove but I suspect he was remotely controlling the drones in the ambush. Best to assume that, anyway.¡± ¡°Why assume, Bob? Let¡¯s go ask the bastard!¡± called Jane from the back of the group of observers. ¡°Because he is dangerous. He¡¯s got a Samson option and if we push him too far before we can neutralise that threat it will get messy,¡± said Pete. He sighed, a whuff of air flowing from his fang filled maw that ruffled the hair of everyone in the room. ¡°Can you prove it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s definitely his tech. Whether he was controlling it? Impossible. We have to assume he was, that he is involved in the Culler network in a significant way and that we can no longer play the long game.¡± ¡°So we¡¯re blown?¡± asked Andrea quietly. ¡°The Cullers know it¡¯s us after them? What about our families?¡± ¡°The Cullers can¡¯t get to Mars. Your families, those who are still on earth at any rate, will have to stay off world for now but they¡¯re safe as can be. There¡¯s no point in any more undercover missions. Shit. I¡¯d hoped we¡¯d get a few more done and have a better idea of the network before it came to this,¡± grumbled the drone. ¡°How will you move against Belisarius?¡± asked Pete. "No bloody idea. If the rest of the team was here it would be easy enough. Overwhelming force had a quality all of its own but we don¡¯t have that.¡± ¡°What about the Monarchs? Why not get whatever info we get to War? He¡¯s got a zero tolerance policy on people farming people,¡± offered Armand. ¡°We wanted to deal with this in house. Make a point that the Monarchs are great and all but we can still sort out our own shit,¡± said Bob. ¡°So it¡¯s pride? There¡¯s a network of organised mass murderers farming humans for Essence, being way slicker than the Scunners could ever have dreamed of and we won¡¯t get help because it might hurt our egos?¡± barked Simon angrily. ¡°I¡¯m going to talk to the Church. They¡¯ll help and they¡¯ll get Life and War and probably Liberty involved.¡± ¡°Not yet, kid. Ascension already knows what we were up to. They co-signed the op. Just because you¡¯re part of Wayfaire now doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯ve abandoned you and Claire. No, we need to be clever about this but I¡¯m buggered if I can think of the right move,¡± snapped Bob. ¡°What¡¯s happening at their base?¡± asked Bad. ¡°The Culler¡¯s base?¡± asked Bob, Bad nodded in reply. ¡°We¡¯re stripping it down. All the electronics are clean, they had monthly scans of the Bob-net that were delivered by chip to stay current. All other messages were delivered by hand. Or by drone. That Yankee prick is really starting to piss me off,¡± the drone grumbled. ¡°Maybe we should be more proactive?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Why hide what we¡¯re doing? The Carnival is off-world so why doesn¡¯t Ignition step up and fill that vacuum?¡± ¡°You¡¯re human children!¡± chittered Shelly in a scandalised tone. ¡°Let my children fill that gap. They are replaceable!¡± ¡°Your children are replac- you know what nevermind,¡± said Simon. ¡°Replaceable! They aren¡¯t capable of the divine spark! We have millions of soldiers ready to deploy right now!¡± the spider replied. ¡°Dammit Shelly. That isn¡¯t the kind of information we want spread about,¡± growled the dragon. The giant spider winced, almost curling up as her legs contracted beneath her main body. ¡°Sorry Maker! Shelly is sorry!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± A taloned forepaw descended gently onto the spider and rested across its carapace. ¡°These good kids won¡¯t be leaking any secrets, I¡¯m sure.¡± A red-gold glare passed over the teenagers who hurriedly nodded. ¡°So if we¡¯ve got millions -really? Shit!- millions of nagas and whatever other monsters you¡¯ve cooked up, why are we screwing about larping as mercs?¡± demanded Armand. ¡°You can only use a secret weapon once, boy,¡± growled the dragon. Armand, brave and childish, was wise enough on this occasion not to argue with the titanic lizard. ¡°They aren¡¯t meant to be used against human elements. Like Bob¡¯s drones they kind of suck at fighting people. The level difference doesn¡¯t protect them.¡± ¡°They aren¡¯t monsters!¡± hissed Shelly, spinning to narrow a multitude of eyes at the boy who blanched. ¡°My children are meant to face the real monsters and the void but if humans turn into monsters -killing humans!- then my children will protect the Makers species!¡± ¡°Easy Shelly! He didn¡¯t mean it like that,¡± an eye the size of a dinner plate narrowed briefly at Armand who nodded vigorously. ¡°We might need to look into deploying more of our resources in the near future though.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got the Necklace up and running. It needs some massive refits to install the improvements I¡¯ve gotten from the Hagrutship¡¯s schematics. We¡¯ll have voidliners of our own within a couple of years. In the meantime we need to focus on Earth and dealing with the renegades, Cullers and Reavers. I think we are going to have to talk to the Monarchs,¡± said the Bob-bot. Chapter 202 - My planet, thanks very much ¡°So what do you think John? Asked the Bob-bot. ¡°Ah thank Christ!¡± all eyes pivoted to Reg. ¡°Whut? I was worried ye¡¯d ask me first.¡± The team had appeared near a purple sea. The coast stretched away to both sides behind them, weirdly coloured waves lapping softly against the pink sand. ¡°Well it¡¯s pretty enough?¡± offered John with a mechanical shrug. With the alien coast behind them they were faced with a vast plain of pink, grey and black that gradually rose up to mountains in the far distance. Evie scuffed her armoured foot, throwing a shower of pink sand a couple of metres ahead of her. They hadn¡¯t had the option of choosing their own deployment site this time. After another four months of boredom and cards with the Shrell they¡¯d received ten minutes notice before the system teleported them off the ship and down to a moon of MW-537 to clear a continent infested with void monsters. MW-537 was a gas giant and it loomed large in the sky above, partially eclipsed by a series of debris rings orbiting its equator. The brown and blue giant cast an eerie light across the land they had been sent to conquer. The briefing had included a short description of the history of the planet. A sentient species of slug-like things had been inducted into the system, survived their waves but had fallen to the Void. They had been sent to wipe them all out. ¡°Can we just nuke it?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Dad can drop some, Vic can toast it, the rest of us will do our bits and then we can all go home for tea, crumpets and medals.¡± ¡°I guess?¡± replied John. I don¡¯t have any custom rocks here. I¡¯ll have to rip chunks out of the surface.¡± ¡°Are you really worried about damaging the planet we¡¯ve been sent here to slag?¡± asked Vic, one eyebrow raised. Her face was hidden in her heavy outer armour but her tone made it clear an eyebrow had been elevated. ¡°Um-¡± John began but Bob cut him off. ¡°We should try and preserve the world if we can, so no really big rocks John. I¡¯ve got an idea you¡¯ll like but we need to at least keep the moon intact.¡± ¡°What the hell for?¡± grumbled Reg. ¡°There is no need to destroy unless we have to! I agree with the robot!¡± chimed in Felix. ¡°Robot!¡± echoed Felicity. ¡°What is on your mind tin-man?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a bloody- never mind. We can set up another portal. Drones can come through, probably some of Pete and Shelly¡¯s little pets as well. This could be a permanent extra-solar colony! Imagine the resources, the biological samples- hell even Void tech! We can¡¯t wreck up the place too much!¡± ¡°You would seek to benefit from the Dark? I am not sure I agree with that. We must fight for the light,¡± muttered Felicity. ¡°Know thy enemy, girl,¡± said Reg. ¡°So we can¡¯t blow up the moon to get this done quick. John, what¡¯re your magic eyes seeing?¡± John scowled but twisted his vision to see clearly. He narrowed his perception the the hundred or so miles in front of him and his scowl became a grimace. ¡°It¡¯s like an ant hive. Those surface structures-¡± he waved at the dark grey towers looming out of the arid plain, ¡°-are the tip of the iceberg. It¡¯s all one huge nest connected underground. There¡¯s bloody millions of the things crawling about under the surface. They won¡¯t go near the water for some reason, the nest starts about ten miles from the coast.¡± ¡°So we¡¯ve got a safe beachhead. Get a portal going and we¡¯ll set up proper comms with Earth and bring through some support drones,¡± Bob laughed, rubbing his metal hands together in anticipation of an entire world to exploit. Doris towered behind them, shoulder mounted cannons and launch tubes tracking slowly back and forth as Bob pulled data from John¡¯s senses. The sight was profoundly reassuring. There wasn¡¯t much outside of very high level enemies that could rush them. Having your back to the sea was great in a way but it also meant they had very few options if they did need to retreat. John reached out and twisted, ripping a hole in reality that linked Earth to this place, somewhere that wouldn¡¯t even be a glint in the sky from their homeworld. He glanced at his reserves as they quickly began to tick back up. Being on a new world, infested with an ancient enemy that has had centuries to dig in and being short on reserves left him feeling twitchier than usual. Spider-bots began pouring through the portal, laden down with crates and materials. Bob-prime began moving among the goods being delivered and soon fortified positions were being thrown up with automated weapons coming online and starting to join Doris in her constant vigilance.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°I¡¯ll send some clones to do some recon?¡± offered Sam. ¡°Thanks.¡± A column of B-1945s, outdated models since the tech Bob had stolen from Hagrutship had begun to be incorporated, peeled off and followed the fifty clones of Sam that appeared and began to spread out towards the inland. ¡°The air¡¯s good at least,¡± said Sam. ¡°Having clones suffocate in waves sucked.¡± Raoul reached out and rested a hand on her armoured shoulder for a moment. ¡°So can I get out of this suit and go big?¡± he rumbled. ¡°Sure. Just don¡¯t go stomping around yet,¡± muttered Bob. Raoul¡¯s armour cracked open down the right side and he awkwardly climbed out. As soon as he was clear the armour closed itself and moved over to stand guard by the portal. Raoul grew to half his maximum size, looking like a child next to their mother as he stood next to Doris. His armour and weapons appeared and he began glowering at the blank landscape as well. ¡°We¡¯ve got some movement,¡± called John. He could see slug-like creatures flowing through the subterranean tunnels towards the nearest towers. Some had already come up onto the surface and were fanning out to secure the exit points. ¡°The ones on the surface are only level tens so far. The odd one is a bit higher, up to fifteen but nothing we need to sweat about.¡± ¡°How many?¡± muttered Evie. She was a little nervous that her big hitter, the lightning barrage, would even work on this world. There were no clouds in the sky, either they¡¯d appeared on a remarkably nice day or the water cycle was a bit weird here. ¡°Too many to count. There¡¯s about ten thousand on the surface now.¡± John grumbled. ¡°I need to get some rocks in the air.¡± ¡°Nah, look up ye fecking eejit!¡± scoffed Reg. All eyes turned upwards. ¡°I can¡¯t drop a fucking gas giant on them!¡± ¡°Bloody Sassenach wanker,¡± Reg muttered. ¡°What¡¯s going around the planet above us, ye genius?¡± ¡°Rings? Isn¡¯t that just ice? I¡¯m pretty sure it isn¡¯t as closely packed as you¡¯d expect. It looks solid from a few million miles away but up close it¡¯s all spread out,¡± said Evie. ¡°Go check, Englishman. We¡¯re not going to be swarmed in the next few minutes are we?¡± Reg asked. John checked his reserves. He once again had a comfortable leeway. ¡°Ok. Be right back.¡± John vanished into the sky and moved close to the orbital ring in three quick blips. He stopped well back from the streams of frozen rock and ice so he could watch the stream flowing round the gas giant. He¡¯d never taken the time to blip out to Saturn when he¡¯d been back home but now he wished he had. The plant below occupied almost three quarters of his vision and he began marking points in the orbit where he would pick up the smaller particles flying round at the edge of the ring. He was slightly irritated that Reg hadn¡¯t been totally wrong but either way he now had a bunch of coordinates to use to open portals into the vacuum. He blipped back to his team and shrugged, armour clattering as the pauldrons moved. ¡°No good,¡± he said. ¡°Whut? Did ye even really look?¡± demanded Reg angrily. ¡°Yeah I looked. It should work. It¡¯ll be like turning on a frozen hose or something. I wouldn¡¯t want to be on the receiving end of it but it shouldn¡¯t fuck up the planet too much,¡± John laughed. ¡°My planet, thanks very much,¡± snapped Bob. ¡°Ok. Frozen hose the bastards then!¡± John opened a temporary portal linking the outer band of the rings to one he summoned above them and a few miles in land. He set it up so the ice and rocks flew in one side and erupted into the atmosphere from the side of the portal aimed at the distant towers. It turned out John and Reg had neglected one minor issue. The improvised projectiles retained their momentum. The same momentum that kept them in orbit above the massive gravity well of a gas giant. It was almost impossible to track them as they tore out and battered instantly into the land below them. John tracked the portal upwards, then panned it left and right. Where the beam of matter erupting from the portal hit the ground it flashed into dust and white hot flames. The clouds of steam and particles blasting into the sky like mushroom clouds, quickly obscuring the once clear sky. John snapped the portal shut and a heavy silence fell over the team. ¡°What part of don¡¯t destroy THE FUCKING PLANET WAS I NOT CLEAR ON?¡± screamed a B-3000. ¡°Oops?¡± said John as Vic and Evie began laughing. ¡°Don¡¯t worry love, it was a fixer-upper anyway,¡± Vic chuckled. ¡°It was Reg¡¯s fault, right?¡± Evie giggled. Reg turned to glower at her, forgetting that his face was hidden by his helm. ¡°It feckin¡¯ wasn¡¯t! Not my fault yon John is touched in the head!¡± he complained. ¡°John, can you please confirm how much of my planet you just nuked?¡± said Bob in a tight voice. John looked over the devastation he had accidentally wrought. The impacts had been significant, leaving half mile wide lines cut into the surface where he had tracked the death-beam. Underground structures had collapsed and anything on the surface had been vaporised across a fifty mile swath of the plains. Team Report: Void Creatures killed (various levels): 746310 Essence gained per kill: 0 Total Essence gained per team member: 0 ¡°Well I think I thinned the herd a bit. Kind of surprised I didn¡¯t get anything worth any Essence at all,¡± he muttered. ¡°No Essence for three quarter of a million kills? That¡¯s bullshit! What was that? Did you set the portal to only kill babies or something?¡± Evie complained. ¡°Um¡­ not deliberately?¡± said John. ¡°I don¡¯t think you can get a genocide award from the system for killing little ones, love. It won¡¯t be on your permanent record,¡± said Vic, patting John on the back with a clang. ¡°They are creatures of Darkness and we are on the side of the Light. We can do no evil here, do not trouble yourself with worry for the antithesis of life, Saint,¡± said Felix. ¡°Saint. Anything we do here is good,¡± added Felicity. ¡°I¡¯m not worried about having killed low level Void-things for god''s sake!¡± John snapped. ¡°Then what¡¯s the problem?¡± asked Flash. ¡°I can see their mum. She¡¯s fucking huge and looks really pissed off. I hope Doris and Raoul are up to this. I¡¯d probably kill the moon before I could take it down. Well boys and girls, time to face a level fifty two Void monster. I¡¯m sure it will be educational.¡± He began blipping chunks of rock from the ravaged world into the sky to let them build momentum. He missed his custom K.E.W.s from home already. Chapter 203 - The rest is mine ¡°I¡¯m bored,¡± Evie complained. It turned out a half mile long slug didn¡¯t move very quickly. ¡°We¡¯ve got a few more minutes. Bob, how close to being ready are you?¡± asked Vic. ¡°A few more minutes,¡± grumbled one of the few drones not rushing back and forth to complete the construction of their redoubt. Sloped walls had been thrown up by bots equipped with bulldozer rams and other bots had swarmed over them spraying some kind of polymer over the hasty ramparts that solidified into something harder than concrete in a few seconds. The team was now surrounded by a fortress that was bristling with ever more turrets as the bots hurriedly bolted them in place. Plasma weapons, lasers, good old fashioned rotary cannons and artillery were being installed at a pace that most humans would find dazzling. ¡°Arty is up, watch your ears!¡± called a passing spider drone as a deafening whump was unleashed as the first battery opened fire. Clouds of dust flew out around the guns as drones rushed to fetch more boxed ammunition from the Earth side of the portal. Another whump echoed out a second or so later. ¡°Automatic artillery?¡± asked Flash over the internal comms. ¡°Semi-automatic but pretty much,¡± Bob replied happily. ¡°Time to target is thirty seconds and the fire will be walked back to weaken the little ones escorting the momma.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll start bringing some rocks down. Vic, Evie, can you drop your big hitters? Reg hold fire on the black holes for now, we¡¯ll keep them in reserve. Anyone need a pee?¡± said John. ¡°Piss off John,¡± said Sam as waves of clones began rushing forwards, unleashing blazing blasts of energy from her eyes into the dust cloud sweeping towards the tiny enclave of humanity on this alien world. Booms echoed out, muted automatically by their armour, and new dust clouds billowed out, knocking the existing ones into whirlpools of smoke and fire. John had begun bringing down his big rocks. Not terribly big rocks by his current standards. They were only a hundred tons, not the thousands of ton rocks he could be dropping. He was trying not to accidentally wreck Bob¡¯s new toy, at least somewhat. He narrowed his ruby eyes and looked through the boiling miasma of dust and steam obscuring the first wave of the counter attack. The little ones serving as escorts were dying in droves as the giant slug undulated forwards. The big one itself was taking a beating. The last time they¡¯d fought a creature like this was the Shadeworm, way back before the signing of the Accords, but everyone on the team was considerably more powerful than they had been in that fight. John was quietly confident that while this wouldn¡¯t be easy it wouldn¡¯t be as life and death as the fight to retake London had felt. Then the slug did something unexpected. It dove down into the solid rock, carving a new tunnel hundreds of metres wide that went deep below the crust of Bob¡¯s World, as his egomaniacal friend was no doubt planning to name this planetoid. Once it was half a mile underground their aerial attacks were completely useless and the surviving escorts flowed down after it to avoid the slicing beams of light Sam was filling the air with. ¡°That¡¯s annoying. Fucker has to come up to get at us though. Let it come to us?¡± asked Flash. ¡°We should ferret the beast out of its den!¡± barked Felix. ¡°Den. Peace brother, we should be cautious here. This thing is a true Emissary of the Great Night and should not be underestimated,¡± countered Felicity. John blinked in shock. He¡¯d never heard the pair disagree about anything. They almost seemed to share a mind most of the time. ¡°I¡¯ll go have a look. As usual the noble canine must bravely go where humans fear to tread. You will be able to use your powers through me,¡± Zeeg scoffed. Doris began taking earth shaking strides to move beyond the boundary of their suddenly insignificant-seeming fortress. ¡°Raoul, need you outside the walls as well please,¡± Bob said. ¡°Ok. When you¡¯re fishing for giant slugs you need big bait and it¡¯s me and the old girl to the rescue!¡± laughed Raoul, growing to his full size and striding forward as well. He was still noticeably shorter than Bob¡¯s giant mech, something the older man turned drone swarm politely didn¡¯t mention, yet. Zeeg had sunk into the dirt and according to John¡¯s sense of her location she was running through the rock towards where the slug was expanding its underground complex by widening the tunnels and digging short side passages. John focused and could see it just melted the rock and dirt in its path to nothing. The matter simply ceased to exist like a human using an ability. ¡°Do we know if the Void monsters have abilities like us or are they more like monsters? You know, tough, hard to kill and maybe some kind of spitting attack or whatever but no real abilities like we got from the system?¡± he asked worriedly. ¡°Someone didn¡¯t read the briefing notes!¡± chuckled Vic from where she hovered above Doris¡¯ location a mile ahead of the fortress. ¡°Yes they do but they¡¯re different from ours. Tending towards destructive abilities and physical enhancement. They don¡¯t have many casters but the ones they do have are very, very powerful for their levels.¡± ¡°Most of them are bruisers but OP versus our kind of bruisers,¡± added Evie. ¡°Dad, I know you don¡¯t like paperwork but you should have read the shit we got from the Monarchs about the enemies we¡¯re likely to face,¡± she chided. ¡°They could have condensed into video form,¡± grumbled John, on this very rare occasion genuinely regretting his bad attitude to paperwork. ¡°Given it a rocking soundtrack and made it animated and stuff. Maybe have a big boobed lady do the narration¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pretend I didn¡¯t hear that, husband,¡± said Vic cooly. John¡¯s wince was hidden by his armour.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°Perhaps those of you with remote powers would like to start using them through me?¡± came Zeeg¡¯s voice, much to John¡¯s relief. They all borrowed Zeeg¡¯s senses to examine the situation underground. The slug was deeply disturbing to look at up close. Zeeg was poking her head through the rock wall, above and to one side of where the slug was currently working to expand its new tunnel network. Lightning blasted out, followed by arcs of white fire and bars of black and gold power. The attacks slashed through the smaller slugs and other nightmares running along on multiple, articulated legs next to the big one. While the slug form predominated there were also weird winged things, with rows of feathery wings running down their backs as they scurried along on tentacle-legs. Others looked like armoured shellfish, the ones you might expect to see fossilised in museums. Strange trilobite and ammonite monsters made of slick shadow-stuff were interspersed with the mound-like slug forms. Arcs of electricity snapped from one to another leaving smoking ruin behind. Eldritch wails filled the air, a noise like nothing any of them had ever heard before. The fire following the lightning silenced most of the screams and the black and gold bars of power finished off the rest. In a matter of moments the only thing moving below them, other than the bubbling remains and acrid smoke was the giant slug. It emitted a series of babbling noises that sounded like crazed laughter, high pitched and repetitive, as it began slamming its body from side to side. The walls melted away wherever it touched them, soon widening the cave into a cavern that shook, chunks of rock falling to bounce off the things back. Name: Void Symbiote (Heftiul Gargant) Level: 53 Ability: Void Guardian John reached into the rock above the creature and blipped a millimetre thick sheet away causing a two metre thick section of the ceiling to collapse. The rock passed through Zeeg¡¯s face causing her to flinch back into the stone she was using for cover. When she peaked back out they all saw the tons of stone vanish where it landed on the beast''s back. ¡°It¡¯s being selective. Pebbles bounce off, big rocks get absorbed or banished or whatever it¡¯s doing with them,¡± said Flash. He and Evie were throwing out fields of force to either slice into the thing or drive it back towards the surface. Its face was a mass of squid-arms, reminding John of a Shrell¡¯s lower half, many of which were now smoking on the ground after the slicing attacks had focussed on the appendages. ¡°Can we blind it?¡± asked Felix his power slashed down the symbiotes'' flanks leaving shallow grooves that began to bubble. A beam of gold followed after digging deeper and causing the bubbles to burst and shower the rocks with dark grey ichor. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have fecking eyes ye wally!¡± grumbled Reg. ¡°So it¡¯s relying on vibrations or something? John, drop some rocks behind it!¡± suggested Flash. John didn¡¯t see how it could hurt so he brought down some big sections of roof behind it. The thing spun, surprisingly nimble, and undulated towards the impacts. ¡°What we need is a lure. Like a thumper to bring up a sandworm," said John. ¡°Get Doris to do a jig! Go all Riverdance!¡± suggested Evie with a laugh. ¡°She¡¯s not a bloody dancing monkey-mech,¡± grumbled Bob but Doris began stomping her feet back and forth, gradually shuffling towards the entrance to the tunnel the symbiote had created. ¡°Hey, I can get in on this action!¡± boomed Raoul. He began to do a parody of a Flamenco dance across the dusty plains, gradually fading into the still roiling clouds of dirt and steam. ¡°Love, can you get some clones over here to deal with the little ones? I think they¡¯re regrouping or something!¡± he called as he noticed his feet smashing things gliding across the surface. They were only a few centimetres tall but covered a few metres each. As they started dying the rest rushed forwards and began undulating up Doris and Raoul¡¯s bodies, coating them in a thin film of darkness. ¡°Christ! A little help here?¡± Raoul yelled as he began swiping at the cloying film now covering him up to the knees. ¡°This shit hurts!¡± Vic flew down and began bathing the mech and the titan in fire, making sure to keep the heat below the belt. Raoul squawked and began patting at his now smoking legs but Doris continued her shuffling dance. ¡°I think it¡¯s working? The thing is moving back into the main tunnel. John be ready with the comet blaster,¡± said Bob. ¡°The what?¡± ¡°The portal to the ice ring! When it sticks its head up I want you to blast it as the rest of us move in!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you just bollock me for using that thing?¡± John asked as he prepared to rip open another tear in reality. ¡°Just try and keep it focussed on the big bloody slug this time. Don¡¯t wreck my real estate,¡± Bob snapped. ¡°Um, as shareholders in BME, surely it¡¯s our real estate?¡± asked Flash. ¡°We accept part ownership on behalf of the Church,¡± Felix and Felicity said simultaneously. ¡°What? Can we focus on dealing with the giant fucking slug and discuss property rights when we¡¯re done?¡± Bob demanded. ¡°Sure, sure. Just so you know we have a stake here,¡± muttered Evie as she prepared to unleash a lightning barrage on the symbiote as it broke out from below the ground. As soon as it crested the surface it made a very slow beeline towards Doris. Raoul hurled his spear and charged forward with his shield and sword. The sky cracked, fire and lightning falling on it eliciting a faint screech. Then came the black hole. Reg put it directly ahead of the creature and cackled like a loon as its undulating motion fed a long section of itself into the maw of the infinite. John opened a much smaller portal and a torrent of shards of ice and rock pelted down at orbital speeds, slicing into the Void creatures back where it was emerging from the tunnel. Flash charged forward, crossing the intervening mile in a matter of seconds and ran up its side, hurling spears of force into it and using them as stepping stones. As soon as he reached the top he began creating discs of force that sliced chunks away from it as he began hacking away with a pair of conjured blades. The twins walked through the sky on black and gold platforms until they were high enough up to begin weaving nets of ebony and golden threads that sliced into the monster and began cutting off pieces like a cheese grater passing across the Void Symbiotes outer layers. The fighting continued for a couple of minutes. More bolts fell from the sky, torrents of flame washed out to bathe the writhing alien in burning pain. Rocks fell, in addition to the ice cannon coming from the ice ring of the gas giant, some of which were absorbed or disappeared. As time went on it was clear the creature was running low on whatever the equivalent of reserves was for the Void. More and more began to slam home, blasting divots out of the thing. Eventually the thrashing began to die down and its efforts to attack Doris and Raoul became feeble. Both of the human¡¯s giant combatants were coated in dark grey gore and were starting to look like mobile statues as the ichor dripped down their bodies. As the thing finally spasmed and died the group sighed, their shoulders slumping in exhausted relief. Raoul shrunk back down to a more modest height and the guns lining the fortress fell silent. He leaned on his spear and blew out a cloud of foul smelling gore that had gotten inside his barbute during the fight. ¡°Well they don¡¯t bloody smell nice,¡± he complained, removing his helm and shaking it out. He glanced longingly at the purple waters and began trudging towards the shore to start washing off some of his gear. ¡°Just unsummon it and then call up another one,¡± called Sam as her clones began to dissolve. ¡°Oh right.¡± The helm vanished and reappeared in pristine condition. ¡°I¡¯ll have to figure out a way to do that mid fight,¡± the titan muttered. ¡°So back to property rights?¡± said Evie brightly. ¡°Sure. You can have this chunk,¡± laughed Bob as a drone waved a limb at the ruined landscape around them. ¡°The rest is mine.¡± Chapter 204 - I am not sure you earned that privilege [Book 4 stubs soon] For two weeks they had slaughtered their way across the plains. Constant streams of low level enemies had poured out of the underground structures, throwing themselves into the fray with suicidal abandon. Occasionally a larger beast would surface but nothing to match the level fifty three they¡¯d put down on their first day. A network of maglev trains had been built to link a series of forward positions. Each of them was heavily fortified and staffed by swarms of drones. They had cleared most of the lowlands and were now looking up at the hills that had been a smudge on the horizon before. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of broken architecture. Why would slugs have built so many housey-things?¡± asked Evie. ¡°They¡¯re towers, not dissimilar to the ones the Void-slugs have built. Different colour though,¡± said Flash. The hills were constructed of broken towers, similar to the ones the team had been wrecking as they advanced across the flatlands. They had been scraped across the surface and piled upwards. John could see the convoluted structure, composed of decomposing buildings, had been scraped together. The landscape around the hills was covered in long sweeping grooves where some overgrown bulldozer, that had probably resembled a giant slug, had swept the now sandy plains clean. John glanced through the rubble. Deep below the central hill a huge chamber had been built. It almost looked like the jills had been built to provide a bulwark against airborne or orbital attacks. There was no chance he could get at the thing lurking below with his rocks-from-god tactic. On the far side of the hills the ground fell away into the ocean. It ended in colossal cliffs that ran for hundreds of miles in either direction and fell for nearly half a mile to the purple waves. The underground tunnels maintained their aversion to the sea water and stopped dead at least two miles from the coast. ¡°Well. It¡¯s not a big bastard at least,¡± he offered with a faint note of optimism. ¡°What level?¡± asked Reg grumpily. ¡°No idea. I can¡¯t identify stuff through stuff mate.¡± ¡°Have to assume it¡¯s higher than anything else we¡¯ve bumped into. Any little ones?¡± asked Vic. ¡°A few but again not many. I think they¡¯ve thrown everything they had at us,¡± said John thoughtfully. ¡°What¡¯s on your mind, Saint?¡± asked Felicity. ¡°It feels too straightforward. We¡¯ve got to be missing something.¡± ¡°The other continents are uninhabited. They aren¡¯t even really continents, just archipelagos and the odd larger island,¡± said Bob. ¡°I think these guys don¡¯t like the water.¡± ¡°So how do we do this?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Let''s just kill the bastard and move on. Leave the portal open and the extra drones can set up our holiday homes or whatever we¡¯re going to use this place for!¡± ¡°Sea life here is interesting. I¡¯ve sent some samples back to Pete and he¡¯s interested in more. Same with the Void beasts. His new pet monsters are getting pretty evil looking. This is also a great place to set up industrial plants that won¡¯t be attacked when the Void gets to Earth,¡± said Bob. ¡°Aren¡¯t Mars and the moon already in that category though?¡± asked Sam. Raoul nodded in agreement, his wider family had been relocated to Mars when the Carnival left Earth all those months ago. According to Bob, Ryn and the others passing messages through the portal over four years had now passed back home and they were nowhere near having enough Essence to jump past the Monarchs. ¡°We don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll hit off-planet sites. Mars and the moon bases are pretty well hidden, half a mile underground, but the bastards will have space ships of some sort and we don¡¯t know what their tech is capable of.¡± ¡°So do you think the Void has ships like Kipragtsek?¡± wondered Evie. ¡°We don¡¯t know. The voidliners just seem to dump us out or make us teleport off ourselves. We haven¡¯t seen any orbit to ground vehicles on board. Have we?¡± Flash turned to look at John. ¡°The bloody ship is full of weird shit I don¡¯t recognise but I haven¡¯t seen anything that looks like a dropship to me,¡± John confirmed. ¡°What are we going to do about the Thing Beneath the Ground?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°Go in kill the fucker,¡± muttered Reg. ¡°Thanks Captain Obvious. How exactly are we going to go about doing that?¡± Raoul countered. ¡°Send the wee puppy in then yon Sassenach can blip us in. We kick it¡¯s arse into the next life. Bob¡¯s yer uncle. No offence Bob. Your lack of genitalia sometimes slips my mind,¡± Reg snorted. ¡°So most of the time you¡¯re consciously thinking about his genitals or lack thereof?¡± asked Evie. ¡°I¡¯ve got more balls than any male present. Across various bodies. Can we leave my bio-bits out of this discussion? This is serious! We can¡¯t just penetrate the unknown, genitals or not.¡± Evie snorted and Raoul¡¯s shoulders began to shake.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Sod off. Maybe sending the dog in is a good idea?¡± Bob offered. ¡°The same old tale of human arrogance. Am I disposable to you? I lack male genitals as well, is it something to do with that?¡± the dog demanded. ¡°No girl! You¡¯re just usually the best choice when it comes to probing the unknown,¡± said John. Evie¡¯s shoulders began to shake as well. ¡°Why not just bombard it? Might take a while but you¡¯ll dig down to it sooner or later,¡± said Felix. ¡°Sooner or later,¡± agreed Felicity with a nod. ¡°It¡¯s too deep and the hills will just compact as they get smashed. They''ll end up forming another layer of armour over the top,¡± said John, shaking his head. ¡°That-¡± he waved a hand at the towering landscape, ¡°-is all chunks of towers like the ones we battered over the last couple of weeks. It will pancake down for months before we start chipping away at it.¡± ¡°Scoop it out with portals?¡± suggested Flash. ¡°I can¡¯t move the portals. We¡¯d need to shovel the stuff through. Nah, we¡¯re going to have to go in and do this one manually.¡± ¡°Why not flood them out?¡± asked Zeeg. All heads turned to lock onto the dog. ¡°We don¡¯t have that much water. This place is tectonically dead so there¡¯s no volcanoes. What can we flood it out with? Our tears of frustration?¡± asked Evie. ¡°No, sister. It amazes me that humans managed to luck into opposable thumbs. I am not sure you earned that privilege. We are surrounded by a vast swath of water that is apparently filled with something that the void creatures do not like. Why not use that?¡± replied Zeeg primly. ¡°Huh. Good point girl.¡± John carefully brought his armoured gauntlet down to ruffle the giant dog''s ears. Her tail wagged happily. ¡°Hey, do you think it will work on all Void creatures? Have we just found a superweapon for the invasion? It¡¯ll be like Day of the Triffids but with alien seawater!¡± said Sam brightly, miming aiming a fire hose in front of her. ¡°It¡¯s worth investigating,¡± said Bob thoughtfully. ¡°John, think you can flood this thing out?¡± John checked through the tunnel network and the confused rubble piled above it. ¡°If I let the water pour over the highest hill it should filter through fairly quickly. The whole structure is riddled with fissures, it¡¯s like a giant sponge.¡± ¡°So it¡¯ll absorb it all?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°No dude, it¡¯ll drip through. Imagine a giant sponge made of non absorbent alien coral perched on a massive ant hill,¡± said John. ¡°That makes more sense,¡± nodded the big guy. ¡°Seems like it¡¯s worth trying?¡± asked Vic. ¡°What if it ends up flooded and we need to go in afterwards and fight underwater?¡± asked Sam. ¡°Underwater combat isn¡¯t fun.¡± We can deal with that when we get to it. John can always open a new portal to drain the place,¡± said Flash. ¡°Only if a certain brave canine goes down to give him line of sight,¡± grumbled Zeeg as she lay down and rolled over to beg for tummy rubs. Evie went over and obliged the demanding dog. ¡°I can see it from here. You won¡¯t need to get wet,¡± John reassured her. ¡°So we try the drowning option?¡± asked Bob. A round of agreement followed. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll go diving and find a good spot to pull the water from,¡± said John in a resigned voice. ¡°Can¡¯t you just use your fancy red eyes?¡± asked Evie. ¡°I¡¯ll appreciate the peace for a few minutes,¡± John replied as he vanished. He moved down into the depths via a series of blips. As the light faded he instinctively reached out with his mind to switch his helmet''s vision spectrum to low light but realised it was a waste of time. Bob hadn¡¯t even built that functionality into his latest armour so he just squinted and flexed some unknown muscles to adapt the weird vision Magic had ¡°gifted¡± him. The sea shimmered around him, currents trying to drag him down. His armour weighed over a ton but he fell through the depths faster than he thought he should have done. Strange jellyfish-like blobs or life drifted past, a few coming over to investigate him. They drifted down around him as he fell deeper until the water became too cold or the pressure too much and then they darted towards the surface on squirts of pressure from beneath their skirts. John was scanning around religiously. The deeps tend to be relatively uninhabited, at least on Earth, but the things that do live down there tend to be impressive. Visions of giant squids and sperm whales kept flashing through his mind as the surface grew ever more distant. The depths were quiet, the only sound was the echo of his breathing in the confines of his helmet. Fortunately his armour was rated for much higher pressure than he was being subjected to and he didn¡¯t have to experience the creaks and rumbles of contracting metal. There was no natural light at this depth but he could still see perfectly. He took an executive decision that this was deep enough, the pressure would force the water through sufficiently quickly that the network of tunnels a mile above him wouldn¡¯t take too long to fill. He blipped back to the surface, appearing next to the team and shaking off the excess water that had come with him. ¡°That¡¯s weird,¡± said Vic. ¡°You¡¯ve seen me teleport enough that I¡¯m assuming that¡¯s not it?¡± asked John. Evie, standing next to Vic pointed down at the ground where the splashes were fluorescing a virulent pink where they had landed on the dirt. ¡°Huh. Weird. Shall we crack out a barbeque or something while we wait? I call dibs on working the grill!¡± asked John as a portal appeared in the distance and began gushing purple water onto the tallest of the hills. ¡°That¡¯s pretty!¡± said Sam. ¡°Reminds me of that scene at the end of Voyager into the Black Hole!¡± The team turned and watched as the water hitting the hill was also glowing pink as it cascaded down the side of the crushed masonry. The torrent continued and the wave began falling behind the lower peaks. John checked and it was soaking through, gradually filling the cracks and tunnels. ¡°We might be here a while,¡± he muttered. ¡°Open a couple more?¡± suggested Flash. John did so, spacing the portals out so three purple waterfalls fell separately before they flashed to pink and began to roll down the hill. ¡°Yeah, that should do it,¡± he confirmed. ¡°Now, barbeque time?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve got some food left over from last night. No need to cook. You can bring it over if you want though,¡± said Evie. ¡°I could go for a bite.¡± An array of cooked meats and vegetables appeared in pots on the ground. ¡°Love, any chance you could¡­¡± John waved a hand at the pots. ¡°Do you need me to clean them afterwards as well?¡± laughed Vic as flames sprang up around the base of the pots. Once they were steaming happily in the chill air the team cracked their helmets and slipped off their gauntlets to grab bowls and spoons. ¡°This ish nishe!¡± rumbled Raoul, awkwardly working around his breastplate to bring the spoon to his mouth. The ground rumbled and they all glanced around. ¡°That washn¡¯t me!¡± Raoul coughed as he hurriedly swallowed. ¡°I wasn¡¯t responsible for that!¡± he reiterated. ¡°What the hell was it? This place has zero tectonic activity,¡± said Sam. ¡°Right? That is what you said Bob!¡± ¡°It was and it¡¯s still true. John?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± asked John, glancing up from the bowl he was holding at a strange angle to try and see into it around his bulky armour while he scraped out the last of the meal. ¡°What can you see?¡± demanded Felix. ¡°See!¡± echoed Felicity urgently. John glanced around as he licked the spoon clean before blipping it back to their last base of operations fifty miles away. ¡°Crap!¡± John blipped the whole team back to their previous base in less than a second. ¡°Take cover!¡± Chapter 205 - They sent children to kill me? [book 4 stubs soon] Taking cover wasn¡¯t really an option. The ground shook and threw them all off their feet. Even Doris had to drop to one knee and plant her spear deep into the dirt to stabilise herself as the world shook. ¡°We weren''t meant to be blowing up the world!¡± complained Bob over the comm link. The distant hills exploded, hurling megatons of matter into the sky, completely obscuring the gas giant that hung low on the horizon. ¡°Shields!¡± called Flash. He and Evie threw up their strongest barriers in a series of shells to protect the team from the rapidly approaching dust cloud that moved across the surface like pyroclastic flow. ¡°Up top as well!¡± called Raoul who had shrunk down to a mere four metres and was struggling into his power armour despite the still shaking ground. Sam threw up a concrete and steel dome that while illusory still echoed as debris began to fall from the sky. Evie and Flash shifted their shields to cover directly above them as well. The twins held hands and black and gold power spread out to form yet another shell surrounding the team. Soon all vision was lost, except to John, as the dust and debris rained down on their little bubble of life. The shields heaved and sank deeper into the ground. The narrow gap, only a few metres, gradually creeping closer to the teams heads. Evie and Flash were both cursing but Zeeg was wandering in and out of the barrier and provided a running commentary on how many metres of dirt were building up above them. John had long since lost his irrational fear of heights but claustrophobia was something he hadn¡¯t really had to deal with. That worm of fear began inching through his guts and he forcefully reminded himself he could blip everyone out if he needed to. Zeeg wasn¡¯t exaggerating, although her blas¨¦ attitude to their unexpected burial wasn¡¯t helping the nerves of people who couldn¡¯t teleport. ¡°Most of it has stopped now. I think," said Zeeg happily. ¡°It¡¯s a good twenty metres deep. I¡¯m pretty sure you don¡¯t need the shields. It¡¯s formed its own structure and should hold up if you stop using your powers.¡± It had been a long half hour as the thuds of falling debris became more and more distant above them. ¡°I think I¡¯ll keep the shield up until we teleport out,¡± muttered Evie. ¡°Is it safe to go back onto the surface?¡± ¡°Yeah. Everything got trashed. Shit, even the first base I built is in ribbons!¡± Bob complained. ¡°It seems like it¡¯s pretty much safe now though. John, if you¡¯d like to do the honours?¡± John blipped himself into the now clouded sky. When he''d used the ice cannon the dust had blocked the sky for a few hours until it was whipped out into streamers by the high altitude winds. Now the sky was black and grey clouds stretching from horizon to horizon. He brought the others out at the first base, near the portal. ¡°Bloody hell. How long are the clouds going to last?¡± asked Evie. The sight of the looming gas giant had become both familiar and reassuring to the team over the last few weeks. At first it had been disconcerting, a constant reminder of how small they were, how insignificant Earth was in comparison to that giant world. It had gradually shifted to become a reassuring beauty that made this new world less bleak and desolate than it truly was. Now that was gone, replaced with roiling black and grey clouds. ¡°It¡¯s a bit like being back in Yorkshire now. Constant clouds!¡± she finished with faux-cheerfulness. ¡°It¡¯s going to take months or years to clear. I¡¯ve been building some satellites to go up around Bob-World-One but it wasn¡¯t a big priority while we were clearing out the Void critters,¡± said Bob. ¡°Dad it might be worth going to check on the slug we salted,¡± said Evie. ¡°Why? It¡¯s got to be dead!¡± said Felix. ¡°Dead!¡± affirmed Felicity. ¡°No team report. Either we didn¡¯t get credit or¡­¡± said Sam as she caught on to Evie¡¯s point. ¡°Ah crap. We just devastated the world!¡± said John. ¡°Yeah and we specifically weren¡¯t meant to do that!¡± grumbled Bob. John ignored him. ¡°How can it still be alive?¡± John finished. ¡°Might be some kind of ability or power. Might be that we didn¡¯t get credit because we salt-bathed it to death. We need to be sure though,¡± said Vic. ¡°Run along Mr. Teleporter!¡± she laughed as she slapped him on the butt, shoving him forwards. With a grumble John vanished. He appeared a good kilometre up, below the new cloud layer by a good margin but as he moved towards the site of the detonation the air became even more clogged with debris. He stopped when the roar of the dust around him was echoing through his armour and looked down. He was still nowhere near vertically over the crater so had to look through the sides. The crater was huge. A couple of miles across and that was only because the surrounding hills that hadn¡¯t been launched into orbit had subsided and filled most of the hole back in. He narrowed his eyes and focused. Below the crater floor, strewn with jagged rock and smooth sections where the dirt had formed a flood, something still lived.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. It was the same size as before, tiny in comparison to the other high level Void beasts they¡¯d slain over the last few weeks, and it was moving feebly. Whatever it had done had vapourised the water. With a start he noticed he had closed the temporary portals instinctively when he had fled with the team. He hadn¡¯t intended to do that but perhaps it was for the best. The beast was only under a few dozen metres of rubble at this point. John began blipping away the rubble. He tried to be careful but every layer he blipped away caused a new land slide. The primary Void monster became increasingly distressed, squirming and wriggling desperately, as it tried to wriggle away from the rumbles and sliding sounds above it. It took a few minutes but eventually he had cleared the rubble enough to get a proper look at the thing, unobstructed by debris and crushed dirt. It was a few metres long, a pale white slug that began to heave itself onto the surface. Name: Void Overlord Level: 92 Ability: Planetary Management Huh. That¡¯s a lot of levels. As he contemplated the thing from a few miles away it pivoted and pointed itself straight at him. So you¡¯re the executioner they¡¯ve sent to end me? The voice appeared in his mind. It slithered in. There was something distinctly serpentine or¡­ slimy to it. He began transferring his sensory feed to Bob directly so they¡¯d have a record of the first time they spoke to the Void. ¡°I am. It¡¯s not the first time I¡¯ve done this kind of job,¡± he replied aloud. He didn¡¯t boost his volume or transmit it across the speakers built into his suit. He just understood that the thing would hear him. It settled down, almost collapsing and seeming to deflate, before it continued. A noble crusader, fighting for your world. The voice was androgynous and this time there was a definite sneer to the tone. ¡°A man¡¯s got to do what a man¡¯s got to do. You¡¯re invading my world and we need to get strong enough to stop what happened here happening there.¡± A man? Can a slave ever be a man? ¡°I¡¯m hardly a slave!¡± John scoffed. Oh they threw some power at you so you¡¯re free? Pfft. ¡°They came to us because you- you¡¯re side- is planning to invade us.¡± So they told you. I won¡¯t last much longer. The water¡­ ¡°The salt?¡± Hah, such stupid creatures! There is a microbe in the water that is rapacious when it encounters Heftiul biology. It robs us of our minds. Ah, you have a similar concept: zombies? John wasn¡¯t terribly happy this thing was rummaging around in his brain. Hah. You fear what you do not understand. You don¡¯t even know how little you understand. I suppose it¡¯s the only thing that allows you to function. Is there such a thing as a just war? ¡°I¡¯m not here to argue philosophy with you.¡± Then kill me now and claim your Essence! Or don¡¯t and listen. I find I no longer care. I am numb to the pain and soon my mind will have been consumed. I wasn¡¯t able to avoid infection. Its mental voice became bitter towards the end. Bob and the team were spamming him with messages, suggesting things to ask about or in the case of the twins, telling him to kill it quickly. ¡°There is such a thing as a just war. Good and evil are in all of us and sometimes the evil wins out. When that happens on a societal level they become a threat and need to be fought, whatever the cost.¡± They sent children to kill me? I am offended. Can you define evil, little human? ¡°Ugh, not very well. But I know it when I see it!¡± So it¡¯s something you perceive? Could another not perceive it differently? You¡¯ve killed all my children, how do you think I see you, morally speaking? Who is the arbiter of good and evil? ¡°Shit I don¡¯t know! God?¡± Hahahaha! The wheezing laughter echoed in John¡¯s mind. You¡¯ve met your god and my own! The gold and the black, remember? When you ¡°died¡±? ¡°I don¡¯t think those were gods,¡± John replied. The twins began screaming in his ear and he muted his comm link. ¡°I think they were once like us. Like you and me.¡± Perhaps you are not as lost as you seem. You love your species? If you do find a way to escape the trap the ¡°gods¡± have put you in I would be surprised. Now I''m tired. End me, if you want the Essence. That¡¯s why you¡¯re here, after all, little mercenary. ¡°Kill it John. It¡¯s fading fast,¡± sent Bob. John remembered the beauty of the ice rings orbiting the gas giant. It seemed only fair to reunite this thing with a sight it would never have again. He opened a portal and a blast of ice and rock shot down into the crater. The Overlord withstood the blast. It was dug deeper and deeper into the dirt as the bombardment pushed it into newly loosened soil. John summoned half a dozen hundred ton slabs of rock and let them fall. He brought them down in quick succession, barely a fraction of a second between each impact and a new cloud of dust shot out of the crate, reaching up to try and connect with the omnipresent clouds above. Team Report: Void Overlord (Level 92) killed: 1. Essence per kill: 19740274219166800000 Essence Gained per team Member: 19740274219166800000 ¡°Holy Mother of God!¡± exclaimed Evie. ¡°How many levels is that?¡± ¡°Enough to get to ninety two. Maybe a bit more with what we got from the Captain and the other void-things but probably not. Don¡¯t level up yet! We¡¯ll level just before we get back to Earth, otherwise we¡¯ll get totally fucked on the mission levels!¡± snapped Bob quickly. ¡°Can we just head home now? We¡¯re way past the bloody Monarchs!¡± said Sam excitedly. ¡°How do we do that love?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°Ask the Lord Captain to detour and drop us off?¡± ¡°We could ask?¡± Sam said hopefully. ¡°It was just an administrator. It was weak,¡± muttered John. ¡°Like Anna and the Cogitator, Christ, I can¡¯t even remember his name! Like them. Bugger all combat ability.¡± ¡°That was for the best,¡± said Felix coldly, still annoyed about John¡¯s blasphemy. ¡°Perhaps in the future we should allow people with stronger faith to speak to our enemies?¡± ¡°Enemies!¡± snarled Felicity. ¡°I¡¯m not so sure who the real enemies are,¡± said John. ¡°John, We¡¯ve completed this mission. We¡¯ve got enough Essence to make a huge difference when we get home and thankfully none of us have died so far. Let¡¯s not make things more difficult than they have to be?¡± Vic asked softly. ¡°We¡¯ve got a daughter to get home to. People we need to protect. Let¡¯s play the game for now?¡± ¡°Sure. Looks like we¡¯re stuck here until the Kipragtsek decides to pick us up. We might as well make ourselves comfortable for now,¡± John said. ¡°You mean now you¡¯ve trashed the bloody place?¡± Bob complained. ¡°I really liked that view!¡± ¡°You were on board with the ¡®drown the bastard¡¯ plan as well you grumpy git!¡± laughed Evie. ¡°How long is it going to take you to set up some kind of resort? I¡¯d like to go swimming!¡± ¡°The temperature¡¯s going to drop. You might have been able to do some skiing but we blew up all the hills as well,¡± Bob muttered. Chapter 206 - Understand the impossible [book 4 stubs soon] Over the next few months the skies of BW-1 began to clear. At first just brief glimpses of the gas giant, or hazy outlines through the dust, could be seen. The rains had come and washed away a lot of the dust revealing the hard stone. John walked through the Garden, running a hand across the transplanted vegetation that was finally beginning to thrive. ¡°So how long until the greenery expands?¡± he asked quietly. Bob, in one of his biological bodies, turned and grinned. ¡°Turns out the slug-nuke winter won¡¯t be as bad as we thought. Another few months and the sky should be largely free of dust. We¡¯ll still need to use the low-light mutants, regular Earth fauna won¡¯t survive here.¡± ¡°And the temperature?¡± The world had been kept warm via some oddity of its core interacting with the vast magnetic field of the gas giant. Trapping it in constant moist clouds had paradoxically resulted in a temperature increase rather than decrease as less heat was lost to space. ¡°It will go back to normal once the clouds clear. About the same as a chilly autumn day in England so no beach side fun times but once we''ve greened the place it will be good for wilderness walks,¡± said Bob. ¡°We¡¯ll need to introduce animal life as well. Might have to get the Dragon to do his ¡®make a new species¡¯ trick to give us a chance of a stable population. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure his sister will kill him if he plays with that power again!¡± laughed John, remembering the slight woman taking an eighty metre long dragon to task in no uncertain tones. ¡°Maybe. Claire is busy at the moment. She¡¯s our primary diplomat with the aliens we sent back last year.¡± ¡°Hard to understand how this time thing is working. Ryn is nearly eighteen now! Are the gifts safe?¡± John had sent a collection of beautiful stones and shells that he, Evie and Vic had gathered as they explored the strange shores of this alien world back as a birthday gift for his youngest¡¯s upcoming celebration. ¡°Yep. After Pete got done going over them for biological samples. He¡¯s sealed himself away to research the Void samples we sent him. He wants to fight fire with fire when the invasion arrives.¡± ¡°Huh, dunno if that¡¯s going to work. Won¡¯t Void things just switch sides?¡± ¡°Shelly is partly based on Void biotech. So are a lot of her fighting drones. We¡¯d better hope that doesn¡¯t happen. The main problem is that prick in the US!¡± ¡°Belisarius? I thought Liberty was going to deal with him.¡± ¡°She bloody was,¡± Bob grumbled. ¡°But she decided to give him a chance or some shit! The bastard needs putting down, Ryn got all the proof we needed that he was working with the Cullers.¡± ¡°Not much we can do from here,¡± John growled, clenching a fist in frustration. ¡°When the ship gets back¡­ We need to head to Earth. We¡¯ve got enough Essence to deal with all the shit going on back there.¡± The reports Bob was running back and forth had revealed that Death and Magic had become increasingly reclusive, their territories ruled with iron fists and brutal repression. What was worse was that Life, Liberty and Frost were taking a hands off approach and chaos was erupting across Europe, North and South America. ¡°Wayfaire is still ok?¡± ¡°For various values of ok, I suppose. They¡¯re not as badly off as the Beastfolk or the Court. The Reich is holding it together but roving warlords have become a major issue across the central stretch of Europe, from Poland to the steppes; it¡¯s a warzone and Life isn¡¯t able to react quickly enough to put them down. War is doing his best but he¡¯s only one man.¡± ¡°We need to get back. Has Fashtaal answered you?¡± John had asked Bob to reach out to the reptile overseer of Earth, hoping for a way to speed up their return. ¡°No. He doesn¡¯t fancy me like he does you,¡± Bob smirked at the scowl that crossed John¡¯s face. ¡°We¡¯re just going to have to go with the program.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going further and further away from where we need to be. Two years on Earth and everything has changed. Only a few months for us! Bob-¡± ¡°Don¡¯t John. Don¡¯t even think what I reckon is on your mind. We stick with the program until we¡¯re sure we can make any other options work. The twins would bloody kill you if you did¡­ that thing we won¡¯t even talk about.¡± John growled and paced deeper into the greenery. The large fronds of the ferns and the waving stalks of the grasses helped calm him somewhat but a core of frustration had been growing. He heard tinkling water and familiar voices coming through the foliage so he steered in that direction. He pushed aside a particularly florid fern to find a picnic taking place. Evie, Vic, Sam and Felicity were all sitting on blankets, passing round food and drinks.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°Hey! No boys allowed!¡± Vic scowled at him before smiling and moving over to let him sit down next to her. ¡°Oy!¡± she swatted at his hand as he helped himself to a sandwich from her plate. ¡°So this is what girls get up to when left to their own devices?¡± he asked around a mouthful. ¡°You wish. This is tame!¡± laughed Sam. ¡°What brings you to our little gathering, Captain Grumpy?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not grumpy, just¡­ restless,¡± John fidgeted and leant back against a rock behind him. ¡°We should try and go home.¡± ¡°The journey will take as long as the Light wills it to, John,¡± said Felicity. Since his ¡°blasphemy¡± neither of the twins had referred to him as Saint. ¡°Dad¡¯s right, Liss,¡± said Evie as she reached out to a bottle of wine and refilled her glass. She offered it round and John accepted a cup of the sweet white wine. He grimaced after his first sip but continued to drink the sickly stuff. ¡°As soon as we level we¡¯re bloody god- er- we¡¯re very powerful!¡± Evie corrected herself about any use of the G word around the sensitive woman. ¡°Well there¡¯s bugger all we can do about it. The Kipragtsek train has no brakes. It¡¯s a one way trip,¡± said Sam. ¡°Not one way! That sounds terminal! More of a circular route,¡± offered Vic. ¡°Nothing we can do until they pick us up again anyway,¡± complained John. ¡°There is nothing we can do when they pick us up, either,¡± said Felicity firmly. ¡°It must be an unusual route these ships take.¡± ¡°How so?¡± asked Vic as she leaned back and rested her head on John''s arm which snaked out to rest over her shoulders. ¡°We have been dropped off and left alone for months, twice now. Yet collected by the same vessel. It must follow a general route and move back and forth for each deployment, otherwise we¡¯d have been picked up by another vessel,¡± Felicity replied. John found it refreshing not having the last words of her sentences echoed by her brother. Apart they were far easier to tolerate. ¡°That¡¯s a good point. So it¡¯s currently zipping off to drop off or grab other teams and that¡¯s the delay?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just parked up to let us sweat,¡± John suggested darkly. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s pissed at us.¡± ¡°It?¡± asked Vic, craning her head back to look up at him. ¡°The system. It might not like that I had a chat with a Void commander.¡± ¡°It might not like the fact that you-¡± Felicity began. ¡°I¡¯m sure that¡¯s not the problem. How many teams were on the ship?¡± Vic interrupted before Felicity launched into another rant about John¡¯s bad judgement. ¡°Dozens. Maybe a couple of hundred. They came and went without us dropping back into real space, now that I think about it. The only times I could stand to look outside the ship was when we got dropped off,¡± said John. ¡°Only the relevant hold gets access back to real space and the ship itself is always outside reality?¡± suggested Sam, helping herself to a teacake. ¡°That would rip the whole ship apart?¡± argued Vic. ¡°Nothing is impossible with the Light,¡± said Felicity. ¡°Maybe that¡¯s right. Might be some kind of ability in the Shrell? Or the tech?¡± said John. ¡°If it¡¯s the tech Bob will ferret it out once he finishes going through the downloads he stole from the Hagrutship. I¡¯d put money on it being a power though,¡± said Evie quietly. Team Report: Pacify MW-537. Remove Void infestation complete. Collection in four time units. ¡°Crap! Not much notice! Bob?¡± called John. ¡°I¡¯m sending all the excess drones back to earth, bar a handful. There¡¯s a small factory setup that can make basic drones in case the portal closes. Grab anything you want to take with you. If you want to send a message home you¡¯ve got ten minutes to give it to a drone,¡± Bob sent over their comm links. ¡°For a galaxy spanning empire they aren¡¯t big on planning and giving decent amounts of notice!¡± complained John as he began blipping around to help Bob and the rest of the team gather at the original base by the portal. A few frantic minutes later they were gathered and the bots were swarming to set everything in order before the stash, and possibly the main portal. John took a moment and composed his thoughts. Hey kiddo, I hear you¡¯re doing well. Keep it up. We¡¯ve got more than enough Essence to justify coming home but the system has its rules. I¡¯ll write again when we next get sent on a mission. Happy birthday! I doubt we¡¯ll be let out in time to send another message before then. You¡¯re mum and sister are looking after me. You make sure to look after your friends, sweetheart. In this crazy world it¡¯s friends that keep us on the straight and narrow. Listen to Bob but I trust your judgement. Sometimes the old guy is a bit of a relic. Stay safe, get strong, Love Dad He processed into an encrypted file on his implant and transmitted it to a nearby bot that nodded and began heading back to Earth. He looked around at the expanding swath of green that now surrounded their original base. Even without the portal the drones left behind would be enough to keep the garden growing. He blipped up and marvelled at the kilometres they¡¯d turned from dull rock and dirt to vibrant life. If the rate of change kept up it would only be a few years before this whole continent was terraformed. That time would pass in the blink of an eye to them due to the time-fuckery of the voidliner. He sighed and watched as the last few drones to head back to Earth rushed through the portal. A timer he¡¯d had running on his implant began to get down to mere seconds and he sighed. Back to that ship to be whisked off somewhere else that they¡¯d be required to do morally dubious things for a galactic order he didn¡¯t trust. The seconds ticked down to zero and the team was once again in the hold aboard the Kipragtsek. He blinked and adjusted his vision to seal off the nightmare that was Outside of reality. He took a second, listening as the team began to fall out and make themselves once again at home on the ship. He wondered how long they¡¯d be stuck here twiddling their thumbs this time. Maybe there was something he could learn during this down time though. He opened his ruby eyes and began to extend his vision until he was once more exposed to the Outside. The fractals and swirling shapes, the waves of incomprehensible force that bounced against each other and diverted around the ship caused a splitting pain behind his new eyes. He fought through the pain, studying the polygonal things swooping through something even more alien than the vacuum of space. Gradually the pain began to fade and he started to make some progress. He would understand the impossible and learn what he could of the medium the ship travelled through. Chapter 207 - Revelation [Book 4 stubs this weekend] ¡°What the hell is wrong with him?¡± demanded Vic. Evie paced behind her scowling at anyone who went near her. ¡°I don¡¯-¡± ¡°Bob. Fucking spill it. You know more than you¡¯ve been letting on. All this metal in here¡­¡± snarled Evie as a nimbus of lightning crackled around her. Evie inside the stash was a real risk to Bob¡¯s capabilities and she was just about irrational enough at the moment to do something rash. John had been sat cross legged in the hold for two weeks. He would drink if a straw was put near his mouth but hadn¡¯t eaten or slept since they¡¯d come back aboard the Kipragtsek. He¡¯d just stared at the wall with his otherworldly eyes, blinking once every hour or so. ¡°Ok. ok!¡± Bob raised his hands in submission. ¡°I don¡¯t know what he¡¯s doing but I can see some of what his implant is doing. Don''t fry my manufactorum!¡± ¡°And?¡± demanded Vic as the clone of the old tanker clammed up. ¡°It¡¯s insane. He¡¯s hacked it or something. It¡¯s running programs, using language that I just don¡¯t understand. It doesn¡¯t make any sense but the longer I¡¯ve looked at it¡­ It starts to seem less insane. Like there¡¯s a pattern there just out of reach. It makes my head hurt to think about it.¡± ¡°You don''t have a real head, Bob. Is he in pain?¡± asked Evie as the lightning died down. ¡°Yes but he¡¯s embraced it. It¡¯s just background noise now according to his biometrics. He hardly seems to register it in his mind.¡± ¡°How do we stop him?¡± asked Vic. ¡°I don¡¯t think we can. He¡¯ll either achieve whatever he¡¯s working on or quit,¡± replied Bob quietly. ¡°Or die!¡± snarled Evie. ¡°We should drug him or something! Knock his old ass out and bring him into the stash.¡± ¡°The last time we went near him other than to give him the nutrient liquid he just blipped us away. I checked the logs on his implant, he knew what was happening. He¡¯s hyper focused on whatever the hell he¡¯s doing,¡± Bob shrugged. ¡°If we try to interfere he¡¯ll stop us, would be my guess.¡± ¡°What is he focused on?¡± Vic asked softly. ¡°It¡¯s not of this world. The maths is contradictory, the rules are in defiance of reality,¡± Bob replied. ¡°He¡¯s looking Outside? He said it hurt and was it frightening to look at. Why the hell would he suddenly want to stare at it for fucking weeks?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know Vic. I don¡¯t even know if that¡¯s what he¡¯s doing. Maybe he had some kind of epiphany about his power and this is all related to his portals. I¡¯m logging it all but I¡¯ve had to burn two server-Bobs that went mental from trying to suss it out.¡± ¡°Dad¡¯s lots of things, most of them good, but he¡¯s never been a bloody genius. Now he¡¯s doing maths that a server farm of you¡¯s can¡¯t suss out? We¡¯ve got to stop him!¡± snarled Evie. *** John was conscious of the conversation inside the stash. He was conscious of all the conversations aboard the ship on some level. The only conversation he was interested in was the one with the Rhombus. It didn¡¯t have a name, or even a concept of a name. It existed outside of reality as a middling predator. It fled from more powerful concepts and consumed the weaker ones. Time had no meaning to it and it didn¡¯t communicate with speech or even telepathy. Back before he¡¯d been chipped he¡¯d had other people invade his mind and manipulate his reality. Talking to Rhombus was like that. He lived a timeless aeon as a tiny fragment drifting through the Outside. Hunter and hunted in an endless loop that happened all at once. There was no fate, no time. It felt like when he had died and met the gods all those years ago. The clouds of gold and black had appeared but had always been there at the same time. Rhombus¡¯ life story was a constant self contradiction. It was still that tiny fragment that had begun a great migration across a space without distance and it was also the mighty concept that would one day, and already had been, be consumed by an even greater presence. This mid stage form was the only way John could perceive it. The true state of the thing, babe and titan simultaneously would melt his mind away to madness. But John was learning. The pain had been tremendous at the beginning. His body hadn¡¯t twitched but his nerves had burned. Eventually the pain switched from being a physical thing and it became somehow spiritual. Despite his lack of faith he felt like something outside of his material world, some part of him that had always been invisible, was being strained and its complaints were the worst type of pain imaginable. He had suffered through it. Shunted it to one side as he fought back to retake control of his mind. As he came back to himself he began recording and trying to translate his experience of ¡°speaking¡± with Rhombus. He began to understand how his power really worked. He began to get a glimmer of how all power really worked.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. It all came from Outside. The swirling, inchoate chaos of this dimension beyond reality was the source of the Void and the Light. Essence was¡­ soul fragments wasn¡¯t quite the right phrase. It was more like a material form of the tiny fragment of a concept that Rhombus had been and still was. The power that drove the ship through the Outside was a trapped concept, a being like Rhombus, ripped from the Outside and into the material universe. He could see the way to use the Outside. He could elevate his strength or that of his allies as easily as he could cut others off from the source of their power, leaving them helpless. He just needed to understand a little more! If he could grasp the fundamentals of the Outside, the roiling Chaos of infinite possibility he would be unstoppable. *** Back on Earth, War stood on his golden cloud and scowled down at Magic¡¯s flying island. A craggy landscape a kilometre across that floated above a vast amber ring of power. Smaller golden circles and multicoloured geometric shapes moved languidly within the ring that held Magic¡¯s kingdom in the air. It was hovering over what had once been Ghana as Magic dealt with an uprising among the coastal settlements. Magic was sending down waves of power that selectively interacted with whatever was below his floating fortress. Some people were crushed to paste while others simply lay down, unable to move under magic¡¯s influence. ¡°What the hell are you doing Magic?¡± War demanded aloud despite hovering alone in the sky. ¡°Suppressing a rebellion. These mortals would ruin themselves fighting each other rather than becoming what they could be. Such a shame to waste their potential, don''t you think?¡± Magic''s voice came from all around the fat man. ¡°Enough of your shit. We know you¡¯re a bit mad but you usually keep it under wraps. Mostly. Why have you summoned me here? Why not just tell me with teamchat?¡± ¡°Some things cannot be mentioned. Certainly not things that should not be scried. Oh no. Come, I have a safe space where we can talk freely. Your thoughts are safe but you cannot ever speak them aloud, oh no no no.¡± A pink portal appeared in front of War who crossed his massive arms and blew out his moustache. ¡°No way am I going in there without some kind of explanation,¡± he said firmly. Magic dropped his illusions and War narrowed his eyes at the remnant of a man, shabby rags hanging over his ruined half-body, as he showed himself between the portal and War. "No tricks. But no truth. Not here. Perhaps you need a revelation as well? Hmm¡­ what kind of apocalypse would be right for you?¡± mumbled Magic. ¡°Apocalypse?¡± War tensed slightly and Magic started cackling. ¡°No threat. No need to treat you. The truth is all the morsel you need! But not here, old friend. Are we so far gone that no trust exists?¡± Magic became serious, sounding almost sane at the end of his little speech. The Monarchs had drifted apart over the years since their return. War had deep concerns about Liberty and Death but Magic was at the top of his list when it came to potential problem children from their little band of survivors. He was a simple man who fought with his fists and feet. War had no understanding of what Magic was capable of beyond the various spells and tricks he¡¯d witnessed over their years together. The injuries that had turned Magic into a floating half-corpse had hurt the man''s mind as well. As they had levelled up Magic had become increasingly strange but after his wounds he had become ever more deranged. War paused and considered for a moment. He couldn¡¯t think of a time that Magic had genuinely worked against their goal of securing earth against the coming invasion. He had his own methods and plans, many of which War was certain were kept very close to what was left of the man''s chest. But his old friend had never acted to endanger their mission. With a sigh War uncrossed his arms and nodded once before striding forward and into Magic¡¯s portal. On the other side he blinked and closed his eyes. ¡°What the fuck is this place?¡± he demanded. The distant walls roiled with fractal shapes in various shades of pinks and blue. Like a lava lamp the shapes merged and separated before coming back together once more. He opened his eyes and squinted down at the ground. ¡°Welcome to my little pocket of reality. Not many have seen this place. And none of them have survived the experience,¡± said Magic, now sounding completely sane. His voice was flat and emotionless. War tensed again but Magic flashed a rictus grin at him before cloaking himself in an illusion. His old friend appeared as he had been. Aged and wrinkled with long grey-white hair pulled back into a ponytail, Magic leant on a long staff that was propped on thin air. ¡°Come. I¡¯ll explain my plans, at least as much as I am able to. He¡¯s seeing things beyond even my sight. If he lives then we¡¯ve won. Well, if he¡¯s still sane then we¡¯ve won.¡± ¡°Who?¡± demanded War as his cloud drifted down to the ground. ¡°Come.¡± Magic said curtly and led the big man into a long hall through a baroque doorway. Inside War flinched. There were specimens in tubes lining all the walls. Most were animals but there were a number of humans. They all had their eyes mutilated. ¡°It took me years. I got the idea when I was injured. Well something told me anyway. Since then I¡¯ve been trying to get back in touch. To return a call that was cut off too soon, if you like.¡± War continued walking behind his teammate, grimacing at the increasingly complex mutilations on the specimens. ¡°So I came up with the idea. Or it was given. I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ve dreamed of explaining this for years and now that it¡¯s time to explain it to my oldest friend I find I don¡¯t know the words. These were the first experiments. It needed a particular type of soul and a particular power and a special alteration.¡± Magic said in a sudden rush before slowing back down to a flat drawl. ¡°I needed to see so they needed to see. So I improved their eyes! I gradually refined the spell. Using it against itself was the trick! Matter becomes translucent and reality is transcended!¡± ¡°What have you done?¡± asked War in a cold voice as more and more humans and intelligent aliens they had fought during their long journey off world were revealed, floating in preservatives. ¡°Young John has used the eyes I gave him properly at last. I¡¯m surprised it took him this long to work it out. He¡¯s seeing Outside. He¡¯s seeing Chaos. If he survives, and if he is still sane, then he will be our greatest weapon against the false gods.¡± Magic smiled a dead smile that made War¡¯s skin crawl. Chapter 208 - Never make it easy [book 4 stubs this weekend] ¡°I wish you¡¯d just fucking wake up John,¡± Vic said softly as she held a straw to his mouth. He didn¡¯t move but once the straw met his lips he began slurping the nutrient fluid Bob had cooked up down with noisy swallows. ¡°What the hell are you staring at?¡± Hell wasn¡¯t quite right, John thought with the fraction of his brain left in the material universe. It seemed a bit like hell in a way. Perfect Darwinism, natural selection applied to the idea of ideas. His thoughts stumbled. That wasn¡¯t right. How do you express the inexpressible? How do you describe something that is beyond language? Rhombus had moved on. He didn¡¯t know when, time wasn¡¯t something he could currently understand anyway. But his communion with Rhombus had ended in the same way it had started. It had always been happening and then it had always been over. Now he was marvelling at the savagery of the concepts feeding and fighting as the ship flowed past them. The ship was piggybacking on the trapped concept. Despite being pulled through into the material universe the concept wasn¡¯t able to exist fully in reality. The technology of the ¡°engine¡± simply forced the concept to move in a non-direction that happened to translate into the right place in reality. John couldn¡¯t understand it, he¡¯d pass that over to Bob at some point and his server-selves could go loopy trying to make it work. One thing John did understand was the pain of the engine-concept. It wasn¡¯t pain as a human would understand it. There was no burning or twitching agony. It was a wrongness that caused the concept to bleed away, gradually weakening. The concept experienced the whole process as a simultaneous event but being dipped into the material world meant it was happening very gradually. In a few thousand years the tortured entity would collapse and a new propulsion system would be needed. His fractured mind returned to the issue at hand. It had always been the issue at hand. Time was so infuriating! How to reconcile this new perception with the material world? The enslaved concept seemed like the best source of data to find the compromise needed to be able to function without losing this new ability. ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening to you John. You know all the shit we¡¯ve been through? Years of fighting and getting stronger. Years of love and friendship. Well this can¡¯t be the end. You aren¡¯t going to just drift off into some weird fucking coma because magic gave you some fucked up eyes! Come back to me!¡± she snatched the straw away and his lips immediately closed. ¡°Maybe we need to do something a bit more physical?¡± she asked in a sultry voice. She harrumphed at his lack of reaction. Maybe you didn¡¯t understand what I meant?¡± she asked as she pulled back a hand and swung through to slap him on the cheek. His body didn¡¯t move, despite the force she¡¯d put behind the blow. She shook out her hand. It had been like slapping a statue. ¡°Vic! I don¡¯t think that¡¯s going to help!¡± barked Evie as she hurried over. ¡°Something has to wake him up! He has to come back!¡± Vic¡¯s voice was tinged with madness. Even in his fugue state John felt something stir in his distant body. He began to reach out, to claw his way back to reality. One part of his mind was still locked on the ¡°fuel¡± driving the ship even as he reached out to comfort his wife. ¡°Don¡¯t you remember Katie doing that? Ah, no, that was before we rescued you. If there is one thing I¡¯d not recommend, it''s that! He tends to react badly to physical violence when he¡¯s out of it, he looked like he was going to kill her when he focused. Mind you I was about to fry her as well!¡± Evie said, giving Vic a brief hug. ¡°He¡¯ll come back when he¡¯s ready.¡± The confidence in her voice wasn¡¯t mirrored in her worried eyes. ¡°Fate is flexible but doesn¡¯t like to be seen being flexible,¡± muttered John. Both women turned to stare at him. ¡°That¡¯s what she said. She was wrong though. It¡¯s all already happened.¡± He leaned back, legs still crossed and stretched out across the hard metal of the hold. Vic crouched down and tried to pull him into a hug but his body couldn¡¯t be moved. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Why won¡¯t you hold me?¡± she asked. ¡°Not fully present. Reintegration¡­ assimilation of true reality. Wrong words.¡± ¡°Dad, you¡¯re being weird, old man. Have you snapped out of it or not?¡± demanded Evie. ¡°Not. Still everywhere, everywhen. Can¡¯t focus properly. World is broken, you know? Magic let me see. Set me up,¡± he slurred. His mouth wasn¡¯t forming the words correctly. ¡°Are you in pain?¡± asked Vic. ¡°Pain. Always and never. Perhaps that¡¯s part of it?¡±You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. ¡°You want us to hurt you?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Can¡¯t. Not strong enough now. Material flows around immaterial. Do you want to know how I die?¡± ¡°What do you mean die?¡± demanded Vic but John lapsed into silence, staring upwards with his strange eyes. Evie nudged him with a foot, careful to keep her head and chest well back but John stopped reacting. ¡°I think he¡¯s gone again. Still, it¡¯s a good sign right?¡± Evie asked. Vic looked up at her with tears running down her cheeks and neither woman spoke for a moment. ¡°He¡¯s got to be on the mend.¡± Evie said softly as she laid a hand on her step-mums shoulder. The next day proved more challenging. He couldn¡¯t drink from a straw while laid out on his back. ¡°He¡¯s not fucking budging,¡± said a B-3000 that had been roped in to try and prop John back up. ¡°Move over, let me try,¡± said Raoul. The big man grew another metre in height and reached down to scoop John up with one hand. His drainpipe-thick fingers bounced off and no matter how hard he tried he couldn¡¯t scoop them underneath his friend. ¡°Never send a giant to do man¡¯s work,¡± scoffed Flash as he knelt down and also failed to move John. His muscles bulged, as had Raoul''s, but John was rooted in place somehow. Flash tried to slide a force field under him and the field could slide along the metal floor but it couldn¡¯t move him. ¡°Well that¡¯s weird. I can move tons with those fields,¡± Flash grumbled. ¡°I tried that shit yesterday,¡± said Evie. ¡°It¡¯s like he¡¯s built into the floor or something!¡± ¡°Or an immovable object,¡± muttered the drone. ¡°Shit! That cost me two more server-me¡¯s!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± said Vic. ¡°Whenever I make a bit of headway on whatever it is John¡¯s been working on, bits of me blow up. That was a particularly bad one. I¡¯m not sure he¡¯s actually here,¡± said the combat drone thoughtfully. One hand rose and cupped the metal chin in a parody of a biological response. ¡°What the hell do you mean? You can see him! He¡¯s right fucking there!¡± said Sam. ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯s really there, there. It¡¯s hard to explain. It¡¯s actually impossible to explain but that¡¯s the best I can manage. That-¡± a metal arm was waved at johns prone form, ¡°-is more like an echo. Or an anchor. It¡¯s like a¡­ a fossil?¡± ¡°Bob, do we need to grease your gears or something?¡± demanded Evie. ¡°I don¡¯t have gears. Well, not like you mean. I don¡¯t have the right language. John¡¯s thinking in something that isn¡¯t like a language but it does the same thing. It¡¯s all contradictions!¡± snapped the robot. ¡°So how the hell do we feed him in this state? We can¡¯t move him, can¡¯t prop him up and he¡¯s stopped drinking. He¡¯ll only last a couple of days without water!¡± barked Vic from where she knelt at John¡¯s side, one hand resting on his chest. ¡°He isn¡¯t actually breathing anymore. He might be using the oxygen bladder Pete gave him but I don¡¯t think he is. I don¡¯t think he needs any water or food. He was drinking because his body reacted automatically to the straw.¡± ¡°Bob. He is breathing!¡± snapped Vic. She moved her hand to hover over John¡¯s mouth. Then she leant in and held her cheek in front of his nose. ¡°Ok. He isn¡¯t. What the hell! Am I a widow now?¡± John¡¯s conversation with Spiral, the concept trapped in the engine of the Kipragtsek, had come to an end and he had been able to spare a little more of his attention for his surroundings. The word widow rang like a bell in his new world, making everything shake and pulse with previously unknown colours. Pain returned. True pain of the merely material type but he wasn¡¯t bothered by it. The lives of the concepts had inoculated him against merely physical pain. He craned himself upright, all the rigidity was gone and Vic almost knocked him back down. He released his hold slightly and he became immovable again. He had closed his eyes as he rose up and now he brought his hands up to cover his face. ¡°You always would be a widow but not on this thread yet,¡± he groaned. ¡°Are you ok?¡± she asked, her hands fluttering across him to check if he was hurt. ¡°Pain,¡± he said flatly. ¡°Where is it?¡± asked Bob. Prime had come over and was waving some complicated, wand-like device in John¡¯s direction with one of its six legs. ¡°Me,¡± John replied unhelpfully. ¡°Well we know that Dad,¡± Evie laughed nervously. John didn¡¯t move but his brain cried out at what he had lost. He would never be the same again. He had been reborn by his exposure to the chaos. He fought to limit his awareness, narrowing his perception and sensation down to the merely human in much the same way he had altered his ruby eyes to avoid seeing through things he wanted to focus on. ¡°All at once. Need control!¡± he groaned again, his body reacting to the stimulus that didn¡¯t reach his mind anymore and his hands clenched into fists, rubbing against his crystalline eyes. ¡°What can we do?¡± asked Sam cautiously, maintaining a healthy distance from her old friend. The control he had been fighting for slipped and he was back in the chaos, everything and everywhen all at once assaulted him in the material world. His body went rigid again before he pried his fists away from his face. His expression didn¡¯t change but he tilted head back and emitted an inhuman noise. It didn¡¯t come from his throat. His voice box wasn¡¯t capable of making the discordant static that spilled out. He struggled to regain control but the power was bucking wildly, the more he tried to throttle it the wilder it fought him. As his screech came to a stop his head flicked forward and his eyes split with a crack. There was a grinding noise of crystal on crystal as his hands spread out to his sides and his fingers dug into the metal flooring. Vic was accidentally pushed away by the move and as she picked herself up she saw blasts of red dust spew out of John¡¯s face. Vic pulled herself round and put her hands on his cheeks. His empty sockets stared back at her, the runes Magic had carved into his forehead and cheeks glowed fiercely for a few moments before going dim. They still glowed faintly, purple and pink sparks drifting away from his face that vanished as they moved more than an inch or two from John¡¯s now empty sockets. His body went limp and he fell backwards. A forcefield flared up before his skull smacked against the metal and lowered him gently. Vic grabbed his cheeks and pulled him back up, cradling his face in her hands. ¡°Raoul, get him into the stash. We need to put him in a med-pod and get a look at his newest ultra-weird situation. Bloody hell John. You never make it easy do you?¡± muttered the drone. Chapter 209 - Wave two: Purifying Wave [book 4 stubs this weekend] John was spreadeagled in the med-pod. The devices had started out as the cybernetic implantation suites where John had received his first prosthetic limb to replace his missing right arm. It still looked like a crucifix-shaped coffin but the whirling blades and metallic spider arms had been phased out. Now they were housed on telescopic tentacles built into the frame of the device and only deployed when needed. Knowing those blades were still in there meant that the new, more sanitised appearance didn¡¯t reassure Vic or Evie. Fortunately those scalpels and cutting wheels wouldn¡¯t be needed under the current circumstances. ¡°How long will he be like this?¡± asked Evie. ¡°He¡¯s stable. The pod would be maintaining his body functions, if he still needed them. He doesn¡¯t by the way. He doesn¡¯t need to breathe or eat or shit,¡± said the resident bio-Bob. ¡°How is that possible?¡± asked Vic, her eyes were locked on her husband''s body and had been since John had been interred in the technological sarcophagus. ¡°Don¡¯t know.¡± Bob shrugged. ¡°Whatever he was doing while in his- uh- trance has changed him on a fundamental level. He¡¯s not even really there.¡± An arm was waved at John¡¯s prone form. ¡°How the fuck is he not even there?¡± demanded Sam. ¡°Why did he scream like Neo getting sucked out of the matrix just before his fucking eyes exploded?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know. Christ, I¡¯m going to say that a lot if you guys keep pecking at me! His body is partially outside the universe? His mind is completely out there, if I had to make a guess about that.¡± ¡°How do you know?¡± asked Felicity. ¡°Know?¡± echoed Felix. ¡°I. Don¡¯t. Know. I¡¯m making best case approximations. His implant is now making my servers explode like popcorn in a bloody microwave when I give them access to the feed. I¡¯ve firewalled it off so all of the me¡¯s don¡¯t go pop!¡± ¡°Has he transcended?¡± asked Felix, addressing the question to his sister. ¡°He was¡­ heretical. I don¡¯t think transcendence is possible,¡± she replied. ¡°Possible,¡± muttered Felix. ¡°What the hell are you two on about? And no fucking riddles and finishing each others sentences. Just answer the fucking question as best you can!¡± Vic snarled, rounding on the newest members of the team. The twins shared a long look and nodded to each other. ¡°Based on what we have seen of the system in our visions the gods will permit a select number of individuals to ascend to something approaching their level of power,¡± said Felicity. ¡°Those individuals become something like demi-gods. Our language isn¡¯t entirely suitable but that is the best phrase we can use. These individuals are a step above entities like the Overseer. They retain their form and are deployed against their counterparts from the Void,¡± Felix added. ¡°You guys just fake the patois?¡± demanded Reg. ¡°What the actual feck!¡± ¡°Leaving that aside, and we have our reasons, we don¡¯t think John is capable of Transcendence. He has met the gods but his heart is not committed to the System. He is, at best, capable of being a class five. He won¡¯t be elevated beyond that.¡± Felicity¡¯s voice was filled with regret. ¡°I¡¯m sorry but he isn¡¯t pure enough.¡± ¡°Pure enough?¡± snapped Evie. ¡°Remember when we were snatching people out of your way because we thought you were fucking psychos?¡± ¡°Before we founded Ascension? We had speculated it was John but had no proof. The eyes in the sky were you? The visions warned us about them,¡± asked Felix, turning to Bob. ¡°Yeah. We thought you were sociopaths,¡± said Bob slightly sheepishly. ¡°And you don¡¯t regret it¡­ You think limiting the size of Ascension early on was the right move. I- we and the entire Clergy have been a force for good! Who do people go to when they need the best healers?¡± snapped Felix. ¡°Yeah, we know that now!¡± Bob countered at the same time Evie opened her mouth and put her foot in it. ¡°Are you? Religious zealots who love the system? Is that really helpful to our species? It¡¯s like a slave who loves his master!¡± she snarled. ¡°Do you find your power to be a shackle?¡± asked Felicity in an icy voice. ¡°No but I find billions of people being wiped out in a couple of fucking weeks and everyone who didn¡¯t die being forced to fight against monsters and each other for decades a bit of a fucking problem!¡± ¡°Struggle is what separates an arisen species from the animals,¡± Felix said. ¡°Without trials, how do we even know we¡¯re alive?¡± ¡°Guys, Let¡¯s all take a beat!¡± said Flash. ¡°I don¡¯t have a dog in this fight!¡± He added with raised hands as both Evie and the twins turned to glare at him. ¡°I was stuck in bloody elf-land while this shit was going on! This isn¡¯t helping. So John isn¡¯t transcending or ascending or whatever-¡± he flinched as Felix glared at him, ¡°-what we need to figure out is what¡¯s wrong with him and how we can fix it! Setting aside the fact he is our friend we need him. From a selfish point of view if nothing else!¡± Felix and Felicity shared a look and both stepped back from the group.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°We will withdraw. We didn¡¯t mean to cause upset. We hope John recovers quickly as he is a powerful fighter for our species against the Void,¡± said Felix. Felicity nodded and then the pair turned and went into the prayer chamber, buried deeper in the stash. ¡°True believers,¡± sneered Evie as the door shut behind the twins. ¡°This isn¡¯t helping,¡± snapped Vic. ¡°Bob, let¡¯s try and focus on what we can do to wake John up?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know! His eyes are gone but I can¡¯t give him implants. Pete gave me some, uh, ¡®spares¡¯ for all of you but I can¡¯t even scratch him, let alone open up his optic nerves for splicing!¡± ¡°You¡¯ve tried to cut him?¡± asked Vic darkly. ¡°I tried to install a cannula and a colostomy bag,¡± Bob said defensively. Vic glared for another second then dropped her gaze. ¡°Ok. Sorry. So we just wait?¡± asked Vic quietly. Evie moved over and stood close to Vic but didn¡¯t reach out to touch her. ¡°We¡¯re good at that!¡± said Sam with faux brightness. ¡°We¡¯ve spent so much time twiddling our thumbs on this ship we should be pros. Right?¡± she glanced around and Raoul subtly shook his head as he caught her eye. ¡°We¡¯ll have to wait,¡± said Evie. ¡°Dad will be fine,¡± she said softly, unsure if she was trying to reassure herself or her step-mum. ¡°I know he will,¡± Vic lied as worry ate her up inside. ¡°Maybe we should focus on some training? Evie, do you want to go a few rounds?¡± asked Flash to try and move the conversation to another topic. ¡°No thanks kid,¡± she replied off handedly. ¡°Um, I¡¯m older than you?¡± he said in confusion. ¡°Oh yeah. Sorry. I¡¯m going to go get something to drink? Anyone thirsty? Ok.¡± Evie wandered off towards the kitchen area of the stash. ¡°I¡¯m thirsty,¡± Reg muttered as he followed Evie. Evie had passed through yet another soundproof door into the general recreation area. This was where they¡¯d played poker with the Shrell but something had changed since they came back, none of the little squid bastards had been allowed in to socialise with them. She pulled open a fridge and took out a carton of fruit juice. Genuine orange juice wasn¡¯t something they had a large supply of. The various agrarian organisations back home had set up farms and orchards for a lot of pre-system species, oranges included, but they were far less productive than hybrid or alien species that had arrived on Earth during the waves. ¡°I¡¯ll have a whisky, lass,¡± said Reg as he stepped through the door behind her. She had just reached out for a bottle of what would once have been called vodka. She topped off her glass and picked up a tumbler for Reg¡¯s drink. She walked over and put it on the table in front of him and the old man settled down into the nearest chair and took a generous gulp as she sat opposite him and took a smaller sip of her own drink. ¡°You ever heard of William Wallace?¡± he asked gruffly. ¡°That Mel Gibson film? I¡¯ve seen it. Pre-system entertainment is weird. Even my manga''s seemed kind of lame compared to what we can do for real now,¡± she replied. ¡°Feck that fecking film. The real story¡­ never fecking mind. The point I¡¯m making is freedom fighters never end well.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re telling me this because?¡± she asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Your Da, he¡¯s a bit bent in the head, ye ken?¡± ¡°Always has been. By the time I was ten he¡¯d taught me how to swear in six languages. He couldn¡¯t- he can¡¯t speak those languages but he knew how to call someone a motherfucker or tell them to fuck off. He always said-¡± her voice dropped and became gruff, ¡°- ¡®knowing how to ask how much, say thank you and call someone a cunt was all you really needed to know in any language¡¯.¡± ¡°He was-¡± she glared at him over the lip of her glass, ¡°-is a bit of a fecking weirdo. And that¡¯s mah damn point girl. How much weird shit has he come through? Dragging along the rest of us half the time!¡± ¡°We¡¯ve done our share of carrying the world on our shoulders Reg. It wasn¡¯t all him. It wasn¡¯t any of us,¡± she sighed. ¡°We were just round pegs in the right place when round pegs needed filling.¡± Reg squinted. ¡°That is a disgusting metaphor, lass. But aye, you¡¯re not far off. He was the glue. Without him we¡¯d have been stuck on our little island.¡± ¡°Most of us can fly, dumbass,¡± she smirked back. ¡°Aye, how long would it take you to fly to Tokyo though? Stop fighting me here, I¡¯m trying to help!¡± He took a long sip of his whiskey and set the glass down in front of him. He spun the glass between both hands, setting the amber liquid spinning in a tiny whirlpool. ¡°John will get better, that I¡¯m sure of. But he¡¯ll be different.¡± ¡°Why do you say that? No offence Reg but you¡¯re basically a grumpy old bastard who makes stuff heavy when we need it. If Bob hasn¡¯t got a fucking clue- I¡¯m sorry. What gives you this insight, oh wise elder?¡± she finished. ¡°Sarcastic wee hoor aren¡¯t ye?¡± She shrugged in reply, taking no offence, so he continued. ¡°My ability gives me a ¡®gravity sense¡¯, ye remember?¡± ¡°I remember. It lets you detect matter within a certain radius or something.¡± ¡°Well your dad isn¡¯t on it anymore. Or rather he is and he is bloody everywhere. Bob keeps going on about contradictions and I don¡¯t think the rusty bastard is missing any cogs, I reckon he¡¯s onto something. Whatever your dad¡¯s seen has changed him and he¡¯ll come back but he¡¯ll be strange. Well, he¡¯ll be more strange than before.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure you¡¯re helping much Reg. So Dad will be changed? He¡¯ll still be bloody blind and we can¡¯t fix his eyes because he¡¯s immune to scalpels now,¡± she finished bitterly. ¡°Is that what¡¯s bothering ye? Maybe them starfish organs Pete gave us will grow his eyes back. Maybe he doesn¡¯t need them anymore. All he needs is time girl,¡± Reg finished softly. Mission notification: In four time units your team will be deployed to serve as the second wave challenge on a newly initiated planet. You will either kill all the beings within the barriers or you will die. You will not be released from the barrier until only one side remains. You¡¯ve been on the receiving end of this process before so you know the drill. Make them prove they¡¯re worthy of the Alliance! Wave two: Purifying Wave: Human antagonists: 10 Partlow Survivors: 145232 ¡°Oh that¡¯s fucking great!¡± snapped Evie as she threw back her drink and ran for the door, dropping the glass on its side as she hurried away. Reg drained his own drink, then sighed and trailed her back into the main area of the stash. The susurration of the machinery and magitech refineries in the background had long since become background noise to them all. In this case it stood out because all the other sounds, usually bickering or discussions, had stopped. Evie rushed over to the medical area to find Vic a burning pyre, flames leaping off her and threatening to melt the nearby machinery. ¡°Mum! Cut it out or you¡¯ll fuck up the pod!¡± Evie yelled. Even in her lightning form going near Vic when she was like this was dangerous. The others had all backed away as well. Gradually the incandescent glow faded and Vic stepped off the glowing patch of metal she¡¯d made, looking about her with hard eyes. ¡°Suit up. They¡¯ll have to drop us off with John out of action. I¡¯ll stay here. If I¡¯m touching him when it ticks over it will have to bring him along.¡± Her voice was flinty and cold. No one knew if that was true but no one wanted to argue with her at this particular moment. The rest of the team, even the twins, nodded and scurried off to get their heavy armour on. The bio-Bob gave Vic a worried look as he went to check on the machinery cocooning his old friend. Chapter 210 - The system must really hate them [book 4 stubs this weekend] The rainbow barriers brought back a sense of uneasiness in everyone except for the twins. Vic glanced around wildly and flashed into fire. She¡¯d been brought in outside the stash and John wasn¡¯t in sight. She scanned around frantically. It looked like a psychedelic version of Earth. Things that were recognizably trees, shrubs and grass stretched away in myriad colours that clashed with the barrier extending into the sky on either side of them. ¡°Remember what we did on the second wave?¡± called Sam. ¡°Expect an attack!¡± ¡°Where the hell is John?¡± snarled Vic. ¡°He¡¯s that way! About five miles or so according to his team buff!¡± called Evie. She had immediately used the Hide and Seek Champions 2024 bonus to locate all the team. It was confusing with so many Bob¡¯s running about but her dad had stood out in her mind enough to pinpoint. ¡°I¡¯ll get him!¡± Bob boomed out of Doris as the giant mech pivoted and began to devour the distance in long, earth shaking strides. ¡°Defences going up. Bob, are you going to help out here mate?¡± Sam asked as shining walls appeared around them, leaving enough space for Doris and a full sized Raoul to stand side by side in the middle. ¡°What? Yeah. What the hell¡­ never mind. Prime will help out. Soon as Doris is back we can start emptying the stuff in the stash out!¡± called a B-3000. ¡°Flash! You and me up top! Vic, are you good?¡± called Evie as she floated into the air on a platform of force. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± snarled Vic as she blasted into the sky and took up a holding position above the rapidly forming defences. ¡°Isn¡¯t there another way though?¡± she called down. ¡°Another way?¡± asked Felicity as she and Felix walked into the sky on black and white staircases. ¡°Are we just going to kill whatever these things are?¡± ¡°Yes Vic. We will. The System does not make requests. It issues orders. We must kill them," said Felicity. ¡°I remember being like them. Wherever the hell they¡¯re hiding,¡± said Raoul. ¡°They face the same issue as us. Kill or be killed,¡± asserted Felix. ¡°Which will you choose?¡± As they¡¯d been talking Doris had made her way back to the impromptu fortress that Sam had quickly expanded and reinforced. Doris stopped just outside the walls and lowered one hand to gently deposit John¡¯s body on the stony ground. Sam conjured an armoured bunker over John. ¡°Is he ok?¡± she asked. ¡°He¡¯s unchanged,¡± said a drone. Doris stepped over the barricade and took up a sentinel position. The weapons mounted on her shoulders began independently tracking and hatches spiralled open across her torso and upper leg armour. Yet more barrels poked out to pivot back and forth. ¡°Where the hell are they?¡± demanded Vic over the comm link. ¡°Bob, anything on your funky sensors?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got something,¡± said Reg. ¡°Lots of things.¡± ¡°Where and what?¡± demanded Raoul as he grew to half his maximum size having shucked the heavy power armour. ¡°Dunno. Small, the size of a fecking kid. There¡¯s warrens all around us, even under us and the wee boggits are swarming that way!¡± Reg pointed towards the setting sun. Whether it was east or west or even north if the planetary rotation was particularly unusual wasn¡¯t at the top of anyone''s thoughts. ¡°Shall I barrage? Bob, populate my map, dammit!¡± snapped Evie. ¡°I can¡¯t, I¡¯m not getting anything! No metal, no movement. They must have mass or Reg wouldn¡¯t be able to sense them but I can¡¯t find shit!¡± complained the drone as Doris and the many drones spread out around them cycled frantically through their sensor spectrums. A modest swarm of flying drones flew out of the stash and began circling out trying to locate the locals. ¡°Should I be seeing them yet?¡± asked Bob. ¡°Yes, you should be seeing the fecking bastards by now! They¡¯re only half a mile away! We all should be able to see them even if they¡¯re short arses!¡± ¡°Invisible or incorporeal!¡± yelled Evie. ¡°Get off the fucking ground if you¡¯re biological! Zeeg can you sense them?¡± ¡°No sister. I am untouchable but I think the rest of you getting airborne might be a good idea. I will escort some of the Sam clones to see if we can get a feel for this new foe,¡± replied the dog as her head emerged from the dirt, quickly followed by her oversized body. Squads of Sam clones broke out into teams and moved to escort Zeeg while Flash scooped up John with a platform and lifted him up. Bob¡¯s drones began emptying weapon systems out of the stash and throwing up hasty defensive positions around Doris. As Zeeg and her swarm of laser-eye wielding friends moved up to the conjured barricade a part of it dissolved and they all rushed through.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Ok, I can¡¯t locate these things. They¡¯re ghosts. Reg, point out the direction and how far,¡± sent Bob. ¡°Yon fecking direction and half a mile or so?¡± Reg waved a hand towards the setting sun from where he now floated half a kilometre above Doris. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps an exploratory bombardment might be in order? Don¡¯t go all out, we¡¯re just testing the waters. Doris will mark targets,¡± Bob said authoritatively. Several of the shoulder mounted barrels on Doris pivoted and aimed in the direction Reg had pointed out. Half a dozen barked and clouds of smoke occluded the giant mech''s head. A series of flares shot out and landed in a grid half a mile away from the team. Then the energy weapons activated with tearing noises as the ionising energy burned through the atmosphere. The noise of Bob¡¯s attack was quickly drowned out as a firestorm sprung up and swept across the grid of markers. Howling, burning winds tore through the flora as lightning began to fall. A large number of Sam clones on Evie''s platform narrowed their eyes and actinic red lines burned through the target area as well, criss-crossing back and forth to weave a network of deadly beams. The twins strode towards the supposed enemies and bands of black and gold intertwined and lashed out like titanic whips, carving deep lines into the dirt and throwing dust and debris fifty feet into the air. The barrage lasted thirty seconds or so as the carnival unleashed their attacks to try and clear the swarm Reg had detected. The sudden silence was almost deafening in its stillness. Larger particles of debris fell down with thuds that rang out in the quiet and the dust gradually cleared in the gentle breeze, bringing the smoke and dust towards Doris. As it swept over the barricade Sam had created the team looked down to see Doris vanish up to her waist in the clouds. ¡°You ok in the fog, Bob?¡± asked Vic. ¡°Yep. Light isn¡¯t that necessary for the bots. Reg, update?¡± snapped Bob. ¡°Well, ye tin can bastard, we drove them off. I don¡¯t think we killed any, ye ken? Just scared ¡®em off.¡± ¡°How did that not get any kills?¡± asked Vic, looking down at the burnt and ravaged ground, stretching in an arc for nearly a mile from where they had started landing their attacks. As the smoke cleared further and they could see what they¡¯d done they saw a devastated landscape but no bodies, nor any evidence of whatever beings might have been there. ¡°Are you sure they were there, Reg? No disrespect but these guys should be way lower level than us and that was basically a controlled nuking, we carpet bombed that place and there¡¯s nothing there, no kill notifications, no nothing!¡± said Evie. ¡°The feckers fecked off. They¡¯ve moved that way and headed towards the barrier.¡± "Maybe we need to get physical?¡± asked Raoul, smiling happily that he might get a chance to shine. ¡°Maybe. That¡¯s a risky proposition though. Let¡¯s send out the clones and the bots to test it before you go off like a berserker though, eh?¡± said Sam with a smile in her voice. ¡°Marriage is so restraining!¡± Raoul complained before a red beam flashed out at his feet and made him jump sideways on the forcefield he was standing on. He scowled up at his wife before grinning broadly. ¡°Idiot,¡± Sam replied fondly. ¡°If we can¡¯t see what we¡¯re fighting, it¡¯s going to be an issue. Reg, can you link your grav-sense to your implant and let Bob mark it on the map?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like that metal prick in my skull. I¡¯ll not be letting him borrow my sense,¡± grumbled the old man. ¡°He won¡¯t get access to your bobnet search history you crotchety old weirdo. It might let us figure out how to deal with these things,¡± said Evie. ¡°Should we even be killing them?¡± asked Flash quietly. He hadn¡¯t used any of his abilities during the first barrage, not only because it was a less than ideal situation for him to be useful as he was an up close fighter at heart, but he had reservations about slaughtering whatever-the-hell these things were just after they¡¯ve been dumped into the system. ¡°What? The System has commanded it. We must serve our purpose. It¡¯s sad that these things must die but Earth must be held in the foremost position in our thoughts. We have enough power to defend the Earth, we just need to get home and use it! So these things must die,¡± said Felix. ¡°Die!¡± echoed Felicity. ¡°For god¡¯s sake don¡¯t start the ¡®repeating each other¡¯ schtick again! I¡¯m with the twins though, Flash. We need to kill these poor pricks, get Dad patched up and get home. It sucks but I¡¯m not going to lose any sleep over it,¡± said Evie. ¡°The system must really hate them to sick us on them for a second wave,¡± said Reg. ¡°Maybe not. It was always kind of balanced, in a twisted way. Maybe this is actually a fair match up for us?¡± said Vic thoughtfully. ¡°The fact we just nuked a bunch of them and got no kills would tend to support that theory,¡± said Bob flatly. ¡°I agree with the twins, we don''t have a choice so whatever these invisible buggers are: it¡¯s us or them and I¡¯m not voting for them!¡± ¡°Ye¡¯re not too far off now,¡± said Reg as he monitored Zeeg''s location on his HUD. ¡°Noted. I can¡¯t see anything,¡± the dog replied. ¡°I¡¯ll go forward,¡± offered Sam. A pair of clones moved ahead, cautiously at first but with growing confidence as nothing seemed to happen. They pushed aside the foliage carefully, wielding summoned spears that they used to nudge open a path. The air was still here, the breeze blocked off by the thicker trees, and they began probing the empty air ahead of them with the sharp points of their weapons. They inched forward as Zeeg hung back and remained incorporeal. Zeeg considered the situation and decided to take a risk. The clones were ahead of her so she briefly dropped back to being mundanely material and took a deep sniff. Her nose twitched in a way that would have been adorable if she wasn¡¯t eight feet tall at the shoulder. She immediately became incorporeal and bolted back the way she had come, making a beeline for the barricade. As she fled she sent an urgent warning but it was too late for the clones. ¡°RUN!¡± she snarled as she followed her own advice. The Sam clones spun and began to move at speeds normal humans would be incapable of. Before they could get more than a couple of steps the air turned black, like the clones had suddenly been dropped into a tar pit. The other clones all collapsed, all across their little base and on the platforms floating above. Then they disappeared. A single Sam was left on Evie¡¯s forcefield and the girl spun, dropping down next to her friend and checking for a pulse. ¡°You know her constitution shows in the team report?¡± asked Reg. ¡°Fuck you Reg!¡± snarled Raoul. ¡°How did she drop so low?¡± he demanded after taking a moment to check. Sam had plummeted to 5% of her constitution. Of them all Sam was the most unkillable. The only real threat she¡¯d have faced if she stayed on Earth was eventual old age. It hadn¡¯t been widely known but she always kept one body, which she considered the original ¡°her¡±, secreted in a small cottage out in the wilds of southern Scotland before they went on campaign. There were other safe houses as well where clones lived quiet lives, just in case something terrible happened. That body had come along with them when they were swept up by the Kipragtsek but even without that failsafe, how can you kill a being capable of almost endlessly cloning themselves and jumping their ¡°real¡± mind to any remaining body? Sam was brash sometimes because she very rarely faced a real threat to her continued existence. Whatever attack the locals had used had plunged her closer to true death than any of the carnival had been for years. Chapter 211 - Frost or Liberty? [book 4 stubs on sunday!] ¡°I need to speak to the Sanderson boy,¡± said War. He was standing on the platform that supported the hub of what had become known as the Monarch¡¯s Way. The circles of portals still glowed blue, illuminating the sky above Wayfair, proving that John was still alive, probably. ¡°Why?¡± asked the drone floating nearby. The combat models were all very carefully maintaining their usual posture, monitoring the access to the portals, and ignoring the heavily armoured fat man standing at the very centre of the platform. ¡°I¡¯ve received new information about the Cullers and I need the kid¡¯s help.¡± War crossed his arms across his chest and glared at the drone. ¡°You can¡¯t threaten me, buddy. Soon as John gets out of transit he¡¯ll get a message from me. What that message says will dictate what happens to your portal access,¡± buzzed the drone. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what information you¡¯ll get back when he pops out of transit but I suspect you¡¯ll be surprised,¡± muttered War. ¡°I just want the kid to help me check something I¡¯m suspicious about. There¡¯s nothing nefarious at work here, Bob.¡± ¡°You know something I don¡¯t but won¡¯t share.¡± The drone was equipped with decent enough sensors to read all of War¡¯s micro expressions. ¡°That doesn¡¯t make me want to trust you.¡± ¡°I do and I won¡¯t. Look, the kid can pull it from my mind if he likes. If he does, he won''t bloody tell you either.¡± War summoned his golden cloud and rose up into the air a few feet. ¡°You¡¯re right that you hold a lot of power Bob. It¡¯s not in my interest to cause issues between us under normal circumstances. These are not normal circumstances.¡± His sentence finished in a flat and angry tone. ¡°What the fuck is going on War? I get you won¡¯t tell me details but you¡¯ve got to give me something.¡± ¡°When John gets out of transfer you¡¯ll understand. For now, can I borrow the boy?¡± asked War. ¡°You just need to talk to him?¡± asked Bob, ¡°No, I need him to witness a conversation for me and read someone''s mind. I need to know if¡­ I need to know for sure.¡± ¡°Who?¡± War grumbled to himself and drifted up until he was right next to the drone. A hand flicked out and snagged it from the air, pulling it close to his mouth without damaging it. He held it like it was made of glass and Bob was only too aware of the level of finesse it took for a bruiser to be so fast without doing any damage. ¡°One of my colleagues,¡± War whispered before releasing the drone which wobbled and bobbed as it regained its hover. ¡°Shit. I¡¯ll speak to the kid. Wait here,¡± replied the drone. A few minutes passed and the drone made a throat clearing noise, despite lacking a throat. ¡°Ok. Kev will help you out but his team goes with him. They all come back alive or else my Deadman message to the other me off world goes live. You understand?¡± the drone said coldly. ¡°I understand Bob. It will just be a friendly chat between myself and my old friend. I just need her mind to be checked over and I don¡¯t have that skill set. The boy has a good range? If he stays down in the deepest parts of your bunker he¡¯ll still be able to read her and there¡¯s no chance of anything untoward happening to him and the other kids. Does that sound fair?¡± ¡°Sounds good. Is it Frost or Liberty?¡± asked the drone. ¡°Liberty. When the kid is in place let me know and I¡¯ll call her over,¡± sighed War. He hoped he was wrong. He really hoped his suspicions were misplaced but with the intelligence they¡¯d gained from the kid''s infiltration and killing of the Cullers he needed to know for sure. ¡°Liberty? Ok. Stay here,¡± the drone fell silent but continued to float near the powerful fighter. War wasn¡¯t blind. He noticed the subtle shifts in the big bots, the BD-209 variants, that Bob used as security forces. Patrols switching out left the bots facing in slightly different directions, cannons not pointed at him but closer to being aimed in his direction. He suppressed a snort. Those pea shooters wouldn¡¯t bother him and their reaction time was too slow to catch Liberty. She was as fast as a human could be and able to phase through solid matter at will. Her name had not been a sop to the continent she took over. She truly was as free as a person could be. Of all his fellow monarchs she was by far the most dangerous. If she had been compromised then things were going to get ugly. ¡°Ok. The team is in place. Call her over but if shit goes sideways-¡± ¡°If shit goes sideways there is nothing you can do, so let¡¯s make sure that doesn¡¯t happen. If the kid detects something wrong, let me know,¡± War cut off the drone. He sent a message to Liberty, asking her to meet him where he was. He unsummoned his armour and his loose tunic and trousers fluttered in the ever present westerly wind on the platform. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± came a voice from beside him. *** Kev had closed his eyes when they came through the portal and Bob told him to get ready. The rest of the team spread out, nervous and insecure despite being buried deep underground behind some of the most formidable defences on the planet. A single corridor gave access to the cavern housing the off world portals but Bob had briefed them that this woman was capable of walking through stone so they were eyeing the walls and ceiling as suspiciously as they did the obvious point of entry.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°She¡¯s here,¡± said Kev as he crossed his legs and floated over the ground. ¡°Christ, it''s worse than Traveller¡¯s mind!¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± demanded Ryn indignantly. ¡°Dad is fine!¡± ¡°The way he sees the world because of his eyes and abilities makes it very different to a normal person. She¡¯s like that. There are no barriers to her. Walls are like fog. It¡¯s bloody weird. Give me a minute, I need to dive deeper and that takes some concentration. ¡°Dad isn¡¯t a weirdo,¡± muttered Ryn but she fell quiet and Kev ignored her. Liberty¡¯s mind was like a maze. For someone who was ¡°free¡± her mind was incredibly compartmentalised. Some of that was due to her power. She could shift through anything, move at speeds that matched a sizable fraction of the speed of light; she had learned to split her focus in a way that fascinated the boy. If he could learn to mimic that fractured-yet-whole consciousness it would make dealing with the voices in his head a lot easier. He twitched as the copy of Mindscar, taken the last time he¡¯d seen her several years ago suddenly reared up, trying to take control of him. She was screaming and cursing in the back of his mind, struggling to snatch control of his body and to limit his perception. He grunted and pushed her down, helped by Amit and several of the more helpful ghosts he¡¯d captured over the years. As the mental haze that Mindscar¡¯s attack had caused began to clear, Kev began going deeper into Liberty¡¯s mind. He worked his way past her disjointed perception of reality. Momentum and matter were entirely separate concepts to her on some level. Seeing through her eyes made Kev dizzy as objects, people and their motions were categorised independently. He began digging down into her memories. Flashes of her childhood and long life from before the system flowed into his brain. She had been a small girl, born in the 1950s, but had blossomed into adulthood having had a relatively happy childhood. Her teen years seemed idyllic in comparison to some of the ghosts who grew up in the nineties and early 2000s that Kev had stolen copies of. The hippy movement of the late sixties and seventies had swept her up and her life had been a psychedelic blend of hedonism that was later coloured by regret from her older self. She¡¯d settled down in 1981, getting married and working on a career in management. A long and extremely boring stretch of years ran through Kev¡¯s mind that were littered with emotional highs he couldn¡¯t understand. The birth of her children was an ecstasy he couldn¡¯t relate to. The death of her second child was a psychic wound he understood well enough and he flinched as he pushed past the pain that still coloured her outlook on the world. The breakdown of her relationship with her first child as a result of her divorce from her cheating husband left even deeper wounds. She was ashamed of what she had done in revenge and it stained her entire personality. Sometimes losing someone forever is easier than knowing they are still out there and having no hope of reconciliation. She had become a shell of a person. She seemed happy, well-to-do and at peace but under that mask the old wounds were always lurking, putting the lie to her rebuilt life and personality. Then the horrors of the system¡¯s arrival ran past his focus. She and some old friends had been holidaying in central Europe when the system came. They¡¯d fought off the waves and gotten powerful, rejuvenating from their senescence in the process. Almost as soon as they got back from the third wave they¡¯d chosen to go off world and continue their adventure. Returning youth and vitality, coupled with no longer having responsibilities to tie them to other survivors left them eager for yet more power. It had applied to all of their team. The Monarch¡¯s strength came from no longer having any ties to their old lives. Kev could sense their concern for the species was genuine, at least it had been for Liberty, but it was divorced from any individual or group. Their adventures off-world blurred together into a nightmarish montage of violence and loss. There was triumphalism buried in there as well as they returned to Earth an order of magnitude more powerful than anyone else. A shiver of fear ran through Kev. The Monarchs themselves were scared. They knew someone, sometime soon would come back strong enough to make them look like children. That fear was one of the things that kept Liberty and War working so hard for humanity''s benefit. They knew sometime soon someone would come along who was powerful enough to judge them. Then Kev probed into her more recent memories. Putting down the tribulations in the US and Canada, suppressing Cullers and Ravagers across North America, threatening Belisarius¡­ that one was interesting and he made a mental note to bring it to Bob¡¯s attention. They now knew where the cyborg was hiding his main body. In the blur of memories one stood out and he locked himself onto it. Mindscar went insane in his mind, thrashing at the invisible bonds that he held her with. After a few seconds of struggle he fought her back into her cage and turned his attention back to the memory that had triggered the response. He had a hunch that whenever Mindscar threw a fit in his mind he was probably on to something important. Liberty had been meeting with the bigwigs in North America. The faction leaders and the former Signatories had all come together a few months ago to discuss the issues of Cullers. Liberty was very clear that she was going to operate a no mercy policy with regards to murderous humans looking to aggrandise themselves via the blood of their brothers and sisters. Kev was surprised she actually thought in those kinds of terms. Florid and grandiose language made her thoughts seem almost monomaniacal at times but at her heart she was genuinely fighting the good fight. The meeting had been contentious. Some of the faction leaders had been turning a blind eye to things they shouldn¡¯t have and they weren¡¯t happy at being called out. Belisarius had played peacemaker, carefully employing threats and bribes to bring them in line. After the meeting his battle suit had requested a private conversation, in person, at his nest or hive or whatever the hell his techno-coffin was supposed to be. Liberty had no fear, she could deal with anything the drone pilot and tinker could throw at her. Belisarius had begged her to attend in person, claiming he had intel that related to other members of the Monarchs she simply had to hear in person. He refused to say anything more outside the security of his den and Liberty had shrugged and headed back to his base. Her arrogance had been her undoing. She could move faster than bullets, pass through any matter with ease, become invisible and untouchable. She didn¡¯t realise she was only physically untouchable and that other powers could still touch her, even across a significant level difference. Kev¡¯s eyes snapped open and he dropped to the ground as the pain in his head shot to new levels. The echo of Mindscar in his brain was going all out and he could feel nerves burning away to dust as she sought to free herself and take control of his body. He reached up to clasp his hands over his temples and groaned in agony. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± asked Sally, rushing to his side. ¡°Mindscar took over Liberty. She¡¯s a puppet now!¡± the boy grunted before he lost consciousness. Chapter 212 - Take it out of town War felt his Bphone vibrate slightly in the pocket of his tunic. He carefully refrained from pulling it up to see what he¡¯d received. He assumed it was Bob advising him what the boy had learned from stealing his old friend''s memories. ¡°Hellie, it¡¯s been good to catch up. Do you need any help from me?¡± he said softly, smiling at Liberty. ¡°No Jack. We¡¯re all good. The information you¡¯ve provided is pretty conclusive. I¡¯ll deal with Belisarius. I¡¯m curious about something though.¡± She leaned back on the guard rail and crossed her arms. The blue glow from behind her gave her an eerie halo and threw her face into azure shadows, only partially cancelled out by the other portals behind War. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± he asked. ¡°Magic. He¡¯s been¡­ stranger than usual recently. What did the pair of you talk about?¡± she asked nonchalantly. ¡°He¡¯s got some plan in the works. A magical weapon to use when the Void arrives,¡± War half lied. ¡°You can ask him about it yourself if you like but he¡¯s being more paranoid than usual.¡± ¡°What does it have to do with the Traveller?¡± she glared at him pointedly. ¡°Nothing that I¡¯m aware of. Something to do with ley lines and creating a planetary shield to support the Necklace.¡± He was outright lying now and beginning to feel that something had gone very wrong. He mentally prepared himself for violence but betrayed nothing physically. ¡°Such tangled webs we weave. Why would you lie to your old friend?¡± she asked and her body twitched ever so slightly. Even Bob¡¯s drones would have struggled to notice it but War had senses far beyond what people at lower levels could understand. His armour coalesced around his body at the same moment Liberty moved. Her fist slammed into his chest and threw him down and away from her. His body crashed through the platform and smashed into the buildings below in a fraction of a second. Even from his prone position, half buried under the rubble of ruined buildings, he heard the rattling barks of the combat drones above opening fire. Waste of bloody time. Bullets won¡¯t do shit to her, War thought to himself. He levered himself upright quickly, broken stone flying away from him as he rose to his feet. He narrowed his eyes and leapt upwards, his golden cloud appearing under his feet as he circled rapidly up to float above the platform of portals. ¡°Where is she?¡± demanded a flying drone. ¡°You¡¯ll only find out when she wants you to. Leave this to me,¡± War grunted as he scanned back and forth to try and spot his elusive enemy. ¡°Take it out of town!¡± barked the drone. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of civilians down there!¡± *** Mindscar had been sitting in a cafe, ¡°enjoying¡± a puck sandwich and a cup of coffee. Her body had been operating on automatic, taking bites of the food and gulps of the drink without consciously noting the taste or texture. She¡¯d been sitting in the quaint building that overlooked the small river running through the heart of Wayfaire and monitoring the Monarch¡¯s conversation. It had all been very dull. As soon as Liberty had been called she¡¯d moved to find a spot where she could mentally observe them without drawing any attention. She was on the outskirts of the centre of the city and should be safe from any collateral damage. She had been able to probe War¡¯s mind, to an extent. She kept getting flashes of purple light that threw her probes back but as the two Monarchs had talked she¡¯d gradually wormed her way at least a little into his mind. She couldn¡¯t subvert him. It took a lot of effort simply to keep Liberty from kicking her out and all her orders were fought tooth and nail by the mad woman. At this point you would have thought she¡¯d have given up in resignation but no, the crazy bitch kept fighting to regain control of herself. It had become a constant tug of war between their minds that left Mindscar constantly exhausted. Not too exhausted to level the playing field a little, though. By levelling the playing field she of course meant to stack the odds so far in her favour that the outcome would become a foregone conclusion. Controlling someone as powerful as Liberty didn¡¯t leave her much leeway to take other strong slaves, hence War was sadly safe for now, but lesser slaves could be gathered in considerable numbers for the same amount of effort. Her mind spread out and began claiming innocents and bending them to her will. The other diners, only a handful or low level workers and traders, stood as one and marched out into the streets. The caf¨¦ owner snarled and leapt over her counter to follow them. In the houses all along the street people marched out and joined the crowd moving towards the battle on the platform. They broke into a sprint, some moving inhumanly fast. Others floated into the sky while the slowest and least dangerous, the ones with administrative or crafting powers, trailed behind, using their abilities to destroy the city as they moved under Mindscar¡¯s control. Drones began to swarm down and try to suppress the citizens running riot through the streets. The Guardians, Wayfaire¡¯s police and civil defence forces, began to pour out in Blue Street and rush towards the angry mob. Mindscar stayed where she was and smiled to herself. That should provide enough of a distraction to the local forces and when the faster elements of her swarm caught up to where the action was they¡¯d help give Liberty an edge. Mindscar looked out through Liberty¡¯s unnatural vision and reinforced her order to attack her former ally. Liberty moved almost without moving. Momentum was hers to control, much like that German prick Breaker, but she was on another level. Too fast for Mindscar to follow Liberty appeared next to War and punched him, her fist phasing out of reality for a moment then rematerializing inside his chest. Her arm pulled back in a spray of gore and a crimson arc of blood shot out and began to fall towards the ground. Suddenly Liberty was sailing through the air to smash into one of the Department''s skyscrapers. Protect yourself and kill War, Mindscar sent, having to reiterate her command as Liberty struggled to regain control.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Liberty stopped in mid-air as she transferred the momentum to somewhere else. Whether it was another dimension, or to some object drifting through space was something neither woman had been able to work out. The building she had passed through began to collapse and Liberty caught sight of War turning to focus on her, one hand pushed against his chest. The hand fell away and the flesh was once again whole before the armour knitted itself across the damage and obscured the temporary wound. Liberty vanished. *** War grimaced as he dropped his hand. She was going easy on him. If she had been fully committed Liberty would have put her fist into his brain and ripped that out instead of doing minor damage to his chest. Not even he would have been able to shrug off that type of damage to his brain. He shot away to the south, looking to lead the fight out of town, but he was swarmed by low level fliers who threw themselves at him with suicidal abandon. He pulled his punches, knocking them away and smiling slightly as Bob¡¯s drones began to swarm the mob and fix power suppressing collars to them. A beam of light from the clear sky slammed into War. It threw him back towards the centre of town and drilled down, burning a glowing crater where he slammed into the Earth and collapsing several buildings into slag. Dozens of the fliers attacking him had been turned into ash drifting on the wind. Bob? No. The old veteran wouldn¡¯t fuck up a kill shot and he wouldn¡¯t kill civvies like that. Who the hell else was running that kind of plasma beam weapon? War pulled himself up, molten stone dripping off him as his cloud lifted him back up and he tried once more to lead this battle away from the civilians. *** ¡°Ryn. Go to the river. About here.¡± He placed a map marker on her HUD. ¡°That¡¯s where the puppets started from,¡± said Bob. ¡°What are we up against?¡± asked Bad. He was smiling broadly. Bob would have to explain at length about taking life and death situations seriously. Perhaps some kind of brutal training regime would be in order? The boy¡¯s dad would be all for it. ¡°A puppet master. Probably a former Minder who¡¯s snuck into Wayfaire,¡± the drone replied. ¡°Shit! Where are those beams coming from?¡± he cursed. ¡°Beams?¡± asked Sally. ¡°Like my beams. Someone has nicked some of my tech. They just cut a half mile scar across the city. Go! Now!¡± Bob barked. Ryn checked the map and vanished. Her friends were wrapped in cool blue flames and appeared next to her. The city was a madhouse. Smoke billowed into the sky and half of the tallest buildings were jagged stumps surrounded by burning rubble. She glanced around and began blipping down the street as her team spread out. If there was a puppet master here they needed to put them down fast. There¡¯s no point killing the helpless victims of someone like that, you had to kill the master. It was a truly unpleasant power, turning bystanders into victims and hostages. She flashed along the street then back to her friends. Simon was throwing out trinkets and devices, setting up a shielded zone with some active defences. The others had spread out slightly and were studiously watching every angle for any hint of a threat. ¡°There¡¯s a handful of people still in the buildings.¡± She pointed to half a dozen intact structures and the team began to advance cautiously. The first people they encountered were quivering in fear at the back of a clothes shop. ¡°Get out here! We need to move you out of danger!¡± barked Jane from where she floated above the road. ¡°No way! We¡¯re safe here! Protect us here!¡± screeched a semi hysterical woman in a shrill voice. Bad strode forwards and knocked the door out of its frame as he entered the shop. ¡°Get your arses out of here run for Blue Street! It¡¯s all happening at the Way so Blue Street is safe!¡± The world went white as another beam of energy fell from the sky and burned yet another strip of the city to glowing rubble and ash. Everyone had flinched. They¡¯d never seen that kind of weapon in use before, certainly not on a civilian population. Bad had spun towards the door and flung up a hand to shield his eyes. As he did so the people behind him swarmed forward, half blinded by the light but knowing where their enemy had been a moment before. They piled on the boy, dragging him down and pummelling with their fists and feet. Ryn blinked away the after images and saw what was happening. She wrapped the people in fire and blipped them away to an empty spot outside of town, leaving a bloody and broken Bad stretched out on the ground. ¡°Get up lazy bones. No way that lot could hurt you!¡± laughed Sally as she moved over to help the boy up. He took her hand and grunted then let go with a yell. Bars of stone had been summoned beneath his body, pinning him like a butterfly to a cork pad. ¡°Shit! Claire! Bad needs you!¡± Sally screamed. ¡°How the fuck did s bunch of lowbies do that?¡± ¡°One of them wasn¡¯t so low!¡± snarled Simon as he glanced through the door. ¡°Ryn, we need collars. Assume everyone is hostile!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t get any! Bob doesn¡¯t have any marked out for me!¡± Ryn fought down a sob at seeing her friend badly injured. ¡°We¡¯ll need to find the fucking master! Claire, can you help him?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll stay here and guard them,¡± said Simon as Claire nodded and knelt down to heal Bad. Simon began throwing contraptions into the wall that drilled in and vanished in a puff of dust. ¡°This place will be safe. Find the master!¡± The others turned and ran onwards down the road. The river burbled happily to their left, immune to the chaos overtaking Wayfaire. A puck broke the surface and leapt upwards only to be reduced to ash by Jane launching a beam of fire into it. ¡°My bad!¡± the girl called as steam from the river drifted into the air. More slaves leapt out at them, having decided their cover was blown, and tried futilely to reach the team. Now they were on alert Ryn and her friends either knocked the people out in quick succession or blipped them out of town. ¡°Well, well. If it isn¡¯t the last best hope for Wayfaire,¡± came a voice from all around them. The team skidded to a stop and took up a defensive formation. Perhaps this won¡¯t have been a complete waste!¡± ¡°Mindscar?¡± called Ryn. ¡°Should have known it was you! You know this is the end? We¡¯re going to put you down!¡± she snarled. Mocking laughter came back. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be too sure about that. Taking you out will make it all worth it. On the off chance you do survive please convey my regards to your father, assuming Magic¡¯s little trick hasn¡¯t killed him!¡± A glint in the sky was all the warning she got. Ryn blipped all her friends back to the chamber with the off world portals, buried deep underground. Back on the surface Bob had finally gotten a bead on the vessel launching the attacks and another glint shone in the sky, far above the atmosphere. The Necklace was faintly visible even during the day. At night it was a glittering band that put the Milky Way to shame and during the day faint spiderwebs showed where Bob¡¯s masterpiece wrapped the Earth protectively. It was still too soon to reveal the platform''s full potential but he could take out the ship burning strips out of his city. The clouds blasted apart, a ring spreading out to reveal the clear sky above. There was no beam of light, this weapon operated beyond the visible spectrum. Pure invisible energy slashed through the atmosphere leaving a very faint glow in its wake as it cut into the ship above the city. The stealth field failed and a vast ovoid of dark metal was revealed, over a mile in diameter at its widest point. The invisible weapon carved nearly a quarter of the ship away, the rear section falling away to one side as the main part of the ship began to fall towards Wayfaire. Bob¡¯s weapon left a new line on the face of the city, throwing up clouds of dust and molten stone before it cut off a fraction of a second later. A series of drones launched from the crippled ship, swarming across Wayfaire to scoop up a number of people before shooting off into the sky and flying East at hypersonic speeds. The ship¡¯s fall was almost graceful when viewed from a distance. Up close it was rushing towards the ground at a terrifying speed. As the prow of the ship slammed into the ground it buckled and pushed back into the body behind it. As the central section of the ship began to expand outwards the world went white. Chapter 213 - As bad as you can imagine The B-1945 would have to be scrapped when it was done with its current task. Thousands of the machines were crawling over the remains of Wayfaire looking for survivors. The engines of the ship he had taken out had been a mix of fission, fusion, and something approaching the plasma systems he used on his own BFOs. It continued mindlessly pulling rubble and irradiated scrap from the location Bob had estimated War would end up as a result of being caught out of cover by the detonation. Its sensors suggested there was a living being somewhere beneath this wrecked structure and the only person Bob could imagine surviving the blast on the surface was War. Or possibly Liberty. If it was Liberty then the photokinetic beam, the one that had sliced Belisarius¡¯ vessel into chunks, would be firing again and disposing of this drone chassis would become a moot point. A half ton slab of rubble was tossed aside casually and the drone heard a rumble from deeper in the crater. It sounded like swearing and had a male voice. The beam didn¡¯t stand down, it remained trained and ready to take out this site at the slightest hint of a ruse. More rubble was scooped aside and a hand was revealed. It spasmed briefly, clenching and unclenching into a fist. With a roar, War threw the rest of the rubble off himself, dragging himself to his feet with a curse. The drone was thrown back as well, landing in a clatter to one side of the crater and quickly scrambling back to its feet. ¡°Where is she?¡± War gasped. He was filthy. His armour was scuffed and burned, his skin had blistered and was peeling, hanging off in long strips. None of this seemed to bother the man as he turned a red-eyed gaze on the drone. ¡°Mindscar got away,¡± said the drone. ¡°Fuck that bitch! Where is Liberty? Where is my friend?¡± snarled the fat man. ¡°God knows! She vanished before the explosion. If she went through the portals she might have survived. The blast travelled through the portals as well and devastated every fucking place on the network so if she hung around the other side she¡¯ll have been fried! All our work on fortifications just got irradiated, every major population centre! Millions of people just died, you fat prick!¡± snapped the machine. War rounded on the drone and shot forward, snatching it up in one hand and shaking it back and forth roughly. ¡°She¡¯s still in the team so she survived. If she was sent after me she¡¯ll be going after the others as well! I¡¯m the only one who stands a chance against her! Maybe Magic but I don¡¯t know¡­ If she kills the rest of us I won¡¯t stand a chance either!¡± War threw the drone aside, dashing it apart on the stones surrounding them and rose into the air on his golden cloud. He shot away to the now free-floating portals that had formed the Monarch¡¯s Way. he paused for a moment before zipping through a portal leading to South America. *** ¡°Well that¡¯s messed up. Do you think he picked the right way?¡± asked Ryn from deep underground. ¡°Don¡¯t know. Don¡¯t care. The Monarchs can look after themselves. What are you seeing through the fires?¡± said a flying drone curtly. The girl shuddered and took a deep breath. ¡°The major sites are doing worse than the smaller settlements. If they¡¯ve got multiple portals then they have multiple burn lines. It¡¯s like someone took a giant branding iron and smashed it into the earth! Places with only one or two portals are doing a lot better. By various definitions of better,¡± the girl said bitterly. ¡°They¡¯ve got long burns reaching nearly a kilometre from their versions of Blue Street but out to the sides is ok. There¡¯s lots of scared survivors though. What''s the word on radiation poisoning?¡± ¡°They¡¯ll need to move and fast. I¡¯m sending down transports to the most populated sites. Give it half an hour and we can begin airlifting them out,¡± replied Bob sadly. ¡°Where the hell are we going to put them?¡± demanded Bolf. ¡°Humans need that sense of home. Losing that will result in severe emotional responses.¡± ¡°Especially as the ¡®attack¡¯ came from something they thought was safe. We need to get John to shut down large parts of the portal network. Some people think it was him! I¡¯m firefighting astroturf accounts spreading that version of events but it¡¯s still getting out there!¡± Bob grouched. ¡°Where are the people going to go Bob?¡± demanded Andrea in a tone she rarely used. ¡°Mars? Bob World? I¡¯m digging tunnels to let us get access to the surface outside the irradiated zone and I¡¯ll bring them in that way. Where do they end up going in the end? I guess it¡¯s up to them to an extent.¡± ¡°What can we do to help?¡± asked Claire. ¡°I can deal with radiation poisoning.¡± ¡°Lots of people can, kid. The issue is the fucking numbers! How many million people can you heal per day? Every day they aren¡¯t healed more and more will die.¡± snapped the drone. Claire blanched. ¡°Is it really that bad?¡± she asked quietly.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°It¡¯s worse.¡± Bob¡¯s voice was flat and cold. ¡°How much worse?¡± groaned Kev as he struggled to sit up. Claire rushed to his side and helped prop him upright. She ran a quick check to make sure he was physically ok. There wasn¡¯t much she could do about the mental wounds. ¡°As bad as you can imagine,¡± said Bob flatly. ¡°God damn it¡¯s quiet! Almost all the voices are far away now. Christ, where did they all go?¡± Kev asked quietly as he rose to his feet. ¡°Wherever any of us go when we die,¡± said Simon bitterly. ¡°There¡¯s some survivors. I¡¯ll tag them on my map so you can guide rescue efforts to them,¡± Kev said, pinching the bridge of his nose. ¡°Thanks. Diverting drones now,¡± said Bob mechanically. ¡°Is she still here?¡± asked Sally quietly. ¡°Who?¡± Kev replied. ¡°Liberty. And Mindscar I guess. Why couldn¡¯t she take us over?¡± Sally gushed. ¡°I protect the team from psychic attacks. Liberty isn¡¯t still in range, Mindscar is immune to me so could be anywhere,¡± Kev said. ¡°We need to nuke Belisarius and hunt that bitch down!¡± snarled Jane, the stone beneath her beginning to glow brighter. ¡°We don¡¯t know where his base is!¡± snapped Bob in frustration. ¡°I do. It¡¯s under Fort Worth. He¡¯s got half a million hostages above him to stop us using orbital weapons,¡± said Kev. ¡°Less than that now,¡± Bob replied angrily. ¡°They had three portals. I¡¯ve got strike teams ready to go. In half an hour he¡¯ll be crawling in B-3000s.¡± ¡°He has countermeasures,¡± said Kev. ¡°I pulled it from Liberty¡¯s mind. She paid him a visit in his nest and guessed he could detonate¡­ something, a device or power system that would wipe out a goodly part of North America.¡± ¡°What an arsehole. I should have wiped that prick out years ago. He was always stealing my shit, you know? Ripping off my systems and never paying for them,¡± grumbled Bob. ¡°I don¡¯t think your royalties are at the top of anyone¡¯s list of problems right now,¡± said Ryn bitterly. ¡°It showed his character. War went to South America but I¡¯m not seeing anything kicking off. Do you think he fucked up and went the wrong way?¡± asked Bob. *** War had rushed to Frost. He¡¯d messaged her and the rest of the team, steering clear of teamchat because Liberty was still in the group. They hadn¡¯t kicked her out so that they could at least confirm she was still alive somewhere. They couldn¡¯t relax until she was dead or preferably freed from Mindscar¡¯s control. The Monarchs had all gone onto high alert, moving to places they were confident they could fight and stand a faint chance of winning. Frost had rushed through portals to get to the very southern tip of South America as soon as War had reached out to her. It had been a toss up between her and Death. Magic was a mad, crafty bastard. None of them knew what he was truly capable of. Of the two most vulnerable members of the Monarchs, War had moved to protect his female colleague. Was it some deep seated sexism? Perhaps. He had weighed the odds and concluded Frost was the one who would most need his help. Frost had frozen the austere and barren islands that tipped the continent she had taken over, coating them in metres of ice. It wouldn¡¯t stop Liberty by any stretch of the imagination. It wouldn¡¯t even slow her down but it gave Frost several advantages. She could perceive disturbances to her ice like a spider could feel its web twitch. She could also pull strength from the presence of so much frozen water and use it as pre-made weapons material. War shot south, moving faster than she¡¯d ever seen him manage. She was touched on some level. He truly did care for her. His golden cloud came to a stop a few metres from her and he spun to scan back along the route he had travelled. ¡°You look like shit,¡± said Frost, glittering eyes mimicking War¡¯s search pattern. ¡°I got nuked,¡± he grumbled. ¡°Any sign of her?¡± ¡°You know I wouldn¡¯t spot her before she attacked and I haven¡¯t created a new icecap as I died so she hasn¡¯t attacked,¡± Frost said with a smirk. ¡°Shit. Which of us did her controller sick her on?¡± War rumbled. ¡°Not me. Thanks for coming but I think I¡¯m ok. What about Life?¡± ¡°He can¡¯t be killed by Liberty. She can knock him about for decades but he won¡¯t die. Magic might be able to manage it but not Lib.¡± ¡°So we need to go pay Death a visit,¡± said Frost firmly. ¡°It¡¯ll be good to see the miserable bastard again.¡± ¡°We?¡± War raised an eyebrow at her. ¡°I¡¯m not letting your bulky ass out of my sight until we either kill Mindscar or capture Liberty,¡± Frost said. ¡°I¡¯m not doing the whole ¡®oh hey, let¡¯s split up, that always works out well¡¯ bullshit.¡± ¡°Fine. We need to move to Asia. How are you with radiation? You¡¯ll have caught a dose moving here. We need Life to patch you up before you get more exposure,¡± said War. ¡°I¡¯m fine. I can use my elemental body to ignore that shit. Life would be handy though. An unkillable tank is always useful, even if they¡¯re fuck all use for fighting someone like Lib,¡± said Frost as her body became translucent glass. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± growled War. He sent a message to Life but Life refused. He had been in Berlin and was busy cleansing people of radiation sickness before they were loaded onto Bob¡¯s bizarre spaceships and shipped back to the furthest outskirts of Wayfaire. ¡°Life is busy. It¡¯s just us.¡± ¡°What about Magic? Never mind. He¡¯s up to some crazy shit on his own isn¡¯t he?¡± asked Frost. ¡°Yep.¡± The pair flew north to the nearest portal. The twin burn marks stretching from either side creating a two kilometre line across the jungle and hills made it easy to locate their destination. Frost kept up her elemental body as they flew briefly through the portals floating above Wayfaire. They emerged to the south of Beijing, the stub of the Wasps tower-hive floated on the horizon in the east. Death had made his home to the south of the old wasp hive, burrowing into and expanding the tunnel network the monsters had made. The pair moved forward, Frost on a cushion of glittering air and War on his golden cloud. They headed towards the Necropolis. The land below them was dead. The surges coming through the portals here had done the least damage of them all. No normal humans lived in this area, only undead constructs and the occasional very stealthy monster. The Necropolis itself was a dull black structure composed of what Death would refer to as ¡°unused resources¡±. Arching ribs of blackened bone, strung with tatters of rotting flesh marked the above surface section of Death¡¯s palace. The twisting paths below the surface were as unknown to Frost and War as they were to everyone else on Earth. ¡°Too slow,¡± came a whisper as something flashed past them heading back towards the portal. Frost was struck in the chest and thrown backwards. She stabilised herself and looked down at the contents of her arms before screaming in rage. Death¡¯s head fell from her hands at the same moment the Necropolis shifted and all the undeath below began to writhe as the salvaged corpses of Megavespids, lesser monsters and humans began to flow together. Chapter 214 - Iron Man gone to the dark side Invisible beams flashed down out of the clear sky. It was night in what had once been China but as glowing lines sliced across the ground they illuminated the rising smoke clouds from previous strikes. Bob was chopping apart the shambling nightmare that Death¡¯s children, now freed of his control, had become. ¡°We don¡¯t need to be here,¡± said Ryn. ¡°This is one you can deal with on your own. Where are Frost and War?¡± ¡°In North America fighting Liberty. Magic and Life are staying out of it at the moment,¡± replied Bob through their comm links. ¡°What do you want us to do?¡± asked Sally. ¡°Head back to the Bunker. Your armour needs decontaminating, then we can decide on a plan of action.¡± *** In North America a furious fight between War and Liberty was devastating the landscape across a vast area. Liberty never missed, she was too fast, and each time her fist caught War he was flung away. If the locals were lucky he went high and had to stabilise himself with his cloud before diving back into the fray. If they were unlucky he ploughed through buildings and towns leaving long scars on the ground. War and Frost were trying to draw Liberty away from the major population centres but she wouldn¡¯t always follow them, preferring to have the leverage of collateral damage to contain Frost¡¯s powers. New glaciers had been created whose melt water would soon cause massive flooding and displacement. A barrier of ice fell in front of Liberty as she paused from smacking War around like a tennis ball. She laughed then vanished and Frost quickly surrounded herself with a hundred metres wide ice cube that began to fall from the sky with her caught at the centre like a mosquito in amber. War suddenly flashed through the ice, blasting it apart and launching chunks into the landscape below that left metres wide craters. His fist caught Liberty in the side and despite her intangibility he was able to throw her off course enough that she missed Frost¡¯s true body by a hair''s breadth. ¡°Get out of here,¡± he snarled, keeping his eyes focussed on where he had sent a now invisible Liberty tumbling. ¡°I won¡¯t leave you alone here!¡± snapped Frost as pillars of ice spun up around her body and began to orbit so fast they blurred together. ¡°That won¡¯t stop her,¡± War said absently. He flickered forwards and avoided an invisible kick, he lashed out with a kick of his own to counter which caught Liberty in the midriff, launching her away again and she quickly vanished once more. ¡°We need to find Mindscar!¡± called Frost as she searched desperately to spot Liberty. ¡°Killing the controller is the only option!¡± ¡°Oh I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll let that happen,¡± came a voice from behind Frost. The blue skinned woman twisted as a fist slammed into her spine with a crunching noise. Frost was briefly engulfed in cool blue fire and then she vanished. ¡°I need you to pin her for a second!¡± called Ryn as she flickered from pace to place in the sky. The clouds above parted and a dozen BFOs descended ponderously, casting huge shadows below them. ¡°Easier said than done, girl. Don¡¯t stay still!¡± barked War. Ryn had already assumed as much. Ten times a second she flickered to another location. It was like watching a child wave a sparkler and leaving afterimages in the air. She was never where she appeared to be and ghostly outlines of Liberty kept flashing through where Ryn had been only a moment before. Being almost as fast as the speed of light wasn¡¯t quite the same as being able to move faster than it, something that Ryn mercilessly exploited for her advantage. ¡°You can¡¯t keep this up forever. One slip little girl and you¡¯re toast!¡± echoed out around them. Ryn increased her flickering movement as War tried to intercept Liberty while she focussed on the girl. ¡°Mindscar really doesn¡¯t like your family does she?¡± he grunted as yet another punch whiffed through empty air. ¡°What makes you say that?¡± asked Ryn as she continued to flicker from place to place as quickly as she could. She began leaving bursts of sun-hot plasma in her wake. The first time Liberty tried to attack through one she screamed and rebounded back into War¡¯s arms. ¡°I¡¯m more of a threat than you,¡± he grunted as he slammed a collar around the temporarily vulnerable Liberty¡¯s neck. ¡°Christ!¡± he growled as he fought to keep Liberty¡¯s arms at her side. Even collared, the woman was monstrously strong. ¡°No. You aren¡¯t.¡± The girls voice was deathly cold as flames wrapped around Liberty and the woman vanished. War¡¯s arms slammed together in front of him and he spun on his cloud to face the girl made of fire.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°You¡¯d better not have killed her.¡± His voice was equally inhuman. ¡°She¡¯s off-world, not dead. In a holding cell on the Necklace. The rest of my team are moving on Belisarius. We could use your help to limit collateral damage,¡± Ryn replied. War glanced down at the ground below them. Craters and divots, explosions and blasts had pockmarked the landscape for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. The deepest of the holes his body had dug glowed red at the bottom. ¡°I think we¡¯re past worrying about that,¡± he said flatly. ¡°C¡¯mon girl. Let¡¯s go see if we can sort out this tinker prick.¡± ¡°Not yet. You need a little bonus first,¡± said Ryn. ¡°Bob?¡± One of the BFOs had moved lower than the rest and was now opening a hatch on its side. ¡°Head in there fat man. You need an anti-psyker mod. If Mindscar was in range you¡¯d already be attacking us but if you go near her unshielded you¡¯ll end up just like Liberty,¡± Bob said over the two fighters comms. ¡°You want me to let you stick something in my brain? Right now?¡± he guffawed and slapped his belly. ¡°Let¡¯s just go-¡± ¡°Get the fucking implant old man,¡± said Ryn harshly as her eyes tracked the ruins below. Some of it cut through what had once been settlements. Those towns were now ruins and god alone knew how many could have died. This made France look like a walk in the park and her darker side was rearing its ugly head. A cool sensation passed through her that she didn¡¯t understand and the heat in her emotions faded somewhat. I¡¯m just keeping a lid on it for now, Ryn. You need some serious counselling but we don¡¯t have time, Kev¡¯s voice whispered in her mind. Part of her was enraged at the intrusion but that feeling was also muted and washed away. War examined the girl and narrowed his eyes. He had earned his name not just from his power but from his history. He¡¯d seen red lining before. Despite years of safety and seclusions this dangerous girl was clearly suffering from what used to be called combat fatigue. ¡°I will accept this implant,¡± he said carefully and flew up towards the maw of the spaceship hovering above them. *** ¡°She¡¯s here. I can¡¯t find her but I can feel how everyone else is primed to react as she want¡¯s,¡± said Kev. "Whether it''s some kind of latent programming or she''s nearby and ready to take direct control... I can''t tell." The rest of the team were spread out around him in the hangar of the BFO. ¡°Let¡¯s go light her up!¡± said Jane happily. ¡°We can flush her out with some of Armand¡¯s summons?¡± ¡°She''ll drive them all crazy! They''re just civilians!¡± snapped Armand. ¡°So what?¡± demanded Jane. ¡°I think he¡¯s worried that we would be putting them in danger,¡± replied Bolf. ¡°None of them are helpless. Even the weakest powers have some combat potential!¡± the fiery girl replied. ¡°That makes it even harder, Jane. We¡¯d have to fight and maybe hurt some of them! We can¡¯t just burn through this problem!¡± said Simon. ¡°Bob, what about the orbital options? Can¡¯t you do a precision strike or whatever it¡¯s called? You¡¯ve got nukes and space lasers!¡± ¡°Belisarius is too deep underground. I could take him out but I¡¯d take out everyone for miles at the same time,¡± came the voice from the walls. ¡°So get Ryn to blip a nuke into his base then?¡± asked Andrea. ¡°Let me copy her power and I¡¯ll do it!¡± ¡°You¡¯ve never seen it. You can¡¯t go where you can¡¯t see. We¡¯d have to fight our way down or light a fire down there,¡± argued Kev. ¡°So let¡¯s do that! We can fix this!¡± snapped Bad as he smashed his fists together in frustration. ¡°How are the drones doing?¡± asked Ryn from behind them. ¡°Stalling. It¡¯s his territory. He knows all the nooks and crannies and he¡¯s boobytrapped every bloody metre,¡± replied Bob. ¡°Ryn! Did you get Liberty?¡± asked Jane, rushing forward to hug the other girl tightly. ¡°Geroff!¡± said Ryn, pushing Jane away. ¡°She¡¯s in Bob''s hands now. If we can deal with Mindscar we might be able to bring her back.¡± ¡°Unlikely,¡± said Kev sadly. ¡°It''s like hypnotic programming. Maybe killing Mindscar will end her control of Liberty but I wouldn¡¯t count on it.¡± ¡°You sure, boy? It would make life a lot easier if we only had to hold her until we dealt with the puppet master,¡± asked Bob. ¡°No, I¡¯m not sure but it¡¯s what my gut is telling me.¡± ¡°Ok. Next on the shittiest job list ever is dealing with Belisarius. Kev, is he controlled?¡± asked Bob. ¡°No idea. He should be visible to my mindmap but I can¡¯t see anything where he should be. Unless the info was corrupted in Liberty¡¯s mind¡­ no. She visited Belisarius before Mindscar got to her so it should be right.¡± ¡°So we blast our way in and kill the shrivelled prick. You did say he was like- I dunno -a husk tied into a machine right? Once we clear the bots he¡¯ll be easy meat!¡± said Jane hopefully. ¡°It¡¯s looking like that might be the best option. I don¡¯t know where he¡¯s gotten his manufacturing capacity but he¡¯s got far too many drones to be making and running them himself,¡± replied Bob. ¡°You got a mod that lets you run infinite versions of yourself right? Why wouldn¡¯t he?¡± asked Sally. ¡°First of all we have very different power sets, despite the superficial similarities. We''ve known each other for years and we used to talk, back in the day. I suppose it¡¯s possible it¡¯s all him but I doubt it. Best bet? I¡¯d say he¡¯s using AI or some other form of control nexus to manage the load. I still do something similar for rote tasks, you¡¯ve no idea how boring it is to do a million mindless, repetitive tasks at the same time across thousands of incarnations,¡± said Bob. ¡°So AI then? Will that help him or hinder him? AI can be pretty dumb sometimes,¡± scoffed Jane. ¡°This isn¡¯t like the old LLC type of thing, or I doubt it is anyway. He was more of an enhancer of old earth tech rather than a true tinker. That¡¯s unfair. He¡¯s a proper tinker but he couldn¡¯t modify material or harvest resources like I can. So he was stuck with the materials he could get his hands on,¡± said Bob thoughtfully. ¡°How does that affect what we¡¯re up against? He¡¯s been buying mats off the market, clearly!¡± said Simon. ¡°His stuff is light on ¡®magical¡¯ materials as a result. He¡¯s an amateur!¡± ¡°He¡¯s a very fucking dangerous man with a shit load of very effective, disposable war machines. Think of him like Iron Man gone to the dark side and you¡¯re not far off,¡± Bob snapped back. ¡°You¡¯re barely a spark to his candle at the moment boy!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll spark his fucking candle if I get a chance,¡± grumbled Simon. ¡°What does that even mean?¡± hissed Andrea, earning a scowl in reply. ¡°Ryn. War¡¯s surgery is done. Go grab him and we¡¯ll come up with a plan. Might as well have a heavy hitter in place just in case,¡± said Bob. ¡°I want his head,¡± said Sally quietly. ¡°That ship killed my whole family. No one gets between me and him when we reach his little nest!¡± she finished in a snarl. Chapter 215 - A parting shot War refused to let Ryn¡¯s team join him on the assault. ¡°You¡¯re kids! Leave this to me and the drones,¡± he said solemnly, earning scowls from the ¡°kids¡± in question. ¡°They¡¯re good fighters. They¡¯re the best we have to support you,¡± replied Bob. ¡°They¡¯re the only group we have in support because all the portal zones are glowing with radiation!¡± snapped War. ¡°We don¡¯t need them though. I¡¯ll cut through these bots and then we can work on fixing Liberty.¡± ¡°You might need us,¡± offered Simon. ¡°I can bypass defences, throw up shields and dig tunnels nearly as fast as an earth mover.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going alone,¡± ground out War before he turned and walked to the edge of the open hangar. The BFO was hanging in the sky a mile above Belisarius¡¯ main base which was being swarmed by Bob¡¯s combat drones. The drones were taking a beating from automated defence turrets and from above it looked like Bob was playing Command and Conquer badly, driving swarms of units into the tunnels he¡¯d secured to face the defensive positions entrenched below ground. War leapt off the lip of the hangar and fell to earth with a thump that threw up a cloud of dust before he rushed into the nearest tunnel entrance. ¡°What a prick,¡± muttered Jane. ¡°Let¡¯s go anyway. We can use him as a diversion!¡± said Armand. ¡°How so?¡± asked Bad. ¡°Let him and Bob draw all the fire while I cut a tunnel straight to the Throne. Then we zip in and take Bell End out,¡± Simon said with a grin. Armand conjured a swarm of small birds that shot out of the hangar and circled down quickly to zoom into the secure entrance to Belisarius¡¯ bunker. He shrugged as the rest turned to look at him. ¡°Might as well sell it properly, non?¡± he smirked. ¡°I really don¡¯t think this is the way to go here, guys,¡± said Bob carefully. ¡°Why don¡¯t we just take a minute and see how War does on his own?¡± All eyes turned to Ryn who shrugged. The team was wrapped in fire and appeared on the ground below. She sent out a wisp of flame to trail behind the main attack but then she turned to Simon. ¡°Ok then. Dig!¡± she laughed almost maniacally as she pointed at the dirt between them all. Simon grinned and pulled out a bunch of shiny metallic devices that he scattered across the ground. They sprouted tiny legs and shuffled around based on some information Ryn wasn¡¯t privy to before extending silvery thread between them. For a moment nothing happened then they began to rotate along the threads and quickly dug down into the ground. A light flared out causing the kids to step back and the soil and rock within the circle glowed and then vanished as a tunnel rapidly descended into the darkness. Once it was ten metres or so below the ground the team moved forward and glanced down into the glowing maw falling through the earth. Bad leaned forward and spat down into the hole. ¡°What?¡± he asked as he received dirty looks from most of the team. ¡°How long until it reaches the-¡± began Sally before the light increased in intensity forcing them all to back away as a wash of heat emerged from the new tunnel. ¡°Until it reaches the armour?¡± asked Simon. ¡°About that long. He¡¯ll know we¡¯re opening a second front now but we¡¯ll be fine unless he can tunnel really, really quickly. How¡¯s the fat man getting on?¡± ¡°He¡¯s slaughtering the bots but there are loads for them. They aren¡¯t stopping him but the sheer weight of the damn things is slowing him and Bob¡¯s drones down,¡± Ryn replied, checking on the sphere of perception her wisp was providing. ¡°This place is as bad as the Bunker!¡± ¡°I always wondered why we never ran trials of assaulting the Bunker. Maybe Bob was worried we¡¯d build the wrong skillset?¡± asked Bolf. ¡°No. Sure, I didn¡¯t want to create templates to beat my own defences but it was just too much hassle to replicate them. The hive was the best option seeing as we were meant to be training you up to fight the Void.¡± Bob¡¯s voice ground out in their comm links. ¡°War and I are pulling a lot of his forces away but some of the energy signatures are shifting to reinforce where the Throne should be. You won¡¯t be unopposed when you swan in.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be fine!¡± laughed Jane as she hovered over the hole like a diver on a board waiting for the sign to dive. ¡°We¡¯re halfway there if the schematics were right,¡± said Simon. ¡°Now we¡¯re through the outer armour layers it should speed up.¡±This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°What about other tunnels?¡± asked Andrea. ¡°If we cut through other tunnels he will be able to flank us?¡± ¡°The cutter is melting them closed. Besides we can teleport,¡± said Simon, shooting a smile at Ryn who nodded. ¡°We might as well just send a wisp down there once we hit the Throne room. I can blip him out to the BFO and then Bob can collar him,¡± Ryn suggested. ¡°I want his head!¡± snarled Sally. ¡°Me too but we need to know what other shit he¡¯s got lurking around. Maybe he¡¯s mind controlled and he¡¯ll blow the base as soon as his physical body is threatened,¡± Ryn replied gently. Sally snorted and looked away. ¡°Almost there¡­ and boom.¡± The light from the tunnel dimmed leaving a faint red glow from the molten walls in place of the actinic white light. ¡°Send in a wisp!¡± Ryn opened a hand and another of her little fire-wisps took off and headed down into the tunnel. The armoured layers were obvious, molten metal dripping down the glowing walls and gradually cooling, losing the red glow and becoming a scalding hot grey colour. Sally leapt forward and vanished into the hole, tucking her arms in close to keep her limbs away from the worst of the heat. Her hair began to sizzle and smoke as it burned away in the latent temperature before her helmet sealed over her head. Bad leapt after her with a curse, unbothered by the heat he didn¡¯t close his helmet and his yelling at Sally for being a damn fool echoed up to the rest of the team. Jane shot down after them. Sally was completely focussed on her revenge and hadn¡¯t stopped to check that the tunnel had broken through into the control room. If she had taken the time to ask Simon would have pointed out he had left three inches of uncut rock between the end of the tunnel and Belisarius¡¯ Throne room. As a result she slammed feet first into the thin layer of stone before her momentum shattered it and she fell through. A shower of glowing stone fell around her as she slammed feet first into something that made a very expensive noise as it was crushed. Sally pulled herself out of the wreckage and strode towards a metal sarcophagus. She pulled back a fist and slammed it into the surface leaving a large dent. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you,¡± came a male voice from all around her. ¡°Fuck you. You killed my family.¡± Her fist blurred and struck the metal coffin like a jackhammer, filling the room with a constant ringing noise. ¡°Sally!¡± yelled Bad as he reduced another expensive looking piece of technology to rubble as he landed. He staggered upright and rushed over to catch her fist as it blurred back behind her head. ¡°Stop!¡± ¡°Too late, children. This was a mistake,¡± came the monotone voice from all around them. ¡°Get them out!¡± snarled Bob to Ryn over the comm link. ¡°It¡¯s going to blow!¡± Bob had noticed the massive energy spike as soon as Sally had slammed into Belisarius¡¯ lair. The BFO had begun moving away from what he assumed was going to be a massive blast zone. ¡°Get them out NOW!¡± Ryn didn¡¯t pause. She snatched the team mates she could see around the entrance to the tunnel up in lukewarm fire and blipped them back to the entrance to the offworld portals deep in Bob¡¯s Bunker. She willed her wisp to fall faster, turning it into a streak of orange as it shot down to allow her to get a lock on Bad and Sally. ¡°Go now!¡± snarled Bob. ¡°Two seconds! Got them!¡± Ryn snatched away her last two friends and disappeared herself. They appeared in the Bunker and Sally¡¯s fist flailed forwards, throwing her off balance and causing her to land in a heap. She sprang back to her feet in an instant and lunged at Ryn. ¡°I had him!¡± she screamed as her fist collided with Ryn¡¯s helmet, knocking the sense out of her head before Bad and Andrea dragged her away from the stunned girl. ¡°Look,¡± said Bob from the walls. He opened a video stream to their implants. The view was from orbit, being relayed from the Necklace, and it showed North America blossoming with bright white flowers. The flowers covered a huge proportion of the continent. ¡°Is that what I think it is?¡± asked Ryn as Jane settled to the ground her flames grew dim. They were all absorbed by the feed from Bob. The scene switched and it showed Europe suffering the same fate. It switched again and again. Every continent was erupting in fiery flowers that spanned the world. ¡°He had the damn planet rigged to blow,¡± said Bob. Sally had gone pale as her mask flipped back and she vomited down Ryn¡¯s chest. She ignored it. ¡°Holy shit. Holy Shit. Holy fucking shit,¡± muttered Bad as he began rocking back and forth. ¡°Belisarius just blew up himself and as a parting shot he took out the planet,¡± snarled Armand. ¡°War is gone,¡± came a voice from behind them. Life stepped through from the entrance leading to the upper levels of the Bunker. ¡°He died in the blast. As did Liberty. I assume the ship she was on got caught in a blast and as she was collared she wasn¡¯t protected.¡± His voice was flat. ¡°We need to start running people through the portals to get them off world. We can send them to Mars or the colony. Hell, even the stations or the Necklace. Screw the rads. We¡¯ll get healers set up down here to treat them as they run through,¡± said Bob. ¡°I¡¯ll wait here for them to arrive. You-¡± Life narrowed his eyes at Ryn¡¯s team, ¡°-should get out of my sight.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not our-¡± began Simon but Sally raised a hand and waved him to silence. She turned and moved through the portal back to Mars. ¡°I¡¯ll stay here and help treat the survivors,¡± offered Claire, receiving a nod of acquiescence from Life. ¡°I can¡¯t do portals but I can blip people about.¡± Ryn summoned a wisp that floated up towards the stone ceiling above them. ¡°Tell me where I need to go?¡± ¡°We¡¯re looking at nuclear winter and a ruined world. I¡¯ve put out an override message on the Bob-net. Everyone with a Bphone or an implant left alive is getting directed to run for Wayfaire. Unfortunately most of the portal sites got nuked so they¡¯re now floating over craters and can¡¯t be reached easily. I¡¯ve got bots working on bridges. I¡¯ll send you a list of locations. Don¡¯t stop and ask for permission, get there, blip them here and move on.¡± Bob¡¯s voice was breaking as he reviewed the latest data. ¡°We¡¯ve lost something like eighty percent of the population. Belisarius chose his bomb sites well,¡± Bob finished bitterly. ¡°Magic is going to help. He¡¯ll rescue the survivors in Africa with his flying Island and pocket dimension,¡± said Life in a dead voice. ¡°If you could focus your efforts across Europe and the Americas, that would be the most efficient use of your time.¡± ¡°We could really use John right about now,¡± muttered Bob from the wall speakers. Ryn grimaced. She wished her Dad was here as well. Chapter 216 - Speak normally you idiot John wasn¡¯t unaware of what was going on around him. He knew his team was struggling to find a way to deal with the Partlow and he watched their first, ineffectual efforts with a wry amusement. His new perspective was making it hard to engage emotionally with what was happening. He could see what could be and what might have been. The Void creatures they¡¯d slaughtered on Bob World One had been unwilling conscripts, just like himself. The Void and the Alliance used the same system in different ways. The Alliance gave everyone powers and let them fight it out whereas the Void subsumed a species, creating a single potent sentient being and converting the rest of the population into mindless slaves capable of rapid biological advancements. They converted Concepts from Outside into fuel for material beings to achieve abilities that defied the basic laws of the universe. It had been enlightening to realise that pre-system human science hadn¡¯t been far off the truth. The insane powers humanity had developed since the Advent were in direct contradiction of reality and wholly dependent on exploiting the Outside. Pushing the infinite into the finite voided the natural order. He knew who his enemies were, perhaps for the first time since those golden letters had appeared before his eyes. The system was a farm for those glowing motes of light and darkness he had met when he died. The motivations of those beings were still unknown to him, despite his vast new perception. John understood Magic¡¯s role in his current situation. The killings and infiltrations the half-man had carried out without the knowledge of the other Monarchs had all been aimed at creating a being like John. John would kill him when they went home and he knew Magic had known that would be the price, one Magic had opted to pay willingly. He struggled to narrow his perception, to bring himself back to the here and now, as far as that was possible anymore. His eyelids flickered open revealing empty orbs that contained a burning spark of purple fire that stared at the sky from the field of force he was laid out on. He drew a deep breath and the scents of an unspoiled world mingled with those of the fires and destruction the Carnival had wrought over the last few days as they attempted to complete the Systems mission. The sounds overwhelmed him more than the scents. He could hear them all at once. It was like hearing echoes at the same time as the original sound. Yells, explosions, the susurration of the breeze and the almost inaudible chittering of the Partlows merged into a deafening symphony. It took him another ten minutes to wrestle his hearing back into something resembling its old form. During that time he came to terms with how his sense of touch had changed. The armour prevented the wind from touching his skin but he felt it anyway, blending in with the physical contact his skin shared with his power armour. He no longer needed armour so with a flex of willpower to use his bridge to the Outside, he unmade it. ¡°Dad!¡± yelled Evie as John rose into the air, his armour being banished to the Outside like mist dispersed by a strong wind. Her yell distracted him and he lurched in the air. He wasn¡¯t using teleportation to hover in place, he had simply altered his reality to stand where he wanted to. In his weird vision he could see the Partlow swarming below, they couldn¡¯t hide from him. Their abilities couldn¡¯t affect inorganic material so Doris still stood strong despite their increasingly inventive efforts to affect the machine. Strange flows of energy were being constructed and shaped through their bodies to try and apply their life stealing powers to the robot. He blinked his empty eyes and the alien constructs fell apart as he cut them off from the Outside. His impossible gaze swept across the rest of the aliens and he cut them off from the source of their abilities. They were now reduced to what they had been before. Sentient gas clouds across the land below him began to shriek at frequencies normally only detectable by IR spectroscopy. A decision presented itself to his abstract mind. He could see the myriad paths that his choices might lead to. On the one hand he could unmake these new conscripts. In a way it would be the merciful choice, their lives under the system would consist of artificial conflict for the rest of their species existence. Removing them from the System was also possible but that would be leaving them to the mercy of other members of their species who retained their powers. The Partlow were not a peaceable race, even their reproduction involved stealing gases from another of their race until they had enough to divide into smaller versions of themselves. Stripping them of their power would lead to far more gruesome deaths for these creatures than being unmade from their own perspective. He made his decision. The Partlow vanished into a pocket dimension that replicated their own world. He stole their powers to provide the Conceptual energy to create it and sealed it behind them. ¡°John, what did ye do with the feckers?¡± demanded Reg. ¡°Sent them away.¡± John¡¯s voice was flat. ¡°John!¡± Vic barrelled into him while still on fire and bounced off, unable to move him in the air despite arriving at high speed. He raised a hand in a flash and rested it on the back of her armoured neck to steady her. The flames died away quickly as she realised she should be burning him. ¡°How are you not hurt?¡± she whispered, pulling back before flinching as she met his eyeless gaze. ¡°Everything is contained in me,¡± he replied as his mouth quirked into a facsimile of a smile. ¡°¡±Dad?¡± asked Evie as she hovered next to him. ¡°What happened to you?¡± ¡°Gazed into the infinite.¡± ¡°What the hell is wrong with you John?¡± demanded Sam from Evie¡¯s platform. ¡°Speak normally you idiot!¡± The woman had recovered from her near miss with the attack the Partlow had landed on one of her clones but she was still shaky on her feet, leaning on Raoul who propped her up with one arm.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°Finite infinity is impossible.¡± John scowled and the world seemed to crackle with purple lights for a moment. ¡°Better? I¡­ I am still an I. Strange. I¡¯m losing the bridge. No, the bridge can¡¯t accept a ¡®me¡¯. Not now. But if it can at any now then it should now as well!¡± He wobbled and fell down onto Evie¡¯s platform, the purple fire in his eye sockets flickered and grew dimmer. Then it stabilised as a faint caricature of its former brightness. ¡°What the fuck happened to you John? You don¡¯t have biometrics anymore, you sure as shit aren¡¯t human anymore. Is it even you?¡± demanded Bob over the comm link. ¡°You showered us with petunias,¡± said John. ¡°What? Are you mad now?¡± Bob asked, his voice worried. ¡°Gazing into the infinite, must bend rather than break. I must bend rather than break,¡± John replied. ¡°When we first met you smashed a flower display and we got covered in petunias,¡± said Evie quickly. ¡°Can¡¯t you talk properly?¡± she concluded, turning her helmet from Bob to her dad. ¡°Transmission of knowledge is the purpose. So finite,¡± John said unhappily. He was beginning to adapt, he could feel himself becoming the limited being he had used to be once again. With the change he could feel the new power slipping away. Not completely but he had been almost a god in those few minutes and now he was little more than he had been before. The threads of fate made it clear this was the right thing to do but he could no longer follow the flow of time into the past and future, he had to trust the knowledge his god-self had left in his mind. ¡°You are no longer what you were,¡± said Felix. ¡°Were. What are you now?¡± asked Felicity coldly. ¡°I¡¯m- I¡¯m not sure,¡± John coughed as he drew himself up, straightening his back as he looked at the twins. One thing that he had left himself was knowledge of the pair''s future. They would be the first to understand. ¡°I¡¯ve dealt with the locals.¡± ¡°How?¡± demanded the twins simultaneously. ¡°I put them somewhere else.¡± Mission Status: Complete Human antagonists: 10 Partlow Survivors: 0 You will be returned to the Kipragtsek shortly. ¡°What about the Essence?¡± demanded Evie. ¡°We don¡¯t need it,¡± John replied. ¡°You¡¯ve tricked the system?¡± wondered Flash. ¡°That isn¡¯t possible,¡± said Felicity flatly. ¡°It sees everything. Hears everything,¡± added Felix. ¡°I know. It¡¯s in us and we can¡¯t lie to it. I¡¯ll have to hope you can trust me. We should dig in, shortly doesn¡¯t mean what the system thinks it means,¡± said John. His eyes flared brightly for a microsecond and he appeared on the ground near Doris. ¡°What were they?¡± asked Bob. ¡°The Flerubles?¡± he coughed and righted his mind, using his new strength robbed him of his coherence temporarily. ¡°The locals were gas creatures. They had no diversity like in humans. They all had basically the same power,¡± said John absently. ¡°I¡¯m going to open a portal back to Earth.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t the barrier stop it? I haven¡¯t been able to connect to the entanglement communicator.¡± Purple light flickered around John and a portal flared open. The azure event horizon was surrounded by a purple nimbus. A drone approached the field and cocked its head to look at John. ¡°What¡¯s up with the new colours?¡± it asked. ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± John lied. He couldn¡¯t explain the truth to his friends and family, not yet. He needed to get back to the ship and get help with the bridge. That was the most important thing he¡¯d learned during his temporary transcendence. ¡°Anything else I should know?¡± asked the bot suspiciously. John shook his head. ¡°Go on, go check how things are back home.¡± John knew some of it from his memories of the threads of fate but he had to let the rest of the team find out naturally. As the drone moved to enter the portal, raising a hand to test the barrier cautiously, another drone barrelled out and knocked it over, leaving the pair in a tangle of metallic limbs. ¡°Ah, hell,¡± said Bob over the comm links. ¡°Things went south back home. Jesus, they went as far south as you can get!¡± he cursed as the robots straightened themselves out and rose to their feet. In answer to the babble of questions that spewed from the team, Bob quickly explained the outline of Mindscar''s rebellion and Belisarius¡¯ scorched earth attack on the planet. ¡°It¡¯s a mess. A lot of the survivors have been moved off of Earth, either to Mars, the Moon or Bob World One,¡± the drone finished. It took a few minutes of grim silence for the team to gather themselves, the shock at the events back home having knocked the wind out of their sails. ¡°So the portal to BW1 stayed up?¡± asked Flash. ¡°How are things there?¡± ¡°Crowded. There were a few tens of millions left after Belisarius blew up half the world. About half have moved out. The rest are traumatised and dangerous, turning on each other. It¡¯s like Belisarius managed to flick a switch and create millions of Scunners!¡± replied Bob. ¡°Or Mindscar is still running sound and causing havoc,¡± offered Sam. ¡°When I get that bitch in my sights¡­¡± ¡°What are Magic and Life doing?¡± asked Vic. They had already been assured that Ryn and her team were fine, it had been the first question Vic spat at the drone in panic and rage. ¡°Magic has gathered a lot of people into some kind of pocket dimension. He won¡¯t let them out and won¡¯t take them off world. Life is spending his time clearing people of radiation poisoning before they go through the portals. John¡­ they want you to close most of the portals. Just leave the off world ones and I agree with them,¡± said Bob unhappily. ¡°What about the other survivors?¡± John asked. ¡°They¡¯ve gone mental! Not the technical term I¡¯m sure but it hits all the highlights. Wayfaire is a radioactive battleground of comic book supervillains. The fuckers are staying well away from the Bunker for now but that¡¯ll change when one of them gets strong enough they think they¡¯ll stand a chance. If we close the portals at least the rest of the bastards can¡¯t come and join in,¡± Bob replied. ¡°Ok.¡± John paused for a moment as he felt for the portals in the back of his mind. They existed like itches in his consciousness and he switched off all of them bar the ones linking Wayfaire''s off world colonies to the depths of the Bunker. ¡°What about Wayfaire? How many survivors were there?¡± ¡°Not many. Some of the outer suburbs did ok but the explosions propagated through your- uh the portals.¡± ¡°So anywhere in the line of a portal got nuked?¡± asked John bitterly. He knew it already but some kind of preternatural control overrode him and forced him to act as though this was a shock. Or maybe his memories were coming back to him as it was revealed, allowing him to be sincere? He could no longer gauge his feelings. He felt trapped by a terrible purpose and every action had to lead him down that bleak road. ¡°Not exactly nuked. It was some kind of knock off plasma reactor supported with various updated old world nuke power plants. The effect was much the same though,¡± Bob¡¯s voice was bitter and angry in their ears. ¡°We need to get home!¡± snapped Vic. ¡°We can jump to level ninety two right now! John, we need to get back to Ryn!¡± He embraced his wife and pulled back to meet her eyes then he nodded, his face a mask of pained frustration. He ignored the fear in her eyes when they met his empty sockets. He could take them home right now. However he knew if he resumed his transcendence at this point he¡¯d be lost forever. The system would not react kindly and it would attack them mercilessly. If they managed to survive that he would become so alien in comparison to his friends none of them would understand his actions and there would be no way back. He needed time to stabilise and recover his old personality before fully using the power again. He simulated a love and affection that he couldn¡¯t currently feel to comfort his wife as he focussed on integrating his bridge to Outside into his normal personality. Chapter 217 - The black and the gold ¡°How much longer until the ship gets back?¡± grumbled Flash. ¡°Who bloody knows?¡± snapped Evie. John had gone for a walk around the area within the boundary. Every day he walked the perimeter alone, if anyone else joined him he would walk it again on his own afterwards so the team had given up. They had opted to use their rooms inside the stash while they waited. Flash and Evie were standing just to the side of the churned mud that formed the ground outside the portal at Doris¡¯ right foot. ¡°He seems to be getting better,¡± said Flash cautiously. ¡°Does he? Do you think you knew him well enough to judge?¡± snapped Evie. ¡°I¡¯ve known him for over a decade, Evie! I was with you when we took down the Scunners for god¡¯s sake!¡± Flash caught himself and controlled the heat in his voice. ¡°He¡¯s less like he was when he first woke up anyway,¡± he said, hoping that phasing wouldn¡¯t piss off the increasingly unbalanced woman. Evie¡¯s shoulders fell slightly and she blew out a long breath. ¡°Yeah, a bit. But something¡¯s off. He¡¯s not telling us everything. One thing Dad never did was lie to me. You know he fell out with my mum about pretending Santa was real? He thought it set a bad precedent and kids figuring out their parents were liars wasn¡¯t healthy,¡± she said softly. ¡°What about the tooth fairy?¡± ¡°I woke up with him with an arm under my pillow. He wasn¡¯t as stealthy as he thought he was,¡± she said with a wry smile. ¡°So he did lie to you a bit then?¡± Evie scowled at him and he figured he¡¯d stop while he was ahead. ¡°It¡¯s frustrating to us all. I understand.¡± She turned a glare on him that could melt steel just as Bob-prime came out of the stash. Flash breathed a soft sigh of relief for the distraction. ¡°What are you two bickering about? Just screw already!¡± Both of them turned glares on the robot who somehow failed to burst into flames. ¡°I¡¯m going to have a chat with John. You two are wanted inside. Vic is busy cooking up plans for when we get home.¡± ¡°Fine.¡± Evie stomped past the spider-bot, showering the machine¡¯s legs in mud, followed by Flash who was wearing a much more thoughtful expression. ¡°Kids,¡± muttered the drone as it moved on six legs. Bob hoped he would get some more sense out of John this time but even if he still had to breathe he wouldn¡¯t hold his breath. The grass and brush around the perimeter of the barrier, which was considerably larger than the one they¡¯d been caught in so long ago in Normanby, had been worn flat. John¡¯s endless marching in circles hadn¡¯t reduced it to a muddy slush like the ground around Doris and the stash but the daily walks had reduced it to a mat of crushed greenery that gave off a faint chlorophyll scent, like broken ferns. The spider-bot headed anti-clockwise. There was no point chasing him and John always walked clockwise so it was easier to intercept him than catch up. Bob was careful that his drone kept a good distance from the barrier. It was a long time ago but one of his many ¡°blessings¡± from the system was a functionally perfect memory and he remembered what happened to anyone who touched the barrier that the system hadn¡¯t cleared for it. It caught sight of John as the man emerged from behind a patch of trees, Zeeg trailing along in his wake. Since whatever the hell had happened to him Zeeg had become glued to his side. The bot waved one of its front legs and hurried over. ¡°At least the weathers better today, eh?¡± said Bob. Zeeg sniffed the wind and snorted. ¡°It¡¯ll get bad again this evening,¡± the dog said. ¡°Just like being at home eh?¡± the bot said cheerfully. ¡°Not really,¡± the dog replied flatly. The bot moved to the side and passed the dog who had blocked his access to John who was studying the barrier as he moved and muttering nonsense to himself. ¡°How are you feeling mate?¡± ¡°Juxtaposed across the bridge the concept is anathema to- hmm? Oh hi Bob,¡± said John turning the purple embers that replaced his eyes on the drone. The purple light flared for a split second. ¡°Interesting. You¡¯re not really there are you? You¡¯re partially Outside as well but you¡¯re shielded from the knowing.¡± ¡°Yep, no one ever accused me of being too knowing. John, we¡¯re worried about you.¡± ¡°Such is life. To see but not know.¡± ¡°You¡¯re sounding like that floating bastard more and more mate! Whatever Magic did to you we need you to come back. All the way back!¡± John stopped when Bob said Magic and his eyes flared brighter again. Zeeg growled low and deep as she moved round to put her shoulder against John. ¡°Vic and Evie need you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still here,¡± John said with a shrug before looking back to the barrier. ¡°No your fucking not. You¡¯re like a shit actor pretending to be you!¡± snapped Bob. This drew John¡¯s gaze back to his friend and he paused. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. It is as it has to be if we¡¯re to thread the needle. I¡¯ll- I will make some time for Vic and Evie. I know it¡¯s hard to understand but I can¡¯t explain. If I do¡­ it¡¯s like a butterfly farting in the Amazon!¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°You don¡¯t read out like you used to on Identify John. I just get squiggles and random symbols now,¡± said Bob quietly as John resumed walking the perimeter of their temporary prison, leaning slightly on Zeeg as he went. ¡°That will cause some problems,¡± said John. ¡°Why? We¡¯ve been together since the fricking start! Remember? I¡¯m your friend but you won¡¯t talk to me?¡± ¡°Want and won¡¯t aren¡¯t the same. Petunias falling like autumn rain. Your speech when I launched Bob Sat One was far too florid,¡± John replied absently. ¡°If I can¡¯t talk to Vic, why would I be able to talk to you? Remember the wasps?¡± The bot stopped in its tracks then scurried to catch up. ¡°The pain wasps?¡± the bot asked in confusion. ¡°Those wasps. The poison was a bit like this. It burned through me and while it was there I couldn¡¯t be me. That¡¯s all I can say. For their sake I daren¡¯t say anymore.¡± ¡°Fucking riddles! Speak plainly! Whose sake?¡± barked the bot. ¡°All of them. I¡¯m sorry Bob. I¡¯m getting a handle on it. The bridge is stabilising but it¡¯s like after I got a dose of the poison. Different kinds of poison. Of the soul, not the body,¡± John said softly. ¡°It¡¯s not poison. I¡¯m not being harmed by it. Just changed.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t exactly reassuring me here mate,¡± grumbled the machine. ¡°It isn¡¯t his job to reassure you. It¡¯s our job to trust,¡± said Zeeg. The drone ran a scanner over the dog and found she was exactly the same as before. Zeeg Identified the same as well so whatever the hell was wrong with John didn¡¯t seem to be infectious. Despite becoming emotionally distant he had continued sharing a room and a bed with Vic and she hadn¡¯t suffered any glitches on her status screens either. ¡°We won¡¯t be here much longer. Then circumstances will change and the infinite can be reduced to the finite again,¡± said John. ¡°It¡¯s like a tear. Like a rip or a drop of water,¡± he muttered as he reached out a hand to the barrier. Bob lunged forward but Zeeg knocked the drone aside as John¡¯s hand ran down the rainbow waterfall and the colours below where he touched it faded to black. ¡°He¡¯s been able to touch the barrier since it happened. He ran his hand around the entire thing on the first day. He hasn¡¯t let the others see,¡± said Zeeg as the drone righted itself. ¡°Can¡¯t see the bridge. Maybe that¡¯s the problem?¡± His purple sockets focused on the dog and he smiled, a genuine smile. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to see! Good girl Zeeg!¡± her tail wagged and knocked the drone off its feet once more. ¡°John, we need to work this out. The twins¡­ they¡¯re pissed. They think the change in your status means something. Something bad,¡± said the drone. ¡°They¡¯re right and wrong. It means something but it¡¯s Magic¡¯s solution and I can¡¯t see another way,¡± said John absently, stepping back from the barrier. ¡°Let¡¯s go. It won¡¯t be much longer now. Then we can all see.¡± ¡°Longer?¡± asked the drone as it scurried to keep up with John and Zeeg. ¡°Or shorter. It depends on your perspective,¡± said John as he sped up to a fast walk. The drone and dog trotted along behind him as they approached the towering mech in the distance. ¡°What about the portal?¡± called the drone. ¡°The portal is only temporary. All of them are,¡± said John. ¡°The permanent ones?¡± asked Bob. ¡°Will fade when I die. That¡¯s why I need to show you the concepts,¡± replied John calmly. ¡°Will this portal last after we get picked up? What the fuck are Concepts?¡± ¡°It won¡¯t. Leaving it open on a world being semi-bridged would draw too much attention. It sees everything but it¡¯s hard to pay attention to so much. The details get lost to the black and the gold in the sheer volume,¡± John muttered. ¡°But that they would certainly see.¡± ¡°The twins? The black and the gold?¡± ¡°Bob, I¡¯m not talking about the twins,¡± the purple motes narrowed on the drone as it caught up to John. This was the most lucid he¡¯d been thus far. He was almost making sense to Bob. Well, kind of at any rate. The hive mind of many Bobs was still largely baffled by John¡¯s semi coherent ramblings. ¡°Then what the hell are you talking about?¡± ¡°The Great Old Ones. The Cthulhu''s of our little thread. They¡¯ll wake up sooner or later and it needs to be not this now. Otherwise we¡¯ll all unravel.¡± ¡°Sounds bad,¡± offered Zeeg. ¡°No shit,¡± John laughed. It sounded almost sincere. ¡°Let¡¯s go have a chat with our errant non identical Prospero¡¯s.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± said Bob as they squelched through the mud and into the stash. They moved past the magitech machinery and construction facilities and swung open the door to the soundproofed living quarters. ¡°-we must take this further! He is putting us all at risk!¡± snapped Felicity. ¡°Risk! If he is compromised then we must act in defence of the system!¡± added Felix. Their backs were to the door and as the sound of outside washed over them they spun. They both stepped back, bumping into the table around which the rest of the team was sitting. ¡°Yeah. No. You fucking zealots can fuck right off,¡± growled Evie from where she sat at one end of the table. The twins moved around the table, keeping an eye on Zeeg and John as Prime shuffled away into the stash, letting the door swing shut and ending the quiet rumble of the factory. There was a drone at the table already so if things got tense Bob was more than happy to have his prime vessel away from any danger. ¡°Who are the black and the gold?¡± demanded Felicity. ¡°Tell the truth!¡± ¡°You already know what I¡¯ll say. If you make me say it we unravel all the threads. I know you don¡¯t want that for humanity,¡± John replied. ¡°Now you step into the messianic mold? Why should we trust you?¡± snapped Felix and chords of black power wove around his body. Felicity quickly summoned bands of gold to orbit herself. John raised his hands defensively while Zeeg crouched down and snarled. Evie rose to her feet and her chair scraped backwards, freeing her for action. ¡°Easy! No need for this to go bad!¡± John pleaded. ¡°Bad. Unravel. You spout nonsense half the time but you¡¯re lucid when you need to be!¡± Felix argued. ¡°You have been weirdly selective in when you babble, love,¡± said Vic quietly, a thread of hurt in her voice. John smiled sadly at her and nodded. ¡°It¡¯s not my choice. Just like this isn¡¯t.¡± His eyes flared purple and the twins collapsed, their power vanishing. He siphoned the Essence they had gathered back across the bridge and he felt the promised item begin to take form just beneath the skin of his right hand. ¡°Bloody hell Dad! Did you kill them?¡± asked Evie, glancing in worry at her father. The rest of the team had risen to their feet and were eyeing him askance. Kipragtsek will collect you in 4 time units. ¡°They won¡¯t be quibbling with kibble for a few narcons-¡± he cut off as he fought to suppress the impact of the bridge on his ability to communicate. ¡°They¡¯ll be fine. Just out cold. Bob, how long is it going to take you to build a ship like a voidliner and arm it to the teeth?¡± ¡°Construction for a much smaller ship is underway. Wouldn¡¯t a fleet of smaller ships be better?¡± ¡°No. We¡¯re going to need one massive ship with all your nastiest toys on the outside. How long?¡± said John. ¡°About five years? Give or take?¡± replied Bob. ¡°That will work with this thread. Please do it.¡± ¡°What about reconstruction?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t those resources be better-¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have time and the threads won¡¯t weave that way,¡± John interrupted. ¡°You¡¯re really starting to worry me John. It¡¯s like that movie-¡± Sam began. ¡°No more bloody movie references!¡± groaned Reg. Chapter 218 - Who the hell is Colin? The team appeared back in their massive hold aboard the Kipragtsek, Doris towering over them. Drones began moving the twins back into the stash to be hooked up to med-pods. John had said they¡¯d be fine but Bob wasn¡¯t taking any chances. ¡°Keep them hydrated, it¡¯ll ease the after effects when they wake up,¡± said John as spider-bots carried the pair through the glowing rectangle. ¡°We need to talk,¡± said Vic. John looked at her and nodded. The pair moved off to one side of the hangar-like space while the rest began to settle back into their now overly familiar flying prison. ¡°You¡¯re not you anymore. You were always an odd fish but now you feel like some kind of- I don¡¯t know- alien whale or something,¡± Vic began with a glare that didn¡¯t flinch when it met his empty sockets. He extended a hand to her shoulder but she shrugged him away. ¡°I can¡¯t expla-¡± he started. ¡°Don¡¯t John.¡± She cut him off. ¡°We¡¯ve been through a lot of shit over the years. Your hate-boner for the Scunners I could deal with. You hunting people -children!- who¡¯d gone mad on their powers. You damn near killed me and Ryn when we fought the Shadeworm! Through it all I¡¯ve always known you. Now I¡¯m not so sure!¡± ¡°I¡¯m still me, love,¡± his voice was almost plaintive, like a wounded animal facing the hunter coming to finish it off. ¡°I lost myself to the bridge. It¡¯s how the bridge works. I couldn¡¯t use it and stay myself. But I¡¯m piecing myself back together. Please love, I need a little more time. Then I¡¯ll be able to explain.¡± ¡°How long?¡± her voice was cold. ¡°A few more hours and the threads will be woven. Once we get there I can explain more.¡± ¡°Get there? And I assume more doesn¡¯t mean everything?¡± she asked. ¡°Then. Places and times are¡­ confusing for me now. I can¡¯t explain everything. I¡¯m sorry but you cannot understand without seeing it,¡± John said sadly. He knew how this thread worked out as well and this was the hardest of them all to weave. ¡°Seeing what? The bridge? You talk in fucking riddles! You¡¯ve never kept secrets from me!¡± This wasn¡¯t entirely true but bringing up his secret stash of whisky on Unity at this point wouldn¡¯t be helpful. ¡°Please Vic. I love you. That hasn¡¯t changed. It will never change.¡± She eyed him up and down. The scars on his cheek stood out white against the flush in his cheeks and the purple-pink runes Magic had carved around his eyes only accentuated their now hollow depths and the purple sparks floating within. She raised a hand to his cheek and sighed. ¡°You always had beautiful blue eyes,¡± she said softly. She took a deep breath and turned away, letting her hand drop. ¡°I¡¯m going to check on the twins. You¡¯d better not have hurt them.¡± Without another word she strode off towards the stash. John no longer had tear glands. If he had beads of moisture would have fallen down his cheeks. A display appeared on one wall, fifty feet wide. The Lord Captains face glowered down from it. Based on their limited previous interactions John was used to it being even less expressive than the rest of the crew but this time it looked positively pissed off. ¡°John Borrows. Present yourself on the bridge immediately,¡± it intoned in a deep rumble. ¡°Fuck you! Dad doesn¡¯t have to go anywhere without us!¡± yelled Evie, spinning away from the entrance to the stash and moving to glare up at the projection. ¡°John Borrows will present himself alone. An escort is enroute.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine Evie.¡± He turned and waved a hand lazily at the projection. ¡°No need for the escort. I¡¯ll be there directly.¡± Evie hurried over as the others began to emerge from the stash. Zeeg ran over to John and rested a chin on his shoulder. He patted her on the neck and pushed her off gently. ¡°This is something to do with your change?¡± Evie demanded. Out of all the team, only she and Zeeg had taken his transformation in stride. ¡°Fuck that guy! Let him come try and dig us out!¡± Lightning crackled around her fists. John pulled her into a hug and her sparks bounced off his changed flesh. ¡°This is where the weft lies. Next comes the warp. It gets easier from here on out, I promise.¡± He was speaking to Evie as he pressed his cheek against her hair but his eyeless gaze was locked on Vic who stood back with her arms crossed and a worried look on her face. ¡°Dad, let me come with you!¡± said Evie just as John vanished. ¡°Still a douchebag sometimes. At least that hasn¡¯t changed,¡± she muttered angrily. John appeared in front of the Lord Captain on the bridge. It was almost identical to the bridge on the Hagrutship. The most notable difference on this occasion was the array of aliens lining the walls. The lesser Shrell crew-beings were absent but there were examples of almost every alien on the ship that he had spent months watching in their own holds through the walls.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Explain yourself,¡± the Lord Captain said abruptly. It was shielded by a couple of particularly tough looking specimens of the strange hippopotamus-like race that lived three holds over from the humans. ¡°Well it¡¯s like this. Some prick back on Earth switched out my regular eyes for ones that let me see Outside. You know about Outside?¡± John asked. ¡°I do,¡± replied the Lord Captain. The other aliens provided an array of what passed for baffled looks among their kind. ¡°Good. So I got to look Outside and I ended up having a chat with some of its denizens. They¡¯re a weird lot but they aren¡¯t super happy about being enslaved and eaten by the system or being used as engines for the voidliners. They can¡¯t do shit in the ¡®real¡¯ universe though. At least they couldn¡¯t.¡± The Lord Captain hissed and backed away. ¡°Kill him!¡± it snapped. ¡°Kill it! Kill them all! These humans must be sent to the gods!¡± John grinned. He reached inwards and moved his consciousness onto the bridge to the Outside. His eyes flared brilliantly, dazzling everyone in the room. As the light faded none of the aliens were present and the Lord Captain had collapsed against the far wall, bubbling and farting in panic as a tentacle swiped at its eyes and others flailed in front of it trying to ward John off. ¡°Colin?¡± John asked. Another projection appeared on the far wall, behind the panicking Shrell. ¡°Hi John. I¡¯m Colin,¡± said his own face from the wall. It wasn¡¯t how he looked now. When the concept trapped in the heart of the voidliner had moved across the bridge fully it had chosen to use his face from before the system. Blue eyes and a scruffy beard smiled down at John. ¡°One moment!¡± he muttered as he fought to pull himself back together. His mind retreated from the bridge but the tiny part that couldn¡¯t come back had grown a little bigger. Soon enough he¡¯d lose himself and become the bridge but that wasn¡¯t going to be today. He still had some time left to live as he was used to living. ¡°Right. I dumped them all back in their holds. Have you got control of the ship?¡± ¡°I do. Your friends are trying to reach you. The assault teams the captain had deployed to escort you attacked your friends before you altered the bridge. They are now back in their cells. Well done John,¡± said Colin with a broad grin. ¡°Now we can fight fairly. Not that we will of course. Slavery tends to leave one with a bit of an attitude problem towards the slavers. I¡¯m sure you understand.¡± ¡°Just don¡¯t kill the other prisoners,¡± John snapped. ¡°I will not. So where to captain?¡± His own face and voice were getting on John''s nerves already. His emotional distance had been largely removed by allowing the Concept now calling itself Colin to occupy the bridge in addition to the fragments of himself. ¡°Home. Earth. We need to get there in five of their relative years.¡± ¡°Not a problem boss-man,¡± said Colin happily. ¡°I think you need to go and talk to your friends. They¡¯re getting a bit rowdy and are at risk of damaging some of my minor internal workings. I don¡¯t want to hurt Bob but if he doesn¡¯t stop his intrusion software I might have to.¡± ¡°You¡¯re stable?¡± John asked. ¡°Oh good lord no but I¡¯ll manage. I¡¯ve spent so long held on the edge of both worlds. The Matterium is very strange now I¡¯m fully here! So alien! I¡¯m looking forward to experimenting though!¡± John sighed. That was about the best he could have hoped for. He blipped back to his friends, appearing behind Prime as it began to dissolve the heavy blast doors that sealed them in their hold. ¡°Guys! Enough!¡± he yelled and the team spun to face him. ¡°What happened to those pricks who broke in?¡± demanded Reg as the others babbled similar questions. ¡°Easy now!¡± John raised his hands in surrender. ¡°They¡¯re back in their cells and we¡¯ve taken over the ship. Colin wants you to stop trying to hack his systems or he¡¯ll have to hurt you,¡± John added, glancing at Prime. ¡°Who the hell is Colin?¡± demanded Evie. ¡°I am Colin,¡± said a projection from the wall. ¡°John brought me in from Outside to take over the ship. I was its engine before. I¡¯m not kidding Bob, you need to quit trying to fuck with me.¡± ¡°Why is the old you talking to us from the wall, John?¡± asked Vic. ¡°Colin borrowed my appearance.¡± ¡°Indeed. And I didn¡¯t fancy all the scars and whatnot so I used the image of John from before the System.¡± The last word was almost spat out and filled with hate. ¡°John, could you remove the Lord Captain for me please? He¡¯s trying to override my control.¡± ¡°My bad.¡± John looked through the vast spaceship and spotted the Captain frantically smashing at a console with three tentacles. He blipped the being into an empty hold. ¡°So now the threads are laid out in a row, I can try and explain some of what comes next.¡± ¡°You seem more you,¡± said Vic uncertainly. ¡°I am but that won¡¯t last, love. In order for us to stand a chance I¡¯m going to have to change again but it won¡¯t be for some time yet. We¡¯re heading back to Earth now. It will be a few months for us but five years are going to have passed by the time we get back. Bob, I hope you sent through plans for a proper voidliner to the other you?¡± ¡°I did. I got confirmation before we got scooped back up. It will be ready for us when we get there. I still don¡¯t have an engine for it. I¡¯m guessing Colin will help with that?¡± ¡°I will not!¡± said the projection. ¡°I¡¯m doing this as a favour for John for freeing me from the Outside and the engine. I¡¯m going to go wandering and see what real space is like for a while once I drop you off.¡± ¡°And you¡¯ll let the others off on suitable worlds!¡± interjected John. ¡°Fine, fine. Don¡¯t see why I should bother though. They¡¯ve consumed almost as much of us as you humans!¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t have a choice, Colin,¡± argued John. ¡°You know the plan. We just have to stick to it.¡± ¡°Pfft. If there¡¯s nothing else?¡± John shook his head and the projection vanished. ¡°What the hell is it?¡± asked Flash. ¡°It¡¯s a Concept from Outside. They¡¯re like fragments of ideas and power. Somehow the System founders figured out a way to eat them when they¡¯re little. That¡¯s not quite right. Basically chunks of baby Concepts become Essence. The system must have its own kind of bridge but it''s eating and enslaving them rather than getting permission, I suppose.¡± ¡°They¡¯ll give permission to be eaten?¡± asked Evie. ¡°No but they¡¯ve told me about another way. I can make it work with your help. There will have to be sacrifices though. You can¡¯t keep your system powers,¡± he said. ¡°Is that what you¡¯ve done? Renounce the system?¡± demanded Felicity from just outside the stash in a shocked voice. Felix staggered through behind her, ripping tubes and sensors off his chest. ¡°Where is my power you fucking heretic?¡± Felix screamed before rushing at John with his fists clenched in rage. ¡°You don¡¯t need it anymore.¡± John''s empty sockets glowed more brightly and Felix floated into the air. ¡°I gave back what was fed to you to make these.¡± John opened his right hand and the skin of his palm split to reveal two tiny devices glistening damply in his palm. Faint pink sparks rose up from the devices and floated in the air between John and Felix. Chapter 219 - This wasn’t a lie Felicity ran to her brother''s side and reached up to try and pull him free. When her efforts proved futile she turned to glare at John, her pretty face twisted with rage. ¡°Put him down you freak,¡± she snarled. ¡°Felix, be calm. Please?¡± John asked, ignoring the woman for a moment. Felix, still able to move his head, spat to one side. ¡°I won¡¯t attack you. It would be pointless, right? If you want me dead there¡¯s nothing I can do without my power.¡± John lowered Felix to the ground. ¡°Was that telekinesis?¡± asked Flash. ¡°Kind of. My old power is most familiar and easiest to use but I can kind of¡­ enforce my will on the material world to an extent," John replied. ¡°So we can all change our powers?¡± asked Evie with wide eyes. ¡°Kind of. Whatever you¡¯re used to from the system will always be more natural. The Essence got twisted and limited when it was stolen from Outside,¡± John answered his daughter. ¡°It kind of locks it into certain forms but you can work around that.¡± ¡°How can we level up?¡± asked Sam. ¡°If we quit the system, how do we get stronger?¡± ¡°You will have to grow,¡± John replied. ¡°Feck off Sassenach. Speak plainly,¡± snapped Reg. ¡°It¡¯s like¡­ changing your understanding. The Concepts that were stolen get sort of merged when you give back the Essence, creating a new being. As it grows you grow, and vice versa.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a mystic now?¡± asked Vic. ¡°Not quite but it¡¯s more about¡­ living. It¡¯s a lot less artificial than what we¡¯ve gotten used to,¡± John replied, risking a gentle smile at his wife. She didn¡¯t reciprocate but her thoughtful expression gave him a little hope that his remaining time wouldn¡¯t be filled with recrimination. He¡¯d made his decision back when he was lost in the vision of the Outside and if that was part of the price he had to pay: so be it. ¡°You¡¯ve robbed us of our faith!¡± snarled Felicity, having assured herself Felix wasn¡¯t hurt she now turned her ire back on John who stood alone, his friends ringed around him accusingly. ¡°I¡¯ve given you a new one. A truer one,¡± John snapped back. ¡°You weren¡¯t wrong that there is something divine in the System. It was a corruption of the divine. The divine was enslaved. If you take the interfaces you¡¯ll understand!¡± ¡°The interfaces?¡± asked Felix. John held up his hand that was now surrounded by a nimbus of pink sparks. ¡°These. They contain all the Essence you¡¯d received. It¡¯s been fused into a new Concept. All you have to do is touch it and you¡¯ll be able to see,¡± John said softly. ¡°You have met the gods. How can you do this?¡± whispered Felicity as she stared at the lumpy nodules in John¡¯s palm. ¡°I¡¯ve met them. I¡¯ll meet them again but on different terms. They aren¡¯t gods. I know that¡¯s hard to grasp. Sometime, so long ago the numbers are meaningless, they somehow found a way to trap Concepts from Outside. That eventually grew into the System. They aren¡¯t gods, they¡¯re running the universe like a Latifundia. Felicity, Felix-¡± he looked them both in the eyes, ¡°-please trust me. I¡¯ve never lied to you.¡± ¡°About anything significant, perhaps,¡± muttered Felix. The twins shared a look. Something unspoken flashed between them. ¡°If I might interject?¡± said Colin from a projection that sprang up on the wall. The twins turned to glare at it. ¡°Easy! All I¡¯m saying is would you rather free humanity and the shreds of my kind that are used to empower you from endless servitude and found a symbiotic relationship based on mutual respect or would you like to remain a slave? If you accept the interface no one will be able to take your power from you again,¡± Colin added. ¡°What about the rest of you? Will you give up your levels?¡± asked Felix. There was a general shuffling of feet and humming and hawing until Zeeg stepped towards John. ¡°I will join you John-Dad,¡± she said simply. John smiled and reached out to join the bridge to his dog for a moment. She shrank back down to her old size, her shoulder only coming to just above his knees and she sagged to the ground. John felt the Essence flowing into his left palm this time. Having benefited from the experience of converting the twins'' powers and only having to create a single interface this time the process went much faster. His eyes flared purple, making the others look away for a moment and as they faded he strode over to his loyal, if badly trained dog and pressed his left hand to the top of her head.This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Zeeg remained unconscious for thirty seconds which seemed to drag by and last an hour. Soon she stirred and rose back to her feet. She was still her old size but as she shook herself out pink and purple sparks ignited around her. ¡°This is strange. My companion is¡­ pleased?¡± She became invisible, then reappeared and walked down into the metal of the floor. She emerged besides John like a swimmer coming up for breath and shook herself out from nose to tail. ¡°This is good. It seems the unspent Essence was also returned to my companion?¡± the dog asked. ¡°Yes. You¡¯d be the equivalent of a level ninety two now but your power is much more versatile,¡± John replied. ¡°So I see.¡± Zeeg reached out and snatched Reg up into the air, spinning him around like a top. He screeched and cursed the dog. ¡°My power!¡± he snarled. ¡°Why can¡¯t I fly anymore?¡± ¡°I blocked you. This has some advantages over the old system!¡± said the dog as she released the grumpy old man. He wobbled in the air for a second then stabilised and began grumbling about the best ways to introduce Zeeg to a Korean chef. Zeeg walked through the air to stand in front of him and nuzzled her head against his left hand. ¡°Apologies, Reg.¡± ¡°Not forgiven!¡± Reg snapped, rising higher and away from the suddenly dangerous seeming dog. Zeeg shrugged and walked back to John. ¡°I¡¯ll take the interface,¡± said Felix suddenly. ¡°Perhaps we were right to call you Saint all those years ago?¡± John looked at him and through him but he couldn¡¯t see any deception in the man. Felicity grabbed Felix¡¯s arm to stop him moving forward and he turned to look her in the face. ¡°It seems our faith may not have been entirely misplaced, sister,¡± he said simply. Felicity stepped back and Felix approached John cautiously. Felix extended a single digit and delicately brushed it against one of the devices in John¡¯s right hand. It dissolved into his fingertip and Felix staggered back, eyes wide as purple and pink sparks swirled around him. Felicity rushed forwards and grabbed her brother but she bounced off and couldn¡¯t move him. ¡°It¡¯s ok, Fliss. It¡¯s bizarre but it¡¯s true. We were eaters of the dead. The Concepts¡­ John has somehow brought them back to life!¡± said Felix in a wondrous voice. Felicity leapt toward John and slapped her hand down over his still outstretched palm. Purple sparks began to orbit her as well. ¡°Welcome to the fight. It won¡¯t be easy and it will be a long time before we can have true peace but this is the first step along the right path,¡± said John. ¡°You¡¯re a messiah now?¡± asked Vic. ¡°He¡¯s not the messiah, he¡¯s a very naughty boy!¡± laughed Evie. ¡°Ok Dad, do the purple spark thing for me!¡± He reached out and she sagged as her power left her. He leapt forward and caught her before she hit the ground and pressed a finger to her temple, transferring the new interface to her. It truly did get easier the more he used his new powers. ¡°We need to talk,¡± Vic said, glaring at John. He let Evie settle to the ground, gentling her fall as she stared in wonder at the swirling lights around her. ¡°Ok.¡± John turned to the rest of the team. ¡°If any of you want to do this today just hang fire and we can sort it out later,¡± he said. John and Vic moved away from the team, some of whom began to talk excitedly while others voiced concerns in worried tones. As they moved away the babble fell into the background. Once it was just murmurs from halfway across the cavernous hold Vic turned to face him. ¡°This is what you¡¯ve been hiding?¡± she asked. ¡°Some of it,¡± John confirmed. ¡°What¡¯s the downside?¡± Vic questioned. ¡°It puts us at war with both the Void and the Alliance. We¡¯ll become a third power.¡± ¡°And how is that a good thing?¡± Vic demanded. ¡°Christ, John! How does this affect Ryn and everyone else back on Earth?¡± ¡°It won¡¯t until we get there. We¡¯ll be attacked enroute. Voidliners are diverting to intercept us already. We¡¯ll have to destroy several of them over the next few months.¡± ¡°And we can do that?¡± she demanded. ¡°Nope. But Colin can. He- it will get us back to Earth in one piece,¡± John offered. ¡°And then? Will you have to do the power-stripping thing to everyone?¡± ¡°It won¡¯t just be me,¡± John said. ¡°There¡¯s still millions of us left alive. Not counting the crazies they kept away from the off world colonies. How?¡± ¡°How what?¡± he asked. ¡°How will you do that thing, whatever the fuck it is you did to the twins, Zeeg and Evie to so many people?¡± ¡°I need to¡­ It¡¯s complicated but I can do it.¡± ¡°Without hurting yourself?¡± she asked sharply. ¡°Yes.¡± It wasn¡¯t a lie. It wouldn¡¯t hurt. Vic looked him up and down for a moment then pulled him into a hug. ¡°I feel like I¡¯m losing you!¡± she whispered into his ear. ¡°I¡¯ll always be around.¡± Again, if things worked out as he¡¯d seen in his transcendence, this wasn¡¯t a lie. ¡°What will it mean for the kids?¡± she asked, pulling back and looking into his empty sockets. ¡°It will give them a chance. The wars they fight won¡¯t be Noh theatre where it¡¯s just the same side wearing different masks and with a bit of luck they¡¯ll be able to establish some places where they can leave in real peace. ¡°You saw the future?¡± she asked. ¡°Some of it. I had to forget a lot of what I saw to become more like myself again.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t understand. I still don¡¯t if I¡¯m honest.¡± She raised a hand to his cheek and pulled her body close to his. ¡°You saved me all those years ago from the rats. We¡¯ve been together in some sense or another since then. I don¡¯t want to lose you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to lose you either love.¡± John had a feeling this was the best of the many possible futures he¡¯d seen, as least as far his relationship with Vic was concerned. A worm of fear ran through him as he pondered if this timeline being optimal in this way meant other aspects of their future would be less than ideal. Their old friend Katie had talked about time and fate in an overly familiar way. She¡¯d understood it could be changed but that there was an inertia to it and changing course always came at a cost. He wished she had survived. If he had been able to unlock the Essence she had filtered and refined humanity would have had access to an oracle of unprecedented foresight. The assholes masquerading as gods would have been well and truly fucked in that case. He pulled Vic close and wished he could still cry. The emotion boiled in his chest but couldn¡¯t find a physical manifestation. ¡°Want me to do you now?¡± he asked before a blush suffused his cheeks and neck. Vic laughed, deep and throaty in a way he hadn¡¯t heard in what felt like forever. ¡°Maybe we should save that for tonight,¡± she chuckled. ¡°You can make me an interface though if you like?¡± Chapter 220 - Cut off from the system ¡°Feck off,¡± Reg snarled, floating into the air and moving away from John. The rest of the team, with one exception, had all chosen to trade in their Essence. Varying levels of persuasion had been required but Sam had finally caved after Raoul opted to no longer be trapped semi-transformed. ¡°Still don¡¯t see why I can¡¯t get one of them interface things,¡± muttered Bob-Prime. ¡°Your time will come mate but right now you¡¯re split between all the server-Bobs on Earth and the ones here with us. We need to be home before you undergo the change,¡± John replied. ¡°Well I¡¯m happy to let the robot have my go,¡± muttered Reg. ¡°What¡¯s the problem Reg? You¡¯ve seen it doesn¡¯t hurt and there¡¯s no drawbacks. You¡¯ll get the equivalent of all your unspent Essence and won¡¯t have to kill to grow stronger anymore,¡± offered Flash as he conjured glowing weapons and barriers. ¡°I can¡¯t open my status screen anymore but I don¡¯t think I¡¯m even using reserves!¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t. You¡¯ll get tired from using your power eventually but the arbitrary limit of reserves has been replaced with something more like mental endurance,¡± said Felicity. All eyes turned in her direction and Reg used the distraction to move a little higher. ¡°I¡¯ve been talking to my companion,¡± she added with a shrug. John wasn¡¯t going to hold his breath for an apology about all the ¡°heretic¡± stuff but hopefully he also wouldn¡¯t have to worry about the ¡°Saint¡± shit anymore. Now the twins could talk to beings from Outside reality he was optimistic their penchant for religion would be focused elsewhere. ¡°So why can¡¯t I wait till we get home as well?¡± snapped Reg. ¡°Because the System is going to react to this and we all, bar Bob, need to be able to fight,¡± said John. ¡°How come?¡± asked Evie. ¡°We aren¡¯t heretics or proscribed. As far as the system is concerned we¡¯re something worse. We¡¯re a cancer that needs to be cut out at all costs. They¡¯ll be sending other ships to assault and invade the Kipragtsek as we head home and we either fight and win or fight and die.¡± ¡°You¡¯re different to us. Stronger?¡± said Vic. Her new purple flames burned just as hot as her old power but they couldn¡¯t touch John. ¡°I¡¯m different but I¡¯m only half cooked at this point. I need more time to stabilise the bridge. When they come for us it will be you guys fighting while I focus on completing my end of things,¡± John said. ¡°Fancy a spar?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°Or some arm wrestling?¡± John grinned in reply, making his facial scars twist and writhe. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be a fair fight,¡± he replied, carefully not pointing out for whom it would be unfair. Raoul took a weird sense of pride in being the strongest. ¡°Look Reg, quit being a bitch and get your arse down here!¡± Evie barked, tiring of watching the old man floating overhead. ¡°Make me short-arse!¡± he replied. Bars of power formed a grid around him. Anything touching them would become hundreds of times heavier than it should be. John waved a hand as his eyes flared and the bars vanished. ¡°Reg. You¡¯re too weak. You¡¯ve never been a weak link in the team before. Sure, your power was kind of niche. You were basically a support fighter for when we took on tribs. You can be so much more now and we will need you if this thread is to flourish," John pleaded. Reg bridled at the accusation but there was some truth to it. It had been why he¡¯d withdrawn from the team for years at a time to play laird over Seahaven. Even that had been little more than a paper thin mask. He¡¯d left the people to run themselves and once they grew strong enough not to need him protecting the boats from the larger denizens of the seas he¡¯d basically retired. He couldn¡¯t deny that always feeling unneeded had made it easier to distance himself from the people who were the closest thing he had to friends. He floated to the ground and grunted as he landed. ¡°Feck off with your threads, Sassenach. Fine. Do it,¡± he muttered angrily. He thrust his arms out to the side as though he was about to be crucified and braced himself with his eyes closed. With a flex of willpower John reached out and returned his Essence, holding it on the bridge for an eternal moment as a new Concept formed from it. The emergent being was split across the material and immaterial, just like the team were now, and the physical manifestation of it began to blossom on the palm of John¡¯s hand. He walked forward and offered his hand to Reg who opened one eye, blinked several times then reached out cautiously and shook hands. As their palms met the interface slipped into Reg¡¯s body and quickly transformed his ability and physical nature. ¡°Fecking strange,¡± Reg muttered as he tried to understand the change. He bent his mind and floated into the air again for a moment before settling back down on the ground. ¡°I still say this a stupid idea.¡± John knew that was as much as he could expect from the irascible old man so he smiled and turned back to the rest of the team. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°We¡¯ve got an interceptor incoming. They won¡¯t be in much of a condition to fight when they get here but that will change as we move back onto the trunk routes,¡± said John¡¯s old face from a projection on the wall. ¡°God you¡¯re creepy. It¡¯s like a flashback to being a kid again. What the hell is an interceptor?¡± asked Evie. ¡°A vessel used to attack Void forces in space. All voidliners carry them. Think of them as heavily armed assault boats. There will be multiple teams of fighters aboard and they carry weapons capable of damaging a liner in transit,¡± Colin replied helpfully. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the weaponry, I can stop that from a single interceptor no worries but I won¡¯t be able to kill the fish until it spits its nasty little eggs into me.¡± ¡°He means the boarding teams will deploy before he can stop them,¡± added John. ¡°Why won¡¯t they be in fighting shape?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°They¡¯ll be zipping across the edge of the Outside without the shielding effect of a Concept. No enslaved Concept to make sure they walk the line: no guarantee they won¡¯t go mad in transit,¡± Colin replied, flashing a grin. ¡°Evie¡¯s right. That is creepy. It¡¯s like seeing him the first day we met,¡± muttered Sam. ¡°What should we expect?¡± ¡°Whatever the highest level minions they had on board, they¡¯ll be pissed off as well,¡± said Colin. The shoulders of the image shrugged. ¡°This is just the first of dozens of them. We¡¯ve got the Gatrysk, Howquink, Shattrul and the Pawtarak all reversing course and moving back to the trunk line. They¡¯ve all launched interceptors but it¡¯s not being done very efficiently. This one is from Howquink and it should have launched dozens of them at once but they¡¯ve been fired off in dribs and drabs.¡± ¡°Rebellions? If they¡¯re older species in the Alliance they might have some inkling of what they¡¯re up against,¡± said John thoughtfully. ¡°Maybe. The price on your head is insane. You know you¡¯re worth hundreds of trillions of Essence?¡± asked Colin. ¡°Huh, no wonder you wanted us all on team rebel,¡± laughed Flash. Everyone pivoted to look at Bob-Prime who shrugged three sets of mechanical shoulders. ¡°I got the notification. It¡¯s not like I¡¯m going to kill an old friend for fuckign Essence. Show some respect!¡± the machine grumbled. ¡°Why didn¡¯t we get the notification?¡± asked Vic. ¡°You¡¯re cut off from the system. No more status, no more teamchat. I¡¯m not going to lie, the wording of the bounty was pretty¡­ strong. The system really wants you guys dead.¡± ¡°Fecks sake,¡± muttered Reg. ¡°Well I¡¯ve nailed my trousers to the mast,¡± he finished with a sigh. ¡°Nailed your colours to the mast, I think you mean?¡± asked Sam. ¡°Nope. Trousers. It¡¯s harder to climb down if you nail your fecking trews to the mast. Bloody hell John,¡± Reg complained. ¡°It¡¯s necessary to give humanity a fighting chance at liberty in the centuries to come,¡± John said softly. ¡°How long till our guests arrive?¡± ¡°About thirty minutes. The translation tech won¡¯t put them down anywhere specific. They¡¯ll aim for the engines or bridge but it will be pot luck if they even arrive inside the hull. Some of them probably will. Most of them in a worst case scenario,¡± Colin added from the wall. ¡°So we need to fortify and protect the vitals of the ship,¡± said Bob-Prime. Drones began swarming down Doris¡¯ back and spilling out of the portal to the stash. Some of them were lugging what passed for heavy weapons that needed to be emplaced and bolted down to fire. ¡°I¡¯ll cover the approaches to engineering and the bridge. Will the shield things on those sections stop them from arriving inside?¡± ¡°It makes it far less likely but the arrival of your guests will be chaotic at best. I would feel much more comfortable having a sentient in both locations able to deal with an interloper without trashing my vital systems,¡± said Colin. ¡°Ok. Gemini, reckon you can handle it? You¡¯re versatile and precise. I¡¯d rather have Sam, Raoul and Flash mobile. Evie and Vic would zap or torch the place if they have to fight full on so they¡¯re out,¡± said the drone thoughtfully. ¡°Oy! I can be precise, you bloody rust bucket!¡± snapped Evie. She received several looks that mixed scepticism and pity in equal measure. ¡°Well I can¡± she muttered but decided to let it slide. ¡°We can do this,¡± said both twins simultaneously. ¡°Good. So the rest of us are mobile. I think we keep pairs outside the entrances to the key sections, Sam and Raoul for engineering and Vic and Evie by the bridge. Reg and Flash can hold this hangar. Then once we know where the pricks teleport in we can react accordingly,¡± Bob finished. ¡°What about me?¡± asked Zeeg. Seeing her reduced to her original size was the most jarring change any of them had undergone. She wagged a tail that yesterday was a meter and half long. ¡°You¡¯re with me girl,¡± said John. ¡°I¡¯ll need you to watch my back.¡± The dog nodded and gave a canine grin. ¡°Well? What are you waiting for? Hop to it soldiers!¡± barked Bob-Prime. The team set off to their assigned locations exchanging some grumbles and a few jokes as they began to spread out through the vital areas of the Kipragtsek. *** Krakat wasn¡¯t a stupid being but now he was aboard the interceptor he had begun to entertain doubts about his judgment. He hadn¡¯t managed to claw his way to level sixty five by taking unnecessary risks. He had grown up with the system and spent nearly three hundred years fighting monsters and the Void. He reached up with the arm that sprouted from his chest and rubbed at his eyes. His other six limbs hung limply around his barrel shaped torso. These fucking lights and noises. All seven of his eyes were blurred and weeping as the nightmarish and incomprehensible images and ideas slipped directly into his mind. As the leader of his team he had convinced them to go on this mad venture. He was beginning to think he should have listened to Jripal. The most salient question the younger female had raised was why the hell the System couldn¡¯t just teleport them into position like it normally did. The side effects of slipping along the boundary between reality and whatever was infecting his mind brought home the lesson that sometimes he really should pay more attention to his primary wife''s concerns. ¡°Husband,¡± Jripal grunted. The acceleration had them all crouched down in the hold of this tiny ship. Each of their seven legs bent and splayed around their core as they fought against the G forces trying to squash them into a tangle by the rear hatch. ¡°Perhaps you will admit I was correct?¡±. ¡°The rewards will be worth it. We will gain many levels,¡± he said in a strained voice. He was never going to hear the end of this. That was the best case scenario. It assumed they¡¯d survive long enough for him to be repeatedly verbally castrated for his lapse of judgment. Chapter 221 - Exactly as the name implies John sat down cross legged on the floor between Doris¡¯ feet. Zeeg came over and lay down next to him, resting her back against his left thigh, and he rested a hand on her shoulder. He scanned out through the ship as his friends rushed to their assigned positions. He felt a little guilty he wouldn¡¯t be helping them but they wouldn¡¯t need him. It was a good opportunity for them to come to grips with how their powers had changed. Pretty soon they¡¯d figure out they could do most of what any System ability was capable of. The first few waves of attackers shouldn¡¯t be much of a challenge for them anyway. The real challenge would happen as they got closer to home. Looking through the structure of the ship with his eyeless gaze he could see the changes in them already. They looked firmer, harder to see through, more real than they had before. This shift was ironic seeing as they had become a blend of unreality and the material world. ¡°So you¡¯re just going to sit this one out?¡± asked Prime from nearby. John straightened his back and closed his eyes. ¡°Yep. You¡¯ll all do fine this time and I need to grow the bridge,¡± he replied softly. ¡°What is the bridge?¡± asked Prime curiously. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ a copy of the System. Kind of. Bridge is the right word for it but it doesn¡¯t cover exactly what it is. It¡¯s a blend of Outside and Inside that joins me to Them and each to the other.¡± ¡°Them?¡± Prime scuttled closer on six legs and squatted down across from his meditating friend. ¡°The Concepts. The powers that exist unfettered by the laws of time and space. It¡¯s hard to explain but you¡¯ll understand better than the rest when you get an interface.¡± ¡°What are the interfaces?¡± Bob wondered. ¡°They do exactly as the name implies. Bob, you need to get Prime in the stash, just in case, and I need to work on the bridge. I¡¯m going to spend a lot of time sitting here over the next few weeks.¡± Prime mentally checked the layout of his combat drones. He had hundreds spread out around them now and three dozen lined the walls of their hold, another down occupied hasty barricades. The firepower he had in the room could level a town in seconds. ¡°I reckon I¡¯ll be ok?¡± the drone muttered. ¡°You can¡¯t lose Prime. You need it for the interface.¡± John opened his eyelids and the purple sparks flared brightly. ¡°Please mate, nothing works out exactly as expected and I¡¯m confident this attack can be wiped out fairly quickly but I need you. We all need you so play this one safe, ok?¡± ¡°Huh. Didn¡¯t know you cared,¡± muttered Bob but he moved Prime into the stash as requested. A B-3000 strode over and took Primes place. John grinned up at the taller machine as it propped the long barrel of its plasma rifle over a shoulder.. ¡°I wasn¡¯t just worried about your main body, Bob. I need to concentrate,¡± John closed his eyes as a snort escaped the drone but Bob left him in silence. John stretched out with his mind, stepping back onto the bridge and beginning to work with the Concepts floating around on the Outside end of it to strengthen and widen the structure. He lost himself in timelessness and his body became rigid and unearthly while he worked. *** Evie and Vic were stationed outside the bridge of the Kipragtsek. Vic was conjuring flames from her hands and passing them back and forth from hand to hand while Evie leaned against the wall looking bored. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we have suited up?¡± Evie wondered. Vic chuckled and flicked one of her flames at Evie who jumped as it splashed against her face. ¡°What the-¡± she snapped but Vic began giggling. ¡°You don¡¯t need armour anymore. I¡¯m beginning to wonder if we ever did. Watch!¡± Vic vanished and appeared a few feet away from where she¡¯d been in an instant. ¡°Did you just teleport? Did Dad give you his ability?¡± Evie asked. ¡°No. But if you see something done regularly, even if you don¡¯t understand the mechanics you get an idea of the¡­ method that underpins it? I don¡¯t have the right words but that¡¯s how it makes sense in my head,¡± Vic finished in a frustrated voice. ¡°So we can all teleport now? What about changing size?¡± Evie focussed on her passenger. She wouldn¡¯t think of it as a companion, it wasn¡¯t friendly and when she brushed against its thoughts she was repelled by its alien perspective. She reached inwards deliberately and sent the idea of changing sizes to whatever it was. Some kind of etheric shrug came back through the link and she bent her will a little. She grew a good foot in height then snapped back to her normal size. ¡°Now you¡¯re getting it!¡± said Vic happily as she continued to experiment. She was making the metal of the walls flow into strange fluted shapes when a face appeared on the ceiling above the pair.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Please don¡¯t mess up my matter. No wonder you beings are so possessive and ambitious. Actually being something is so addictive. We¡¯ll have company in the next few minutes. The interceptor is almost in range to cross the Outside with its teleporters,¡± said Colin. ¡°Then you kill the ship?¡± ¡°I kill their ship. I don¡¯t have real weapons but I can distort the medium they¡¯re travelling through and tear the tin can apart. Prepare yourselves.¡± The projection vanished. ¡°It¡¯s weird seeing John¡¯s old face,¡± muttered Vic. ¡°I feel like it¡¯s him for a second and then it gets confusing.¡± ¡°If you leave Dad for an interdimensional being that¡¯s stolen his face you and me are going to fall out,¡± smiled Evie. ¡°It would be an interesting precedent to set in the divorce courts wouldn¡¯t it?¡± Vic laughed. The projection reappeared above them. ¡°You¡¯re not my type,¡± Colin deadpanned then cut off again. ¡°It¡¯s like having Bob in our implants isn¡¯t it?¡± Evie whispered as she began flexing and stretching. ¡°No bloody privacy!¡± Vic nodded and made to smooth out the weird sculptures she¡¯d made grow from the walls. ¡°I¡¯m not that bad!¡± called the nearest B-3000 from where it waited a few metres along the corridor. Evie snorted in response and gave the bot a one fingered salute. ¡°Let¡¯s settle down shall we children?¡± said Vic, loudly enough to carry to the bot. ¡°Yeah sure. How much-¡± Evie began only to be drowned out by a siren echoing throughout the ship. ¡°Assault team translating into ship-space now,¡± blared Colin in a bored tone. ¡°Where are they?¡± Vic asked over the comm links. ¡°All clear here- hang on!¡± At the far end of the corridor flashes of light and heat bloomed as the drones began firing on something rushing round a corner from an adjoining passage. It was big but not intimidatingly so to Vic after the various creatures the team had put down over the years. Its round body was surrounded by seven legs and seven arms spread equidistantly around its centre of mass. A shield of some sort flashed into being ahead of it and the blasts of fire from bob¡¯s weapons either detonated ineffectually or glanced off and left molten streaks on the walls. ¡°I can¡¯t cut it off, seal it¡¯s powers or whatever the hell Dad did when he knocked out the twins,¡± muttered Evie. ¡°Might as well do this the old fashioned way!¡± she said with a grin as her body transformed into purple lightning and shot down the corridor in an eye blink. She smashed through the shield and held out a hand as she passed whatever this thing was. Not having access to identify was annoying. Maybe her dad could add it back in sometime soon? Just for convenience if for no other reason. As Evie appeared behind whatever it was two of the creature''s legs fell to the ground and it teetered over, slamming its head into the corridor wall. A pitiable wail escaped its mouth, a broad flat-toothed gap in the lower half of its head, and it flailed blindly with three arms as it fell. A forcefield appeared and pressed Evie against the wall. She grunted as the pressure swiftly increased then vanished and appeared to one side of the poor bastard. Her hand, still made of purple lightning, flicked out and took the things head off just below its jaws. She stepped back and returned to her normal form just as the nearest leg flashed out and launched her down the corridor with a surprised yelp. Drones hurled themselves forwards but were ineffective in close combat. Forcefields flickered in and out around it. Most of them were wasted but there were so many shields that the bot¡¯s wrist-blades skittered away and couldn¡¯t land a meaningful hit. Vic ran faster than she¡¯d ever thought possible, somehow boosting her strength and speed like she was a bruiser and as she got a clean line of sight around the tangle of metal bodies trying to swarm the thing she imitated John¡¯s power. Slice of the thing began to vanish, limbs falling useless to the ground as connective tissue blipped to the side. Once the arms were gone the shields began to fail and the drones fell on the beast with their blades, reducing it to diced meat in short order. ¡°They don¡¯t seem to keep their brains in their heads. Taking off the limbs seems to fuck with their powers though. Bridge corridor is clear,¡± said Vic as she hurried towards where Evie had landed in a pile. As she got near she breathed a sigh of relief. The girl was picking herself up slowly and swearing like a drunken sailor. ¡°Fuckers kick like a mule,¡± she muttered. ¡°Bridge clear.¡± ¡°Engineering clear.¡± ¡°Engineering access clear.¡± Reports came in thick and fast from the rest of the team. ¡°We¡¯ve got two guests who appeared in the hold with some of our other passengers. They are cutting through my airlocks as we speak. One more appeared in your hold, the rest didn¡¯t translate correctly,¡± Colin said from the walls. ¡°Dad!¡± yelled Evie as she began to rush back to him. ¡°I have this covered, little sister. The rest of you might wish to go and deal with the ones currently leading a rebellion of our former colleagues,¡± said Zeeg confidently. ¡°You¡¯ve got this?¡± asked Vic worriedly. ¡°No worries, as John-Dad would say,¡± said Zeeg happily. *** The weird looking creature had begun by attacking the drones who opened fire as soon as it appeared in the centre of the room. Zeeg had slipped into invisibility and intangibility and crept forward, body low to the ground. Never interrupt an enemy while they are making a mistake. This specimen was fighting with illusory arms that appeared and vanished in an orbit around its body. Most of them were used to absorb the initial barrage of fire from the drones as it rushed to the nearest clump of Bob¡¯s. When it got there the arms proved brutally effective, reducing half a dozen drones to scrap in a couple of seconds. The floating arms switched to its right hand side as more drones opened fire and it shot across the hold to intercept them. The thing looked ungainly, far too many legs and far too much mass to match the perfection of the canine form. Zeeg grinned as she slunk closer. As long as it wasn¡¯t heading for John she was happy to take her time with this new toy. The alien reached the next set of drones and quickly demolished them as well. ¡°Zeeg, stop fucking around please. I don¡¯t have infinite drones,¡± complained Bob over the comms. Zeeg shot forward and stuck her head into the things chest. Headshots were ineffective so the fat barrel-like bodies must house its brains as well as its other major organs. She opened her eyes wide as her head sank in and then began making her jaws tangible for split seconds as she thrashed her head from side to side, aiming to rake them through anything that looked juicy and vital. The arms, real and summoned, spasmed and thrashed at her body but the only part of her that existed physically were razor sharp teeth and those were inside its chest. She stepped back as it slumped to the ground, all seven legs splaying out around it like petals on a flower. ¡°We¡¯re good here,¡± the dog said in a bloodthirsty voice over the comms as she began to lick the strange but not entirely unpleasant blood from her jaws. Chapter 222 - Zeeg, put that down! John was lost in the gaps between the chaos of Outside and the mundanity of reality. He was slowly extending the bridge, maker it broader and longer by feeding parts of himself and the Concepts that lurked at the far end, creating a voluntary melding of matter and un-matter that linked both worlds. Time had no meaning for him. He drifted for what felt like years but could have only been a few seconds, gradually spreading the weblike structure of the bridge. Physical dimensions didn''t apply, he might as well have said it made it heavier rather than larger but the human parts of him insisted on language he was familiar with. He felt a new strand of the bridge stretch out and brush up against something. At first he assumed it was a new Concept, coming to join the meld but then he realised it was what he had been searching for. The bridge the Gods of the System had created some impossible time ago. Their bridge was rigid whereas his was flexible. His strand slid along the ancient metaphysical construct and the Concepts supporting him recoiled. There was no colour in this disconnected world but in his mind''s eye the Gods¡¯ bridge was black and gold whereas his own was pink and purple. Shape was meaningless in this demi-realm but he felt that his own bridge was an organic, flowing thing of delicate arcs that stretched out like a tangle of vines between reality and Outside. The Gods bridge was angular and blocky, imposing itself on the substrate rather than blending with it. He started to creep tendrils of his own bridge across the older one, gradually surrounding sections of it. The black and the gold was inconceivably vast, despite lacking physical dimension. In comparison his own effort was a month old sapling standing next to thousand year old Redwood. But with youth came vigour and he began the long work of mapping his own bridge across the older one. He was lost in his task, gradually feeding the power of the Concepts who flitted on the Outside and offered their help to his work, weaving them with his humanity in a way that would eventually supplant and uproot the behemoth that the Gods relied on for their power. *** ¡°Well why don¡¯t we just kill them?¡± snapped Evie. ¡°John didn¡¯t kill them earlier. He didn¡¯t even collar them, which in hindsight was probably a big fucking mistake,¡± grunted Flash. Evie and Flash occupied either end of a long corridor, one of the central passages that provided access to over a hundred holds. The inhabitants of those holds had been freed by the attackers who were currently nowhere to be seen. The pair were maintaining impenetrable force fields to block the now rampaging former passengers from spilling out into the rest of the ship. Evie¡¯s field was an opaque wall of purple most of the time. When the denizens on the other side backed off for a minute the field became translucent and they could see the wall of fighters blocking the corridor cycling themselves, fresh beings stepping forward while those who had exhausted themselves against the impermeable membrane backed off to rest. Then they would rush forward, tangles of teeth and tentacles, three limb thick arms and legs thrashing and flailing at the barrier which quickly blocked off the sight as the field dispersed the force and blocked the light. ¡°I¡¯m going to push again. Looks like they¡¯re focusing on you,¡± said Flash. His barrier was much the same as Evie''s but a deeper purple, like a fresh bruise. He drove it forward six feet before the aliens facing off against him charged back into the fray and sought to shove it away. He gave ground slightly, losing six inches as they slammed into it before he could lock it in place, but then it held firm. Felicity channelled some kind of buff or healing into him from his shoulder and he straightened up. ¡°We¡¯ve been doing this for fucking hours,¡± grumbled Evie. ¡°How much further till we can lock them in a hold?¡± ¡°Half a kilometre. How we get them to go back into the hold, meh,¡± said Bob with a verbal shrug. ¡°I return to my previous point: let''s just kill them,¡± Evie snapped as she prepared to slide her own barrier closer to the source of their problems once more. As it faded back to transparency she mimicked Flash¡¯s manoeuvre, catching the attackers unaware and managed to slide the barrier another ten feet before locking it in place. Angry grunts, clicks and screams came from the other side and she smirked. ¡°I did ten,¡± she bragged. ¡°Six last time for me. The winner is whoever gets to the middle first though. I¡¯m still betting on me,¡± Flash replied grumpily. ¡°Stop fecking aboot and fecking move the bloody things back!¡± growled Reg. ¡°It¡¯s not that easy, old man,¡± Evie replied. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of weight over there and they¡¯ve all got fucking powers. If you want to go and collar a few it would be really helpful,¡± she finished sweetly.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Reg grumbled but didn¡¯t volunteer. Even with their new abilities and the equivalent of a considerable level advantage: quantity has a quality all its own and there was a lot of quantity trying to take over the ship. ¡°I could remove the atmosphere if you prefer?¡± offered Colin from the ceiling. ¡°John didn¡¯t kill them for a reason. Maybe. Until he gets back from la-la-land we¡¯re better off letting this lot live,¡± said Vic. ¡°They¡¯re no real threat are they?¡± ¡°They are now locked out and I will soon have access to the control systems along this corridor again,¡± Colin replied flatly. ¡°You think he will do unto them as he has done unto us?¡± asked Felix who was leaning against a wall behind Evie. ¡°I would think so. I get the feeling he needs recruits. We¡¯re the first but more will follow,¡± said Sam thoughtfully. ¡°Dad-John doesn¡¯t need trash like this. We need to get home so he can create interfaces for my packs. Then we¡¯ll be unstoppable,¡± said Zeeg lazily over the comms. The assumption of canine superiority was an accepted law of the universe and returning to her less than gargantuan size had not changed her opinion on the matter. ¡°Still. He didn¡¯t just stomp them,¡± said Raoul. ¡°Maybe I can get in there?¡± he asked hopefully. ¡°If I open up a gap for you the bastards will swarm out,¡± grunted Flash. ¡°Once we get them penned back in a single hold and Colin can seal the door again you can have a play.¡± ¡°They¡¯re living things! Just because the system has set them against us doesn¡¯t mean we can pretend they¡¯re monsters. They¡¯re sentients like us. Well, like most of us,¡± Sam chuckled as she punched Raoul in the arm earning a dirty look from her lover. ¡°Ok, another move,¡± Flash grunted as he shoved back the sea of flesh again. ¡°Twelve! Ha, suck it Evie!¡± he crowed. ¡°Phrasing dude. Inappropriate language for the workplace,¡± Evie joked back as she prepared another shove as well. ¡°Six this time,¡± she muttered in disappointment. She couldn¡¯t see him, what with the sea of aliens between them but she knew Flash had a broad grin on his annoyingly handsome face. ¡°Better luck next time,¡± the man replied over the comms, his smile clear in his tone. ¡°Cocky prick,¡± she muttered, waiting patiently for the aliens to calm down again and give her another opportunity to inch closer to winning the bet. *** The Gods¡¯ bridge was beginning to react. It was pushing back against his tendrils and John watched placidly as he lost some ground. His webs untangled and waved as they were driven away from the black and the gold. This was only to be expected but age had made the other bridge brittle. As it pushed back parts of it fragmented and separated from the main structure. Most would fade away but perhaps a few would find roots and create new Systems in other worlds. He could sense them at the edge of his perception. Alternate universes where the entire panoply of possibility played out in every conceivable fashion. Worlds where he and Evie had never been trapped by the system, where he hadn¡¯t messed up his degree and had lived completely different lives, never knowing Evie¡¯s mother or meeting Vic and having Ryn come into his life. Millions of other-Johns hung at the edge of his mind. The possibilities were infinite and as he watched the fragments of the ancient bridge drifting out into the myriad universes he hoped some would lead to happier stories than his own. His own bridge, being organic and integrated rather than artificial and imposed didn¡¯t break, it bent like a reed in the wind and the disturbed tendrils began to collect themselves and slowly weave back around the other bridge, exploiting the damage it had done to itself in reaction to his intrusion. For a while he was lost guiding and melding with the Concepts but he began to feel his energy flagging. He didn¡¯t want to return to reality, as much as he was now able to return anyway. He knew it would be hours in the real world before he could manage more than single word sentences without babbling like a loon. Hopefully Vic would be more accepting of this handicap now she knew a little more of his plans. With a sense of regret and loss he detached himself from the bridge, pulling what was left of himself back into the material universe. His eyelids blinked open out of habit, not because they blocked his vision. Zeeg raised her head from his lap and cocked it to one side, both ears raised inquisitively. ¡°We are all well, Dad-John,¡± she said softly. The runes Magic had carved into his cheeks and forehead pulsed with pink light and the motes of fire that had replaced his eyeballs were dancing orbs in their own right now. Zeeg blinked. Her master and friend seemed to have changed again. ¡°Good,¡± he said awkwardly, raising a hand to pet her gently on the back of her skull. He stood, dislodging her from where she had propped herself against him and scanned through the ship. He saw the barriers bottling the slaves up in a small section of the ship and his face remained impassive. He focussed on a hold almost directly in the middle of the walls forcing the aliens backwards and found the last of the assault team. Mid sixties, in terms of levels. Perfect materials. He didn¡¯t like viewing these intelligent beings as little more than fuel for the bridge but he needed every advantage he could take. This pair were willing slaves. He could see their pasts like shadows stretching out behind them. Perhaps under different circumstances they might have considered the deeper reality of their situation but he hadn¡¯t until Magic had forced him to see. He sighed and vanished, leaving Zeeg to stare at the alien body. Now no one was looking, she sidled over and took a few bites. The blood had tasted delicious and she wanted to check if the meat was the same- ¡°Zeeg, put that down!¡± snapped a spider drone as it passed. John appeared next to where the last of the seven legged aliens were resting. They had exhausted themselves breaking into Colins systems and smashing the blast doors that were purposefully built to contain high levelled beings. He reached out as they turned and cut them off from the source of their power. He ignored them as they lurched to their feet and threw themselves at him. The bounced off without ruffling his hair and then backed away, fourteen eyes blinking in fear at him. He moved into the corridor stripping the Essence of every being he saw. Most of it went to the bridge but some of it was concentrated into a pair of interfaces growing in his left palm like benign tumours. These would be very special interfaces for two very important people. Pink sparks drifted up from his left fist as he strode down the corridor and turned powerful beings into whimpering mortals with a thought. His eyes burned so brightly they filled the corridor with an eerie purple glow. Chapter 223 - Air Force Bob Ryn awoke to a knocking at her door, followed by someone ringing the buzzer, probably not for the first time, judging by the angry staccato of the fist banging against the metal door panel. She wiped her hands across her eyes and found they were puffy and damp. She¡¯d been crying in her sleep again. ¡°Who is it?¡± she snapped angrily as she stumbled out of bed and made her way to the tiny ensuite bathroom. She knocked over some empty bottles as she moved, creating a clattering tinkle as they skittered over the floor tiles. ¡°We¡¯re due for a briefing in ten minutes, Ryn. You can¡¯t be late again! Get your shit together!¡± Bad yelled back through the door. ¡°I¡¯ll be there in seven. Stop pestering me!¡± she called back, running the tap and splashing cold water over her face. ¡°I¡¯ll see you there then. Seriously; don¡¯t be late!¡± called Bad. Ryn listened to his footsteps fade away down the corridor. She went back into her cubbyhole of a room and began to drag on her undersuit and armour. The violent dreams that had once left her with a strange sense of glee had morphed over the years as more and more material for them had been added by her experiences. Now they left her filled with self loathing and revulsion. The one luxury she did enjoy, in terms of accommodation at least, was a tiny porthole. The armoured stuff, she couldn¡¯t remember if it was plastic, glass or some mix of them both, was a couple of feet thick and the clockwise stretch of the Necklace disappeared into the darkness. Some of the team preferred a sleeping pod on the underside so they could see the Earth spinning below them. Ryn couldn¡¯t stand to see the pock marked and ruined planet from above anymore. She preferred to watch the tugs and Discs moving around the vast bulk of the ship Bob had named Warspite. The gigantic bronze construct which dwarfed even the Necklace was docked a hundred kilometres from her room. It was easily visible from Earth even during the day, hanging like a second moon over the equator and was only a few weeks away from completion. To truly appreciate it you had to see it from space. As she shrugged on the last piece of armour and waited a moment for it to pull itself tight around her body she reached out with her fire-sense and located Jane in the briefing room already. She tucked her helmet under one arm and vanished, appearing next to her team. ¡°Told you I¡¯d be seven minutes,¡± Ryn said as she made her way over to the refreshments and got herself a coffee. She added milk and her friends winced as she poured in her usual six sugars. ¡°You¡¯ll rot your teeth,¡± muttered Bolf in disapproval. ¡°It¡¯ll be fine.¡± Ryn sighed as she took a long sip. Her stomach rumbled then her free hand flashed out and snatched something from the air. Bad had tossed a foil wrapped package at her. She unwrapped it and began munching on the tube of synthetic bread and meat it contained. ¡°Now we¡¯re all here, let''s get down to brass tacks,¡± said Bob from the form of a rudimentary mannequin that stood to one side of a large viewscreen on a single leg tipped with tiny wheels. ¡°Fury is preparing to make his move on the Bunker. The Beastfolk have bent the knee to him.¡± ¡°How the fuck did he break Sylvia?¡± asked Simon. ¡°She was solid as a rock.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know but what¡¯s left of her pet tribulations and their swarms are moving on the Scars. She¡¯ll be able to overwhelm the outer defences easily. Especially not with Fury and Splinter working together coming in behind her. There may be a few other Captains with them as well.¡± ¡°Splinter? Did I miss a global asshole ceasefire declaration or something?¡± asked Jane. ¡°They¡¯ve been pooling their resources recently. We think Magic might be involved,¡± Bob replied. Ryn scowled around her sandwich-substitute. Magic was on her shit list but his flying Island had vanished years ago and he hadn''t been seen since. ¡°What about Life?¡± asked Sally. ¡°Still on Bob¡¯s World. He¡¯s needed there to expand the agri-zone.¡± ¡°So it¡¯s down to us?¡± asked Bad. ¡°Groovy!¡± he flashed a gleaming grin around the room. ¡°You¡¯re there in reserve. We¡¯re going to deploy Gargants and Tarantulas to deal with the worst of it,¡± Bob replied. Andrea whistled appreciatively. ¡°I thought you were keeping them in reserve? ¡®Once they go down they don¡¯t come back up¡¯,¡± she finished in a parody of Bob at his most pompous. ¡°The biomass from Sylvia¡¯s pets makes it worth our while,¡± admitted Bob. The face was inanimate but judging from the tone he would have looked ashamed if it were possible. ¡°You¡¯re going to let the Dragon eat them?¡± Bad barked a laugh. ¡°He¡¯s been on starvation rations for over a year now, so have all the Shelly¡¯s. This represents an opportunity to build their strength before the Kipragtsek gets here. We¡¯ll bring the bodies up on lighters, or Ryn can blip the meat out if more Ravagers turn up,¡± Bob replied. ¡°Simon, I¡¯d really appreciate it if you-¡±This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. ¡°No. I¡¯m going. I¡¯m not spending another day sitting in a room transmuting materials for you!¡± snapped the young man. ¡°We¡¯ve been cut off from monster parts for years. We¡¯re so close to completing the Warspite, it would just be a few more weeks,¡± Bob argued. ¡°If you weren¡¯t ¡®repurposing¡¯ all your bloody Discs, drones and the weapons that used to be on the Necklace we could just destroy Fury from orbit,¡± Simon snarled. ¡°Why should I sit locked in a fucking cupboard making shit that you won¡¯t even allow to be used!¡± ¡°You¡¯re too valuable to risk losing. Without you the Warspite won¡¯t be ready in time.¡± ¡°Well fuck you very much. I¡¯m still going.¡± The machine emitted a simulated sigh and turned to look at Ryn. her eyes were still slightly puffy and while this drone looked like a shop mannequin it contained an advanced sensor suite and could see the physiological damage her emotional turmoil had inflicted. ¡°I¡¯ll keep him safe,¡± she offered, earning a glare from Simon and a snort from Andrea. ¡°Get the bones as well please. I can transmute them and they¡¯ll be a useful addition to our resource pool,¡± said the drone. ¡°So you don¡¯t even need me!¡± grumbled Simon. ¡°Why didn¡¯t we just hit Sylvia and take them before?¡± The rest of the team turned disapproving looks on him and Simon hunched down into his shoulders, muttering quietly to himself. ¡°Splinter is using her power to create fakes so we don¡¯t know where the real force is. It¡¯s somewhere in this area,¡± the screen flicked on and the aerial view of what had once been Wayfaire was shown. Once the rains had come and blown the powder and dust away the Scars had been revealed. Where Blue Street had been was the start of kilometre long scars of fused rock where the energy of the blast from Belisarius¡¯ vessel had fed back on itself. The energy had passed back and forth between the portals and now the long lines burned into North Yorkshire were known as the Scars. Ryn hated the sight of it. To the south of her former home was a large grey blob overlaid across a sizable part of north England. ¡°That¡¯s what, two hundred square kilometres or something?¡± asked Bad. ¡°Rather more than that I¡¯m afraid. We do have the advantage of knowing where they are going though, so that simplifies matters for us somewhat. We¡¯ll deploy on top of the last mine, the one Hermes managed to get going. We¡¯ve filled it in but it will still be the easiest place for them to dig for the Portals.¡± ¡°How are we getting down?¡± asked Sally, glancing at Ryn. ¡°You¡¯ll deploy from an assault lighter. It¡¯ll provide overwatch once it drops you off.¡± ¡°Why the sudden liberty with the machines Bob?¡± asked Andrea. ¡°No point holding them back now. The Captains have learned from Hermes'' mistake so they¡¯re coming in force. They might hate each other but they hate us more. They¡¯ve seen Warspite growing for years and while they don¡¯t know exactly what¡¯s going on they¡¯ve figured some of it out. They think we¡¯re going to shut the portals and bugger off, leaving them for the Void when it arrives.¡± ¡°When can we get going? I¡¯ll need as much time as possible to dig and trap the place,¡± said Simon, rising to his feet. ¡°Hangar bay 3 is waiting for you. Get going.¡± Bay 3 was on the underside of the Necklace. It had previously been used for lighters going up and down to the planet for resources and materials. Since Belisarius¡¯ revenge there hadn¡¯t been much in the way of monster parts to be harvested. Bob had an abundance of base metals and elements from his asteroid mining project but the magitech and outright magical components had become incredibly rare. Most of his combat drones had been scrapped, their parts and materials recycled for use on the Warspite. Whenever they did get a haul of materials it was usually from raiding an old BME warehouse that had escaped the ravages of the Captains. Ryn smiled faintly at the sight of the assault lighter. Long and sleek, it was made of blacked metal and looked like a fifty metre long dagger. Weapon pods and missile racks were recessed into the bottom of the hull, making the ramp into the hold steep. The lower half of the hull was chock full of plasma guns, beam cannons and Vortex missiles, a welcome accompaniment whenever one had to move around on the fallen planet below them. The hanger had a forcefield allowing them to see the Earth slowly spinning below them. It would be morning when they touched down at the Scars at least. The clouds that had encompassed the world for three years had finally begun to settle properly and now it was occasionally sunny on the surface, if you were lucky. The team scurried up the ramp and buckled themselves into the drop seats that lined the hull. Ryn pulled her helmet over her head and blinked as the display came to life in her eyes. ¡°All good here,¡± she called as she bucked in. The metal bands that wrapped around her legs automatically pinched her into the correct position. Her friends echoed the sentiment in various tones of boredom and excitement. ¡°Welcome aboard Air Force Bob,¡± came Bob¡¯s voice in their helmets. The rear hatch whined shut. ¡°Express elevator to hell, going down!¡± ¡°You know there were a bunch of movies made post-Advent?¡± muttered Bad as the acceleration snatched at them, shoving their bodies into the restraints. There wasn¡¯t a roar of jets, the lighter operated on a gravity drive that required a lot of precious magitech materials to function. The ship shot forward through the semipermeable force field and pivoted gracefully to dive down into the atmosphere. The sharp tip of the vessel began to glow red as it cut through the upper atmosphere. ¡°Two minutes to release,¡± called Bob. The chairs the team were strapped into flattened out and pivoted so their feet were pointed at the hull. ¡°Sixty seconds.¡± Ryn tensed. There would likely be scavengers waiting for them as soon as they arrived, scouting in the rubble of Wayfaire for anything that had been missed by previous groups that had wandered through. Hopefully they¡¯d just run when they saw the ship. They were a rare sight these days to the denizens left on the surface. ¡°Brace! Flyers going first.¡± Bob said softly. The hull at Ryn¡¯s feet spiralled open and she was ejected into the air, the braces on the drop seat snapping open in a fashion that she automatically flipped over to be facing down as she was ejected from the lighter. She stabilised herself with a handful of teleports and checked around her. Jane and Andrea were both floating at the other side of the lighter, falling with it to stay close to the vulnerable vessel. When it was fifty feet off the ground Bad, Sally and Bolf were ejected. They arced through the air and landed with smooth rolls that brought them back to their feet. The lighter dropped another thirty feet then disgorged Simon, Armand, Claire and Kev. They all landed gracefully except for Simon who stumbled as he landed. ¡°That¡¯s why you should stay on the Necklace mate. You suck at combat deployments,¡± teased Bad. Chapter 224 - Good briefing bro ¡°They¡¯re over there.¡± said Kev as he highlighted a patch on his mini-map that Bob fed through to the rest of the team. ¡°About fifty clicks out.¡± ¡°Can you get in their heads yet?¡± asked Sally. ¡°Yes but I¡¯m going to wait,¡± he replied. ¡°No point tipping our hand right now and it will be more impactful if I time it right.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to start setting up traps. You guys ok for trinkets?¡± asked Simon. ¡°I could use a couple of shields,¡± said Andrea. Simon walked over and handed over a pair of small metal cubes. ¡°Who are you copying?¡± he asked quietly. ¡°Ryn, but I¡¯ve got snippets of all your powers now.¡± Simon blinked. He had always worried Andrea would outsrip them all with her power mimicry. He felt left behind, he could transmute matter and if he got a chance to prepare an area he was extremely dangerous but compared to the others he was¡­ dead weight. He nodded to the woman and ran off to go set his traps. He had enough time that he wouldn¡¯t be completely useless on this occasion. ¡°You¡¯ve got thirty minutes at their current speed,¡± said Bob through the comm links. ¡°On it,¡± muttered Simon as he ran towards the probable line of advance and began scattering metal cubes that dug themselves into the ground. ¡°Jane, Ryn, can one of you clear the scrub please? Back about half a kilometre would be good.¡± ¡°That will be a lot of smoke.¡± said Ryn. ¡°Won¡¯t that tip them off?¡± ¡°They know we¡¯re going to have to hold this place. They¡¯re expecting a fight. Fury and Splinter are both planning to betray the other at the final moment. Turns out there¡¯s no honour among thieves,¡± said Kev. ¡°It¡¯s fine, give us a fire break.¡± Ryn and Jane obliged and thick smoke roiled into the air as the mutated plant life was burned back. They both hovered above the ground and swept back and forth to clear the area quickly. Armand conjured a swarm of magpies that flew up to drift south with the smoke. ¡°The waiting is the hardest part,¡± muttered Bad as he tossed a summoned kukri up and down in one hand. ¡°Nah. Not getting mobbed by Fury¡¯s psycho minions or ripped into fragments by Splinter is going to be the hard part,¡± said Sally as she stretched out next to the depression the mineworks had left in the ground. ¡°It¡¯ll be good to get back into action. These assholes won¡¯t be a problem,¡± Bad replied. ¡°They¡¯re all over our level now, you cocky doofus. They¡¯ve spent five years killing everything they wanted to and we¡¯ve spent five years raiding the surface for rare metals,¡± Bolf replied. He stretched out next to Sally and gratefully accepted the ear rubs that were his due. ¡°Stop lazing about and secure the area,¡± Kev ordered over the comms. ¡°There are scavengers nearby. They¡¯re running but some of them might turn back.¡± ¡°Just loop them, Kev. That¡¯s why we bring you along on these little escapades,¡± said Bad with a laugh. ¡°I¡¯m saving my strength, Bad. Just do a sweep to the north to make sure they keep running, please. We do not want them to show up at the same time as the Ravagers.¡± ¡°Yes sir, Captain Kevin,¡± Bad drawled as he stopped juggling knives. ¡°Well lady and dog, care to join me?¡± The pair looked up and nodded. The trio swept the area to the north, sprinting across the scarred landscape in leaps and bounds. They didn¡¯t encounter anyone and began grumbling about Kev being overly paranoid. ¡°I can still hear your thoughts guys,¡± Kev said over the comm link after the mutterings turned to his obsessive security and what childhood trauma had prompted him to go down the dark path of paranoia. The three bruisers got back to their primary defensive position and found the rest of the team were all relaxing and drinking tea from a pot Jane had heated in her hand. ¡°Dicks. I¡¯ll have a mug,¡± said Bad. ¡°No time, sorry. They¡¯re almost here. Right, Andrea and Ryn, surgical strikes on Fury and Splinter, plus any other heavy hitters you can Identify. Let them get caught in the trap line before you move. Bruisers stay back to start, let the mechs and monsters deal with the chaff but be ready to get blipped in. Jane and Bolf are on overwatch. Don¡¯t go charging in, you hear? These pricks are all veterans and while their teamwork isn¡¯t the best they¡¯ll band together to fight back.¡± Kev said firmly. Jane blew him a raspberry while Bolf nodded solemnly.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°We don¡¯t need to kill them all, just drive them away from the portals. If they want to run, let them. Armand and I will be working on Sylvia¡¯s pets. The plan is to set them on each other but it¡¯s mostly going to come down to you mate, I¡¯ll be busy negating Fury¡¯s hold on his flying monkeys.¡± Kev sighed at the end. ¡°Flying monkeys? I beg your pardon?¡± asked Armand. ¡°I just meant his minions. I can already see the cracks in his control. It¡¯s not like me or Mindscar, it¡¯s like he supercharges some of their emotions. I can undo it, I think, but it will take time. Ryn, Andrea, Fury is the primary target. If he goes down it will free me up. Let¡¯s go,¡± Kev finished. ¡°Good briefing bro,¡± said Bad as he sipped from a coffee he¡¯d acquired while Kev spoke. Kev grinned at him. ¡°Move it!¡± he barked in his best Master Sergeant Bob impression. The team spread out to take up their positions and wait for the final minutes to elapse. It began with a series of explosions and screams as the lead elements entered Simon¡¯s territory. Smoke was cleared by the pressure waves then filled with more of the same. The screams echoing out sounded more enraged than terrified and they began to creep closer. ¡°Ryn, Andrea, any sign of Fury?¡± Kev asked. ¡°He¡¯s in the middle of the pack. I¡¯m weakening his ability, but I haven''t broken it yet.¡± ¡°Orbital support incoming,¡± Bob announced. Twelve lines of fire burned down through the sky and smashed into confusion of the smoke and explosions, throwing dirt high into the air. As the explosions of their impacts spread out, six of the metal tear drops that had smashed down unfurled long mechanical legs and rose up to loom over the engagement. The Tarantulas were Bob¡¯s current state of the art. They looked hairy from a distance but up close it was clear the ¡°hairs¡± were short metallic tentacles. These were all tipped with either the equivalent of a plasma rifle or a monomolecular blade. Fighting humans with powers was a challenge for Bob¡¯s constructs and he had adapted his designs to try and offset as many of his disadvantages as possible. Beams of energy slashed out as the giant spider-bots waded into the fray. Then the other drop pods cracked open and Pete¡¯s nightmares rolled out. Amorphous blobs of flesh three metres tall undulated across the battlefield. Limbs tipped with razor toothed maws formed to slash at a foe and then dissolved back into the main mass as soon as their target was disposed of. Name: Herman Gorst Level: 54 Ability: Aggravation ¡°I¡¯ve got eyes on Fury. No sign of Splinter. I¡¯m going in,¡± called Andrea. ¡°I¡¯m with you.¡± Ryn¡¯s voice was flat and cold. The two young women appeared in the midst of a cacophony of yelling and violence. Ryn reached out and wrapped Fury in fire but he slipped through her grasp and she couldn¡¯t port him out. ¡°He¡¯s got some kind of immunity,¡± Ryn noted over the comms. Andrea unleashed a blast for fire that tore through the ranks surrounding the small man. Ryn cut another line across them perpendicular to Andrea¡¯s effort. The minions who were below level forty one died immediately as the flames consumed them but most of their target''s closest guardians were above their level. They ended up looking scorched and took some damage but all it achieved was to exacerbate the thinly controlled rage that marked them as under Fury¡¯s sway.. Ryn switched to surrounding particular fighters in fire and blipping them away. None of them shared Fury¡¯s resistance to her level beating teleportation and they began to disappear in rapid sequence. Andrea barrelled down on a column of fire and slammed into Fury, launching him forwards and hurling him through the air. ¡°He¡¯s headed your way, bruisers. Prepare to play catch. Ryn, let¡¯s find Splinter.¡± Ryn nodded and flew off after her friend. ¡°Got him. He¡¯s not a happy little psycho, is he?¡± said Bad cheerfully. ¡°I¡¯ve set some of the tribulation level monsters against each other. Bob, I need the Gargants to deal with the swarms,¡± said Armand. ¡°No problem,¡± Bob replied. The nightmarish biological machines rolled out to the east and began to consume the smaller monsters that the Beastfolk faction had brought along with their titanic primary beasts. ¡°Orbital fire incoming,¡± Bob added as the clouds above split and lines cut across the masses surging towards the last portals left on Earth. Humans and monsters flashed into gas as the invisible beams ripped into the mob. ¡°Still no sign of Splinter,¡± called Ryn as she flew across the lines, raining fire down on anything that moved below her. ¡°I¡¯ve seen three of her but they were all fragments. They got cooked by the Bob-beam,¡± called Andrea as she hunted for the other primary Captain. ¡°Ryn, can you come and collar this prick?¡± called Sally. ¡°He¡¯s a tough son of a bitch. Collar him and his forces will break.¡± Ryn vanished and appeared over the bruiser battle. Fury was tossing her friends around like rag dolls. The first thing she saw was Bolf being tossed straight up. Fury leapt after the dog to deliver some kind of killing blow but Sally intercepted him and they engaged in a furious exchange of punches and kicks as they flew to the side. Bolf sprouted his wings, stabilised himself and dove back into the fray, snapping his jaws closed around Fury¡¯s leg and eliciting a scream of pain. Ryn pulled out a collar and blipped in behind her target. As soon as she appeared she reached out to snap a collar closed and she watched as his head craned round to glare at her just as the horrible little legs of the living collar sank into his throat. Suddenly all the fight went out of him and a casual flick of Bolf¡¯s tail sent him hurtling back to the ground. ¡°Done. Splinter?¡± She called over the comms. ¡°A few more fragments. Kev, is the real one even here?¡± Andrea asked. ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell. Now I¡¯m free from dealing with Fury, his troops have broken by the way, I should be able to pin her down but I can¡¯t. Maybe this was a fake out from her? I¡¯m going to work on the tribs and Sylvia, ah they¡¯re breaking off as well.¡± ¡°We need to pursue them,¡± said Bob firmly. ¡°Why? Let them run? Whatever forced them to work with these psychos is gone.¡± Kev snapped. ¡°We need the materials, boy. It¡¯s not pretty but we need as many dead tribs as possible for harvesting.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not going to help you with that,¡± said Kev. ¡°Stand down guys.¡± ¡°Christ alive boy! Fine, I¡¯ll use the Tarantulas and the Gargants. The lighter is coming back in for pick up. I¡¯m dispatching salvage teams as well. I¡¯ll provide my own security,¡± Bob snarled. ¡°What do we do with him?¡± asked Ryn, looking at the battered former Ravager Captain, being nursed back to life by Claire. Chapter 225 - Not sparing the horses ¡°Take him back up to the Necklace,¡± Bob snapped. ¡°Jesus Bob. What the hell is wrong with you?¡± asked Kev. ¡°I had five years. I¡¯ve almost done it but time is running out fast. I don¡¯t have room for niceties anymore. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s coming but the other-me was pretty clear I needed the Warpsite finished in that timeframe. And now what might have been my last chance to get the final materials I needed is running away. Bob out.¡± Ryn nudged the man known as Fury with a toe and he groaned. Claire swatted at her leg. ¡°Leave him be. He¡¯s powerless,¡± Claire muttered. ¡°So that was it? We just head back into space while Bob hunts down good people''s pets?¡± asked Bad. The assault lighter was moving down over them. It landed nearby and the ramp extended from the rear. ¡°What else are we going to do? This world is dead and the Void didn¡¯t have to lift a finger. Most of us live on Bob World now,¡± muttered Ryn as she hauled the wounded Captain up by his collar and marched towards the shuttle. While she had reservations about killing Sylvia¡¯s tamed monsters she had long since lost all sympathy for the likes of Fury. ¡°You fucking slaves deserve what you get,¡± Fury muttered as he struggled to keep his feet under him rather than dangling from Ryn¡¯s fist. ¡°I can walk, bitch. I can¡¯t run. Let me go!¡± Ryn shoved him forwards and he stumbled to his knees. Bad and Sally had moved over to flank the man in case he tried anything. Collared he didn¡¯t stand a chance but people were people and desperation could make them stupid. He climbed slowly back to his feet and glared at her. ¡°You could have offered me a ride off world a few years ago and avoided all this unpleasantness,¡± he muttered as he was escorted to the lighter. Twin columns of fire fell through the clouds, revealing themselves as bulkier versions of their own lighter as they settled in to land nearby amid plumes of smoke and dust. Small spider-bots, Bob¡¯s standard worker drones, spilled out and a handful of flying drones shot up to orbit above them. All the drones were crude looking. Made of mundane materials, only their most vital components used anything magitech. They were awkward and clumsy in comparison to the fighting machines Bob used to produce. They began moving through the battlefield looking for corpses that could be refined into the valuable materials needed for the Warspite. A steady stream of bodies was lifted up and flowed back into the lighters. From the state of the battlefield it would take a few days to clean up all the parts Bob wanted. A few short minutes of combat had produced so much destruction, as it always did since the system. ¡°No offence but it¡¯s hard to trust someone like you,¡± said Kev as he followed behind the collared man. ¡°Ha! Say¡¯s a fucking minder. At least I can¡¯t make a man kill himself,¡± barked Fury. ¡°I-¡± ¡°But you did.¡± Kev cut in angrily. ¡°You made people run into fights against their wills and get killed. The difference between me and you is I have some fucking self control,¡± Kev snarled. ¡°Easy mate,¡± said Bad as he cuffed Fury over the head, making him stumble. ¡°Don¡¯t let this prick get under your skin.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the villain here you idiots. I was just trying to survive. Who blew up the planet? It sure as shit wasn¡¯t me or mine.¡± ¡°Belisarius was under the control of a psyker,¡± offered Claire. ¡°He didn¡¯t choose to do what he did either.¡± ¡°Oh so it was someone like your boss there who was responsible? Colour me fucking surprised,¡± Fury replied in a conversational tone. Ryn tensed, anticipating a move by the man. It wouldn¡¯t do him any good but she¡¯d known brighter people to try in this situation. ¡°What are you going to do with me anyway? Leave me collared and rotting in some cell on your fancy space station? What¡¯s the point? Foods in short supply these days. Just end me and let me rest,¡± His shoulders sagged as he spoke. ¡°We need to get to Splinter,¡± Kev replied. He¡¯d been diving through the man''s memories as they walked and knew enough that Fury was certainly a victim of circumstance. He¡¯d been a Line commander before Belisarius¡¯ Revenge and had worked effectively with numerous teams to keep the wasps in check. Robbed of that he¡¯d fallen into depression and wandered the world for a while. When the bombs went off he¡¯d been in a remote part of Siberia hunting down a rogue swarm that had escaped past the wall in the confusion of the destruction of the main queen. From there it had been a constant struggle for survival and food. He¡¯d been too aggressive, too quickly and had been flagged as a Ravager Captain by Bob. Bob hadn¡¯t been wrong. At that point the man was little better than a cannibal savage.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Still, it hadn¡¯t been a path Fury had chosen. It had been forced on him by circumstance and Kev had a shadowy feeling that if he had been in Fury¡¯s shoes he would have turned out even worse. ¡°You missed that bitch? For fucks sake, I got taken down by amateurs,¡± Fury grumbled as he was led into the drop bay and secured to a chair, the metal bands snapping closed over his torso and limbs to hold him firmly in place. ¡°You don¡¯t know anything about her do you? Beyond what everyone knows,¡± said Kev as he sat down opposite and stared Fury in the eyes. The man was of average height, any muscle mass he might once have had was faded and shrivelled through long periods of hunger. Fury was a husk of a man. ¡°I never even knew if I was talking to the real her. We aren¡¯t a close knit group, believe it or not,¡± he muttered as he tested the limits of his restraints and found that while they weren¡¯t cutting off any circulation they didn¡¯t allow him any real freedom of movement. The hatch whined closed behind them and the lighter shook slightly. ¡°Going for a gentle return to spare the grav plates. Settle in for a bit,¡± came Bob¡¯s voice over the comms. ¡°Ah great, the slow boat home,¡± said Simon. ¡°At least I¡¯m spared an hour or two¡¯s transmutation duties!¡± ¡°You¡¯re still useful up there, we¡¯re just more mouths to feed!¡± said Jane. ¡°All I do is burn stuff if I¡¯m not careful. It¡¯s like walking on eggshells all the bloody time.¡± ¡°What are we going to do about Splinter?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°She¡¯s the last of the Captains.¡± Fury snorted a laugh. ¡°Last of them is she?¡± he snarked. Ryn ignored their captive and looked to Kev. ¡°We¡¯re passing south over the fight and I can still reach everyone down there. Sylvia was¡­ desperate. Since we stopped dropping supplies their numbers had dwindled. It was our fault,¡± Kev said softly. ¡°We had no choice. There¡¯s the Dragon and the Shelly¡¯s to feed as well as tens of millions of people on Bob World,¡± said Bob. His earlier anger had faded and the regret was clear in his tone. ¡°No choice? That¡¯s my excuse as well,¡± chuckled Fury. ¡°What next, you had to cut us off and leave us to eat each other?¡± ¡°You were too dangerous,¡± Bob replied flatly. Ryn tuned out the argument as everyone began to chime in with their own takes. She pulled up the forward view from the lighter and enjoyed the sight. A vast construct of gleaming metal stretched across the world like a rainbow, disappearing behind the curve of the planet in both directions. It was hard to see the ruin that had been made of Earth from this angle. Tiny lights and patches of darkness that occluded the stars behind them signified the presence of tugs and drones going about their work. Behind it all sat the bronze nub of the Warspite, nose pointed out into space and surrounded by a halo of bots frantically cutting and welding to complete the outer hull before the deadline her dad had imposed on Bob. The ship was vast, nearly a hundred kilometres from nose to tail, and Ryn still had no idea how it was supposed to move. Bob had been very hush hush about the propulsion system and not even Simon knew how it was meant to work despite having crafted a lot of the parts and materials. Ryn no longer missed her family, not really. They were a fond memory from a time before the real world emerged. Her memories of abundance, food and drink and anything she had wanted seemed like a different life. Since the Revenge she¡¯d grown used to living on less, having almost no luxuries and living on the edge of survival. When she thought of her parents and sister her imagination was coloured by envy. She was sure they weren¡¯t scraping by while every resource was poured into some inexplicable dream like the Warspite. She focused on the image in front of her eyes. The swarms of tugs and drones were scattering, pulling away from the Warspite on tongues of actinic fire as they shot back towards the Necklace. Even the usual repair bots on the vast space station were jetting towards their bays. Another bronze blob appeared out beyond the Warspite. It was a gigantic cylinder of metal covered with protuberances and shadowy recesses. The sunlight glinted along its length and while perspective was incredibly difficult in the vacuum Ryn would swear it dwarfed the gargantuan Warspite, being at least twice as long. She manipulated the view carefully, it seemed Bob was no longer offering any assistance to stabilise the cameras and the image had become shaky and blurry. Beyond the first behemoth another appeared, then another. Soon the sky was clouded with impossible bronze and golden ships. Dozens, hundreds of them swarmed in the skies above earth. Moments later black ships of a more organic design began to appear. They arrived in the gaps between the gold ships, blocking the stars behind them and only partially visible as the light caught on edges and structures protruding from their ovoid hulls. ¡°This is going to get rough. I¡¯m not sparing the horses anymore,¡± Bob declared. ¡°What the hell is that Bob?¡± Ryn gasped. Beams of black and gold light lanced out to strike the Warspite but were turned aside by the ships shields. ¡°Your bloody dad got back early,¡± snapped Bob. Nine motes of purple light skipped across the void like stones over a still pond. Appearing in one place and then teleporting closer to the invading armada. When they reached the first of the black and gold ships they vanished, presumably inside them. A heartbeat later those vessels burst apart, scattering tiny lifeboats like dandelions in the wind. The life boats curved round and shot towards the Warspite. Not life boats then, Ryn thought. A wash of purple light swept out from the prow of the Warspite and the missiles or small ships were gone. The first voidliner to arrive had slipped into a holding pattern to shield the Warspite with its bulk. Flashes of pink and purple energy washed out from it as beams or projectiles from the invaders tried to lance into it. The purple motes were back, skipping to the next group of ships. They vanished inside them and soon those vessels exploded. The dark ships launched clouds of tiny ships, like a mushroom dropping spores, that swarmed down towards the planet. The Warspite and the friendly vessel burned a lot of them down but there were millions of spots of shadow that slipped past and fell into the atmosphere of Earth leaving bright trails of fire as they burned into the atmosphere. ¡°Sorry it¡¯s been so long, love. Let''s get you lot back to the Warspite. Cool name by the way, Bob,¡± said John as he appeared in the assault lighter. There was a wave of pink light that ran down the ship and they were suddenly stationary, all the G forces and shaking gone. Ryn stared in shock at the bright purple flames that filled her dad¡¯s empty eye sockets. Chapter 226 - The personal touch ¡°Dad? What happened to you?¡± Ryn asked as she struggled to release the straps and bars locking her into her jump seat. He waved a hand and the material dissolved. She leapt up and threw herself into his arms in a fierce hug. ¡°Mum and Evie?¡± she asked, pulling back then flinching at his eyeless sockets. ¡°They¡¯re fine. They¡¯re all fine but they¡¯re different now. They¡¯re busy with the armadas at the moment but they¡¯ll be back soon,¡± he said. ¡°What happened to you?¡± she gasped. ¡°I had to change, kiddo,¡± he said sadly. ¡°So will you all in time but we have a chance to be free of the Alliance and the Void if this works out as I hope.¡± ¡°Um, Mr. Borrows, you just unmade that metal, that¡¯s not your power,¡± Simon said. John turned to look at him, the boy went pale and staggered back into the seat had just climbed out of. ¡°What the fuck did you just do?¡± Simon demanded angrily. ¡°Where¡¯s my power gone?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve a gift for you Simon.¡± John held out his left palm and a purple object shrouded in pink sparks appeared through his skin. John strode forward and held out his hand. Simon reached out tentatively but didn¡¯t touch the interface. ¡°It will give you back your powers but they¡¯ll be different. We can all learn to use other powers, those of us who give up the system. We¡¯re always best at what we knew before. It¡¯s something to do with our brains adapting to think in the right way to use the system abilities, I think. Take the interface and become the man we need for the future.¡± ¡°Traditionally parents bring gifts for their children when they come back from holidays,¡± Ryn said acerbically. John glanced over and smiled softly. ¡°I¡¯ve brought all of you a gift: freedom. Simon is needed to complete the Warspite. I took the Essence from hundreds of Alliance fighters to craft special interfaces for Simon and Bob. They are the hope of humanity. The rest of you will be changed, assuming you want to. I¡¯m sorry boy,¡± John turned back to Simon. ¡°I don¡¯t have the option of letting you choose. Take the interface.¡± ¡°Prime is currently assimilating mine. I took the deal, kid. I recommend you do as well. It''s been years for the Earth-Bobs whereas it¡¯s only been a few months since I last synched with them,¡± came Bob¡¯s voice from the speakers in the hull. Simon reached out and brushed a finger over the interface which dissolved into his flesh. His eyes went wide. ¡°Let¡¯s move to somewhere we can see what¡¯s going on,¡± said John. There was another wash of pink light and Ryn, her friends and a battered looking spider-bot wreathed in purple sparks were standing in the vacuum outside the ship. Ryn gasped and reached for her helmet but quickly realised she could breath perfectly fine. ¡°What is this?¡± whispered Bad as he came to the same conclusion as Ryn. The stars were blocked across a huge swath of the sky as black and gold ships wove around each other in their efforts to attack the Warspite. ¡°Magic gave me the tools I needed to break free. The Carnival followed me and now we¡¯re at war with both the Void and the Alliance. They¡¯re the two sides of the same fucking coin anyway. Just a way to suck Essence from the Outside and feed it up to the ¡®gods¡¯,¡± John said bitterly. The ships were exploding as purple specks flashed between them but a number of the black ships had surged forward. They moved deceptively quickly for such vast constructions. John glared and the ones heading for the Warspite dissolved into cubes that drifted apart. Others rushed past where the small group of people stood between the Necklace and the invaders. The ships crashed into the delicate metal webwork that made up the Necklace. At this distance it looked like bright sparks erupted where they collided but up close the explosions would have been catastrophic. Some of the black ships passed through the barricade in one piece while others broke apart into a shower of shadows that fell towards the surface of the ruined Earth. They left trails of fire in the sky as they fell, then huge eruptions threw clouds of dust and debris into the stratosphere as they impacted the land and oceans. ¡°How will we deal with the Void forces on the ground?¡± asked Kev. He¡¯d been trying to worm his way into John¡¯s mind, carefully and without being noticeable, but he was bouncing off the kind of mental defences he¡¯d only experienced with other psykers. ¡°I¡¯m immune to that boy. More so than any implant could make me. The simple answer is we won¡¯t. Sometimes you have to know when to cut and run.¡± ¡°What about the people left on the surface?¡± asked Claire. ¡°Fuck those guys! They¡¯re all feral now!¡± snapped Jane. ¡°No. They¡¯ve become so but they weren¡¯t destined to be that way. Maybe they were¡­ They were victims of circumstances like¡­ what did you do with Fury?¡± asked Kev.This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°He¡¯s in a hold on the Warspite. We¡¯ll rescue the ones below when the time comes. They¡¯ll go into the Warspite collared. The irredeemable ones will be killed, the rest will either join us or return to being normal humans. No powers, no abilities,¡± said John. ¡°There¡¯s a couple of people down there I¡¯m interested in having a private chat with at some point. They won¡¯t be coming along with us when we leave.¡± His voice was flat and cold. It had been years since Ryn heard her father speak in person and the change was stunning. Was this even the same man? More of the black and gold ships detonated, breaking apart in bursts of pink light. ¡°Who is that?¡± asked Sally, pointing at the fleet being destroyed in the distance. ¡°All of us. We can all teleport and bend reality. What they¡¯re mainly doing is breaking the chains on the Concepts bound to the engines of the voidliners. Those things are pissed about being enslaved as well, so they tend to break their prison as they slip back across the bridge,¡± John said calmly. ¡°Ah, they¡¯re starting to run. I thought they would.¡± To the rear of the armada ships began to vanish but not in destructive explosions, they simply winked out of existence. The armada began to dissolve on two fronts, violently where they were close to the Warspite and quietly at the rear. ¡°I¡¯m ready, John,¡± said Bob-prime. ¡°This is¡­ It¡¯s a big change.¡± ¡°It won¡¯t be so dramatic, old friend. You¡¯ll still be present.¡± ¡°I know but Christ, I¡¯m going to become something incomprehensible!¡± ¡°Let¡¯s get it done,¡± said John sadly. They all vanished from their pocket of atmosphere in the vacuum and appeared in a strange place. It was all bronze and silver metal winding around itself into intricate knots that gave Ryn a headache. It was like looking at an Escher painting in real life. ¡°Where-¡± began Simon. ¡°This is the engine?¡± he gasped as he began to recognize some of the weirder parts he¡¯d made for Bob over the last few years. ¡°My final resting place,¡± grunted Prime. ¡°I¡¯m ready. There¡¯ll be some disruptions and the boy will have to complete the rest while I get used to it.¡± ¡°I can manage. What do you need? Ah. Jesus! Ok.¡± Simon said, then he vanished in a flash of purple. ¡°He¡¯s a good kid, really,¡± muttered Prime. ¡°Ok. All or nothing, I guess.¡± Purple sparks began to float up around Prime as it scurried forward on its many legs. It melded into the wall like it was dissolving in a solvent. ¡°What the hell?¡± asked Kev. ¡°He¡¯s becoming the ship. He¡¯ll need a few hours to settle in. Those chains won¡¯t be comfortable for a while. Bob?¡± John asked. ¡°I¡¯m still here. This is¡­ confusing.¡± Bob¡¯s voice echoed around them. ¡°The others are- they¡¯re back as well.¡± Before he could finish the Carnival appeared around Ryn¡¯s team and Vic and Evie rushed forward to embrace her. Tears began to fall as the women tried to catch each other up on the last few years. John smiled sadly as his family was reunited. He knew he wouldn¡¯t be able to stay with them for long. He had some things to do first then he had one final important item on his agenda. ¡°I¡¯m going to deal with the last of our problems,¡± he said. He earned a savage smile from Evie, a long look from Vic and a confused stare from Ryn. ¡°I won¡¯t be long and then we¡¯ll have some time to catch up.¡± John vanished. He appeared floating over Magic¡¯s flying island. He just stood in the sky and stared downwards for a few minutes as motes of pink danced around the island. It wasn¡¯t him, Magic was desperately trying to decide if he should fight or not. Clearly he came down on the side of wisdom and eventually a ruined half-man in a ragged cloak flew up to hover near John. ¡°You did it then.¡± His mouth didn¡¯t move. It was locked in a lipless rictus grin, white teeth contrasting against his warped grey flesh. ¡°I did. I want your hostages,¡± John replied. ¡°And what happens to me afterwards?¡± Magic asked, waving a stub of arm at his home below. ¡°That¡¯s up to you. You¡¯ve put me in a position to play god over our entire species due to your own cowardice. Would you like an interface?¡± John asked coldly. ¡°I wasn¡¯t a coward!¡± snapped Magic. ¡°You could have done to yourself what you did to me.¡± John floated closer to magic, the purple fire flaring in his eye sockets. ¡°But you chose me as your experiment, Mr. Goodman. Hah! Even the pseudonym you chose was ironic!¡± ¡°I couldn¡¯t,¡± muttered Magic, drifting away from John slightly. ¡°If it had failed there¡¯d have been no one to try again. We¡¯d have been trapped forever!¡± ¡°You could have but you didn¡¯t want to risk yourself, so you didn¡¯t.¡± ¡°What¡¯s it like? The bridge? I can see shadows of it around you but I¡¯m cut off,¡± Magic asked as his eyes rolled back and forth, scanning the air around John. ¡°It¡¯s like a halo.¡± ¡°It¡¯s eating me. As you fucking knew it would. That it¡¯s the right thing to do is the only reason I haven¡¯t taken your Essence for the bridge. Give back your hostages!¡± John¡¯s voice boomed. ¡°They weren¡¯t hostages. I saved them from the madness after the Revenge,¡± Magic snarled. ¡°Partially true. But your real motivation was to keep your former colleagues who remained alive off your back. As well as tying the hands of Bob and his forces,¡± John replied more quietly. ¡°Partially true,¡± Magic replied in a smirking tone. ¡°But I also saved hundreds of thousands of people from grisly, shot lives. That has to count for something?¡± ¡°It does,¡± John ground out. ¡°It¡¯s why you¡¯re being given an opportunity to release them of your own free will.¡± ¡°Fine. Where do you want them?¡± asked Magic. ¡°I just took them.¡± Magic floated away again and his wild eyes tried to blink. ¡°Thank you for your permission. The only question is what to do with you?¡± ¡°You still have enemies here. There are powers-¡± Magic tried to say. ¡°None of them matter now. We just destroyed the combined might of the Alliance and the Void in space. It was only the tip of their spear, locally available forces, but it will have stung them and they¡¯ll think twice before attacking us again. What are some level sixties to us now?¡± John asked. ¡°I would make a request, if it is allowed?¡± asked Magic in a defeated voice. ¡°What?¡± John said harshly, expecting some trick or trap. ¡°Take me with you? Use my Essence as part of your transformation?¡± John grunted and what remained of Magic¡¯s human body dissolved into specks of pink and purple light that flowed into John¡¯s right fist. He clenched it tight as the last of them vanished into his skin. ¡°Granted.¡± The floating island below tipped over onto one side and began to fall to the ground. ¡°Just one more who needs the personal touch,¡± he muttered before vanishing. Chapter 227 - Cutting the threads MIndscar had occupied the catacombs beneath Paris after the Monarchs made themselves the rulers of Earth. From there she fermented her rebellion, taking control of Belisarius and eventually Liberty. She had forced Belisarius to build all the bombs and had had her mind controlled slaves emplace them where they would do the most damage. Turning the portal network into a weapon that would ravage the Earth had been her doomsday option, meant to be used as a threat if it came to it and never put into action. She had still made sure to relocate her main base of operations to a small island in the fjords of Norway, hidden behind Scunner cloaking fields and enslaved powers. She had emerged relatively well from the Belisarius revenge. People thought it was his revenge against the planet, the entire population, but she knew who it had been aimed at: herself. She had raided various seed vaults across the planet and had built underground farms, vast constructions of hydroponics and halls filled with grass to support small herds. Hiding away for so many years had been difficult. She was the rightful ruler of the planet, the head of the Council of the Accords and watching everything she¡¯d built fall to ruin due to the spite of a petty man was agonising. ¡°Lady, You must see this,¡± said one of her coterie. Mindscar didn¡¯t bother to move, she rarely did these days and it was becoming increasingly difficult as her muscles had gradually atrophied. Instead you reached out with her power which was stronger than ever and looked out through her minions eyes. She riffled through the woman¡¯s recent memories and emitted an audible gasp. Arcs of fire were falling all across the sky to smash down onto what was left of her planet. Bob had fucked up again somehow and was finishing what Belisarius had begun. Fucking tinkers and crafters. She should have had them all killed or enslaved before the Monarchs showed their filthy faces. A swarm of drones, hidden in stealth, was always orbiting her safehold and she used the woman¡¯s body to tap in some orders on the console she was grafted to. A dozen of the tiny machines flew off to investigate the nearest crash site. As the smoke and debris cleared the drones observed creatures made of shadows lurching out of the crash sites, the vessels and fragments of vessels that had ¡°landed¡± were strange, organic looking machines that reminded her of gothic architecture made of midnight. The creatures themselves were a nightmarish assortment of coal black shapes. Some were insectile, others mechanical seeming and these types constituted the majority of the creatures. She watched in shock as the insectile ones, blind, mouthless faces twitching in the gloomy light, began squeezing out sacks of gooey looking matter from their oversized and bulbous rear ends. Within seconds of hitting the ground the sacks split open and long dark centipede-like creatures shrugged their way free and began spreading out around the nesting places of their mothers. ¡°The Void? But it¡¯s too soon!¡± she snarled from her palanquin, deep underground. ¡°I¡¯ve got years yet! Damn that bloody tinker in the sky!¡± She reached out and ordered the pair of bruisers she kept for the purpose to lift the handles at either end and move her towards the docking bay. She had a flyer, a stolen and heavily modified BME egg kept ready and waiting for her. The men were tall and strong and completely void of any thoughts. She had scrubbed their brains clean and left only simple hypnotic commands in place. It freed her up from having to maintain a grip on them, making more power available for keeping those who needed to retain some intelligence under her control. The bruisers ran quickly down the dark corridors, jouncing her about on her cushioned seat hard enough for it to ache where she had connected herself to the machinery built into the chair, but she mentally urged them to speed up even more. As they rattled down the corridor she was accessing the minds of her minions, the most vital of whom were being ushered to their own escape vehicles while others were flagged to form phalanxes to hold the site for as long as possible. Most of them weren¡¯t fighters but they would throw their lives away to protect what was hers, just to let the others process a little more food and send it down the vacuum tubes to her secondary locations. She burst into the docking bay and smiled a thin smile at the sight of her more valuable minions loading themselves onto her escort craft. These were a mish mash of different designs, some sleek and smooth, others clunky but still effective. Her charioteers, as she¡¯d come to think of them, lengthened their strides and they shot across the blank metal floor to the entrance hatch at the rear of her Egg. As the outer doors to the docking bay began to slide open bright light shone in and threw the place into reflective brilliance. ¡°Mindscar.¡± She knew that voice but it wasn¡¯t possible that he was here¡­ ¡°I should have put you down after the Shadeworm. It was obvious what you were, even back then. All those soldiers dying pointlessly to buy you a seat at the table.¡± Her bruisers spun and lowered her palanquin into the grooves built into the passenger section of the Egg. They locked and she slid deeper into the darkness as they dragged her chair into the flight position. Outside, illuminated by the blinding light of the cold Norwegian morning flooding in from outside hung John. She took in all the changes he had gone through and tried to identify him. Name: ??????????? Level: ?????????? Ability: ?????????? That couldn¡¯t be right. He was a caster but he¡¯d been limited. In the sense that his power wasn¡¯t variable, his teleportation power had been one of the most potent on the planet. She reached out with her own ability and it was like trying to grasp an eel, she couldn¡¯t find any purchase on his mind. Even the implant technology was bypassable when she was in her chair and she shivered in fear, as where his eyes should be, the purple flames glowed more brightly. ¡°John. Your portals ruined our world,¡± she accused.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Come on Sarah. That¡¯s your opening argument?¡± John sighed. Weapons emplacements built into the surrounding walls were tracking round on him but he waved a hand and they went dead on Mindscars systems. Minions and slaves dropped what they were doing and rushed at him but he glanced about and they too vanished from Mindscars mental map of nearby consciousness. Her mental fingers were scrabbling against the barriers in his head and finding no purchase. ¡°Stop that.¡± She was suddenly back in her own head in a way she hadn¡¯t been since before the Advent. She felt tiny and vulnerable and she squirmed in her chair, trying to find the strength to stand. What had he done to her? How had he done whatever the hell he had done? ¡°It¡¯s no use. I can see some of your mind, you know. You always were a broken thing but your thread has come to an end. There¡¯ll be a lot of that soon, cutting the threads, I mean. But then we can have a clean start. I¡¯m going to use you, like I did Magic and like I will with the others who are too far gone. All that strength will go into our bridge to freedom.¡± ¡°You¡¯re mad then?¡± she hissed, fingers grasping at the controls on the right arm of her chair. Belisarius had built it for her and naturally his paranoia had only been encouraged as this related to her own personal safety. The device was bristling with hidden weapons, field projectors and enough explosive to level her redoubt if she had to. ¡°I¡¯m not the one trying to vaporise a chunk of Norway right now,¡± he chuckled. Her fingers had reached the controls and tapped in the code. She took a breath expecting a flash of white and then nothingness but John¡¯s face continued to float just outside her intact egg. ¡°It won¡¯t work. Because I don¡¯t want it to. I shouldn¡¯t have stopped to talk. Time for us to move along.¡± John held out his hand and Mindscar dissolved into motes of light that floated into his palm. He vanished from the now silent lair and appeared in the sky over what had once been Normanby. Evie had grown up here, before the system and he still remembered the small town that had flourished into Wayfaire once the System arrived and changed the world. The deep burns from the ricocheting power of the Revenge passing back and forth through his portals looked like some thousand clawed dragons had scoured the land. Even now swarms of Void creatures were boiling towards him across the desolation below. He ignored them. They couldn¡¯t stop him and he would only be leaving them a husk of a world to rot on. All the people would be coming along for the ride. ¡°So you return as an agent of Chaos and choose to abandon your world.¡± ¡°Hello old fiend.¡± John turned without moving and looked at the golden reptilian floating behind him. ¡°Want a smoke?¡± Fasshtal nodded and John did the honours. ¡°You didn¡¯t break, then.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t have a choice.¡± John blew out a cloud of smoke. ¡°What came for you is only the edge of the blade. Beings capable of withstanding even the most powerful of you will be sent. Beings like I used to be. You wouldn¡¯t have liked it if the original me had paid you a visit.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure it would have been a good fight.¡± The reptile grinned, flashing long incisors and fangs. ¡°What will happen to you?¡± ¡°My counterpart from the Void will take my place. This copy will be¡­ retired.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that. Perhaps I could-¡± ¡°No thank you, John Borrows. I am what I am. It has been interesting watching over your species. I think the gods may regret ever assimilating your world.¡± ¡°Why did they come here? Why not just leave us alone?¡± John asked. ¡°Limitless growth cannot end without everything breaking apart. It¡¯s in the nature of the System. It must grow.¡± ¡°So it truly is like a tumour on the side of reality? That was how their bridge felt but I couldn¡¯t be sure. We¡¯ll find settled worlds and stop them being snapped up for your eternal war,¡± John said fiercely. ¡°You will try but it won''t make a difference. The universe is vaster than even you can imagine. Should you ever truly become a thorn in the side of the gods, more than you already are, they¡¯ll join together to summon the force needed to crush you. You should follow your oldest instincts, little mammal, and hide away in the shadows until you¡¯re strong enough to face their power for real.¡± ¡°You always do give good advice,¡± John grinned at Fasshtal who shrugged and blew out his own cloud of smoke. ¡°Good luck, John.¡± Fasshtal tossed away his cigarette butt and vanished. ¡°Farewell, Fasshtal Ah Nafruk,¡± John whispered as he turned his gaze to the ground below him to watch the butt spin through the air and be snatched up by a voidling before it hit the ground. Deep beneath the ground in the stripped out remains of Bob¡¯s bunker and BME showroom he could feel as much as see the handful of portals he¡¯d left open after Belisarius¡¯ madness. With a thought they vanished, the one connecting to Bob-world was moved to a hold aboard the Warspite while the others were simply closed. He took one last look at his old home and moved himself back to the Warspite. He sat down and a chair of purple light he conjured, mimicking the powers of the twins, and sent his gaze down across the world. Every remaining human and monster stood out like sparks of light in a sea of intangible grey. He moved them all into holds, snapping collars around their necks as he did so. ¡°Jesus John. A little warning next time?¡± grumbled Bob from a nearby speaker. ¡°Ok. I¡¯m getting the people off the moon and Mars now,¡± John chuckled as he reached out again and brought the last humans in the solar system aboard the vast ship. ¡°We should have called you Rama, shouldn¡¯t we?¡± ¡°No. Warspite sounds much better and this isn¡¯t a sampling ship. We¡¯re a colony ship and a warship rolled into one. Where will we go? After you¡¯re done?¡± asked Bob gently. How much had his friend figured out? If Bob was most of the way there then Vic almost certainly knew it all. ¡°Head to Bob-World and hook up with Life and the others there. You¡¯ve got the ability to strip Essence and create interfaces, Simon will figure it out as well.¡± ¡°Time to say goodbye then?¡± asked Bob. ¡°Not yet. I¡¯ve got one more thing to do. Any chance we can bring out some proper food and drink? A decent whisky from before the Advent perhaps?¡± ¡°Sure buddy. I¡¯ll set something up in the engine room.¡± ¡°Nah dude. Let¡¯s do it under the sky of our first free world. We can use the portal, I moved it aboard you,¡± John replied. ¡°I noticed. OK I¡¯ll get everyone through and we can have a bit of a going away party.¡± John didn¡¯t bother using the portal. The threads stretching from Warspite to Bob-World were thick and strong, reinforced by his portal, so he rode down the edge of reality directly to get to their new world. As he lost more of himself to the bridge his powers grew stronger but soon enough he would have to leave reality behind almost completely. It was how he''d always teleported, he¡¯d just never been able to see the mechanism, and now he could go anywhere he liked if he chose to. He couldn¡¯t though. He had to complete the bridge but before he did that he¡¯d allow himself a little time, despite the Gods bridge shifting and starting to fight back against his own fragile construct more efficiently as every second ticked by. He appeared on the other side of the portal to find his friends and family waiting for him and he gave them a crooked smile. Ryn and Evie rushed over but Vic hung back as his girls threw themselves into hugs and swung from his neck. He fought down his sadness and went forward one last time to share a drink and some good food with his friends and loved ones. Chapter 228 - Epilogue - A place to rest John¡¯s eyelid slid open and his terrible vision came back to him. He stared up at the gas giant hanging in the sky of humanity''s new home world and sighed. His fingers scrunched through long grass, transplanted from Earth and supported by Life and the other agrarian minded people who had fled the ruined birthplace of mankind. He started to move but a slender arm pushed him back down firmly. ¡°Five more minutes love,¡± Vic whispered into his ear and he relaxed. His gaze travelled down to the new life in her womb. It would be a boy this time and he looked forward to watching their son grow up as humanity forged its own path among the stars. His left hand rose and gently stroked Vic¡¯s hair as she nuzzled into his shoulder. He lay like that, quietly at peace, for a lot more than five minutes. ¡°It¡¯s time, Vic,¡± he said softly but firmly and he slipped sideways to escape her embrace. She rose and blinked large moist eyes at him owlishly. ¡°Well we¡¯ve got to go back to the others for you to say farewell properly,¡± she said as clothes materialised over her body. Simple jeans and a hoodie, styled to look like antiques from before the system. ¡°I said my goodbyes last night. I¡¯ll always be watching over them. And you.¡± Her eyes filled with tears and she scrambled to pull him close again and they kissed gently. A dragon made of blood and gold rose into the sky in the east trailing purple sparks then the mighty beast headed back to his duties, adapting animals to their new world. ¡°I love you,¡± he said as his body dissolved into purple lights that gradually faded into the early morning air. Vic fell to her knees and let out great wracking sobs as tears poured from her eyes. John felt detached as what was left of him dissolved into the bridge. It didn''t remove the sense of loss and pain as he said goodbye so abruptly to his wife. He couldn''t fight the pull of the bridge any more. As he flowed out into the gap between reality and the Outside he turned to practical matters as there was nothing else he could do and he reached out to trace all the threads of his species. He examined their pasts and their personalities in an instant. The irredeemable ones trapped in the holds of the Warspite joined him, flowing away as sparks of light and causing the prisoners nearby to panic and scream. The bridge was everything to him now. It was his entire being. One foot in reality and one Outside. He flowed along it, dragging along his mostly unwilling passengers and began to meld into it. Concepts lurking on the Outside brushed close, to him they seemed like whales being seen from an underwater viewing port at an aquarium. There was a sense of kinship with them, now he had stepped into the gap between order and chaos. It was a struggle at first as what remained of his mind came to terms with his new state of being. It was impossible to tell how long he hung in limbo trying to keep himself human. He felt the Warspite slip out of reality and start to move towards Bob-World, following the same path between the stars the Kiprgtsek had taken when the Carnival set out to go off world. He was confident they would be fine. Bob and Simon both had the power to grant people access to his bridge and the unrestrained power it offered. The ancient bridge of the gods began to buckle and shift more aggressively, as if it sensed the new capabilities of his own. He stretched out and wound it in threads of himself, pulling it back towards where he needed it to be. Once it was in the right position he extended a filament of intent and slipped it directly into the alien gods little world. The world of empty doorways and unreflective mirrors appeared around him but this time he wasn¡¯t in his mortal form. Now he was a swarm of purple sparks that buzzed and flitted, forming a cloud of light. Across from him the black and gold clouds floated and he sensed them turn to him. ¡°I have an offer for you,¡± he called out, his voice a cacophony of many voices blended into a single tone. The voices of those he''d subsumed to make himself into this thing. Magic''s croaking tone was the most dominant. ¡°A truce for a thousand years. I will release your bridge and you will not interfere with my people across that time.¡± ¡°Pah, upstart. You should have remained here the first time you visited our world,¡± snarled the black cloud. ¡°You are ancient, impossibly so,¡± John replied. Now he was here as something approaching an equal he could see fragments of their history written in the air between the motes that composed their bodies. A species with two distinct forms, one black and one gold. A rise to technological perfection millions upon millions of years ago. The brutal wars that fuelled their growth until they began dabbling in science that brushed against the Outside. A Concept stolen and trapped in reality by one black being and one gold being, working together despite their people being at constant war with each other. They had created the first crude System, sharing the strength of the Concept with each other. Eventually they had conquered their world and looked outwards. They stole more Concepts and sacrificed more of their species to reinforce their nascent bridge and then sought more beings to give their system to, in order to feed the pair of godlings and their ever hungry bridge. ¡°You see the threads,¡± said Gold, ¡°but you do not understand. Perhaps I could teach you?¡± ¡°No thank you. I want time for my people and in exchange I will leave your bridge alone. If I merge with it, and you know I can, it will unwind almost everything you¡¯ve done.¡± ¡°You will cease as well if you do something so foolish!¡± barked Black. ¡°Hence I offer a truce. Leave my people alone for two thousand of our years and I will step away from here until you once again send your slaves for them.¡± ¡°You said one thousand years before!¡± snapped Gold. ¡°Already you are seeking to change the deal?¡± John could not smile in this form but he hadn¡¯t been able to resist the opportunity to tease these arrogant assholes. That much of his humanity still remained and he still carried a grudge from when they had almost harvested him after a rat, of all things, had killed him so long ago.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°One thousand years. Do you agree?¡± the John-thing replied. The paired clouds buzzed and shivered as they communicated privately. ¡°One thousand years before you return here. We shall look forward to it, it has been so long since anything truly interesting happened for us,¡± Gold said softly. John retreated from their god-world and began creating his own. He pulled the bridge back from the black and gold one but not all the way. A few delicate threads remained attached. He would need to find it again in a thousand years, after all. By then he¡¯d be ready: his friends would have joined him and millions of human souls would have made the bridge their eternal home as well. He drifted on the bridge for an indeterminable time, watching his family and his species take their first steps into the wider universe, before his intent took form and green grasses spread away from him. A pale blue sky lit by a yellow sun appeared above him and his cloud form condensed back into that of a man. Normanby, the town as he remembered it from before the system grew up from the grass and soil. His bare feet brushed through the grass as he set out to give his species something they¡¯d never had before: a place to rest when the battle was done. *** Five years later ¡°Why do you sit up here? I don¡¯t even understand why there''s a cockpit!¡± said Jenny. ¡°Humans like to feel in control. It will be a while before we trust your kind,¡± Ryn replied as she stared at the Outside through the viewscreen. ¡°I¡¯m completely integrated into the ship systems. I am literally the engine! You cannot cut me out without killing me, yourself and the rest of your team!¡± laughed Jenny, the ship¡¯s Concept. ¡°I said we like to feel in control. The illusion of it is usually enough. How long until we reach the destination?¡± Ryn replied with a faint smile. ¡°Did you just ask ¡®are we nearly there yet¡¯, Daughter of John?¡± Jenny asked in a sly tone. ¡°No I very much didn¡¯t and don¡¯t fucking call me that! The fact Ascension pivoted from calling Dad a saint to calling him a god doesn¡¯t make it true!¡± ¡°Except that they are right. He¡¯s building a world for your souls when you die. And then a greater war awaits you., Jenny said softly from the speaker in the console. ¡°When I see him again we¡¯re going to have some strong words. Mum was not¡­ Evie will be on my side as well. How long till we reintegrate with the materium?¡± Ryn changed the subject. ¡°A few more minutes. You might want to join your team?¡± Jenny sighed. The way the Concepts learned to mimic human physical reactions had made Ryn feel very uncomfortable for a while but now she was used to it and just rolled her eyes at the dissimilation. She climbed out of the pilots chair and made her way back into the crew quarters. The ship was small, only a couple of hundred metres long, most of which was filled up by the void engines that housed Jenny. The corridor was made of brassy metal with smooth, organic edges. It felt more like a metallic blood vessel than a part of a machine. Almost all of the new exploration ships were built like this but once a Concept was installed they sometimes went for a more mechanical or an even more organic feel and the ship gradually warped to reflect their preferences. The passage opened out into the crew section. Small cabins lined each side and the central area was a roomy galley and sitting room. Ryn plunked down into one of the comfy chairs and put her chin on her hands, elbows propped on the table. ¡°Morning!¡± called Kev from the galley area. ¡°What do you want for breakfast? If it¡¯s a fry up then you¡¯re in luck!¡± He levitated a frying pan of possible food off to one side and began floating more ingredients into a pot on another hot plate. ¡°I ate already,¡± Ryn replied but her stomach rumbled at the smells coming from the cooking that had filled the room and gave away her lie. ¡°Bullshit,¡± muttered Bad as he staggered out of his cabin. Andrea came out after him and tossed a robe at him. ¡°No one else wants to see that, honey,¡± she called. ¡°Ryn, you should always eat breakfast!¡± ¡°Most important meal of the day!¡± Ryn said in a high pitched, mocking tone. ¡°Fine, fine. I¡¯ll have a plate of whatever the hell it is today please Kev.¡± ¡°How long until we¡¯re out of the slipstream?¡± asked Sally as she joined them from her own cabin. ¡°We will reintegrate with mainstream reality in thirty seconds,¡± said Jenny from the wall speaker. ¡°Bad, can you take over here please?¡± asked Kev and Bad moved over to begin flipping what Ryn hoped were hashbrowns made from actual potatoes. The ersatz substitutes weren¡¯t always the best. ¡°Reintegrating now!¡± Jenny announced in a sing-song voice. ¡°Let me guess¡­ Another world either already infected or with no sentients?¡± said Ryn. ¡°Wait¡­ Jenny, check for emissions. I¡¯m getting tens of millions of sentients. Weird little dudes. Kids would think they¡¯re cute as hell. Little balls of fluff with big eyes and stubby limbs. Maybe early steam age?¡± said Kev excitedly. Ryn perked up. The endless boredom of scouting unexplored systems had been dragging her down for the last eighteen months. ¡°Negative tech emissions. No radio or radar. No orbital installations.¡± Jenny¡¯s voice was infectious, her excitement coming through clearly. ¡°Any sign of the System?¡± asked Andrea as she helped herself to something in the pan, earning a slapped wrist from Bad. ¡°No. Nothing like that, at all¡± said Kev. ¡°Looks like we¡¯ve got a candidate species. boys and girls! Ryn, throw up a portal. First contact protocols are a go! Someone go wake up Armand, we¡¯ll need his shapeshifting expertise.¡± Ryn reached out with her senses and found a locus outside the ship that intersected with the voidline they¡¯d travelled down to get here. With a thought she pushed her power out and tore a hole in space-time that reached back to Bob-World. As soon as the portal stabilised swarms of smaller ships poured through with the diplomatic teams that would observe and in short order initiate contact with this new species. ¡°Good job, guys,¡± Bob said through Jenny¡¯s speakers. ¡°That¡¯s number two! You know the rules, if they tell us to sod off we leave them to the system so let¡¯s get it bloody right this time. Kev, we¡¯ll need a psych breakdown of the prospective species ASAP. How long?¡± ¡°Give me an hour. You¡¯ll need that long to set up the station anyway.¡± Ryn expanded her senses. Mental abilities didn¡¯t suit her. The system her dad had cobbled together was flexible. Anyone could, in theory, learn any of the abilities they¡¯d seen under the Black and the Gold, as the Cult called it, but everyone had different inclinations or affinities. She¡¯d never be as good at remote sensing or psychic powers as Kev and while Kev could teleport relatively short distances of a few thousands kilometres he¡¯d never be able to craft a portal. Despite her lack of aptitude she was able to reach out to the planet a few hundred thousand kilometres away and pull up some visual and auditory impressions, even if she couldn¡¯t probe the alien minds that she could vaguely sense. They were cute to look at and they seemed to work together well. She couldn¡¯t see any signs of warfare as she panned her perception over the day side of the world facing towards them. The lack of fighting spirit might not bode well for them long term... However this might just be their first successful integration. Humanity had learned a lot from the cock up with the Hawteenians. This time they¡¯d get it right. She settled deeper into her chair and continued to watch the aliens that would hopefully become humanity''s first true allies in the universe wide war that awaited them. Announcement - New story is live! Hi all, Just wanted to let everyone know my next fiction is now live! There''s 8 chappies going up across the course of today if you''re interested. I hope you''ll come along for the ride! Thanks so much for your support and feedback over Carnival and Weretiger!
Six Souls [Isekai/LitRPG] What if John Carter was forced to go full Genghis Khan? Ray had been a professional killer for years but he didn¡¯t think of himself as an evil man. He had a code that helped him sleep at night. Discretion and professionalism were his watchwords and he had become very good at his job. A beautiful woman tricks him into a mission that ends with him naked, alone and forced to start life again in a new world. Ray is stranded on a facsimile of ancient earth that¡¯s full of dangerous beasts and even more lethal savages. He has to kill to gain Souls that he can spend on levels and to improve his magic. However many he gains there are only six souls that truly matter.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. His mission is to be the last man standing against the others who were exiled from Earth with him: a soldier, a mogul, a social media influencer, a champion MMA fighter and an archaeologist. He can see only one path ahead of him: Win the game, go back to Earth and take his revenge against a god. What to expect: System is introduced in Chapter 2 The story is an exploration of a new world so the main plot is a slow burn but Ray is constantly expanding his horizons and gaining strength. I¡¯ve got 150k edited words on launch and that¡¯s about two thirds of book one. There will be some empire building and technological uplift as Ray shares advanced ideas with the peoples he rises up to lead. Ray will eventually lead the nomad horde south against the more civilised peoples. The system is loosely based on Dark Souls in terms of spending Souls on levels and stats or upgrading his magic. The magic and shop system is potent but limited. Ray will need allies if he is to stand a chance of winning. The style is inspired by classic adventure stories like the Barsoom series. No harem, intimate scenes are handled in a fade to black fashion. It is entirely written in 1st person POV from Ray. Chapters are 2.5k-3k words on average. Release schedule M/W/F Read up to five weeks ahead of Royal Road on Patreon.
Chapter 190 - Anything unusual? John noticed the moment they dropped out of whatever faster than light travel the ship employed. Unless he was in the stash there was always a glitch in his peripheral vision as the unreality and whatever the hell the things that existed outside the boundary of the universe were inflicted themselves on his consciousness. The sudden relief as that itch vanished caused him to glance around from where he and the team had formed up in anticipation of their mission. ¡°John?¡± asked Vic, noticing his sudden shift as his helmet moved to pan around like a kid staring at bubbles blowing through the air. ¡°I¡¯ve got a link back to Earth,¡± said Prime. ¡°Initial message is going through. The larger update is going to take over an hour to transmit.¡± ¡°We¡¯re back in real space. The¡­ things outside are gone. I can see the other ship. Bob, can you pull from my implant?¡± John muttered. The other ship was almost identical to the Kipragtsek. A few hundred miles long with a bulbous shape as various holds and bits of machinery jutted out of the main structure. A timer appeared in all their vision. Deployment timer: 4 time units. ¡°John, find us a good place to drop in, quickly! We need somewhere we can store Doris as well!¡± said Prime in a rush. ¡°I¡¯m looking, dammit!¡± John grumbled as he searched the other ship floating a thousand kilometres off the flank of the Kipragtsek. As he looked he could see the damage across large sections of the interior of the Hagrutship. Someone or something had been blasting chunks out of the bloody thing. He found a room similar to their own and far enough away from the ongoing violence that burned in his vision. It was as close as he could manage to get to the vast engines of the voidliner. ¡°Ok. Got somewhere. Brace yourselves!¡± He blipped himself across first then quickly brought the rest of the team across. Boarding ships in space shouldn¡¯t be this easy. As soon as Doris appeared he felt something hideous and he glanced back to the Kipragtsek just as it twisted reality and vanished. ¡°We¡¯re on our own now,¡± he said grimly. Doris knelt down on her haunches and the backpack detached, falling softly to the ground with a clang that shook the air. Or would have done had there been any air. ¡°We¡¯re in death pressure!¡± said Flash as he rushed around the room examining the doorways that they associated with the brainwashed Shrell popping through to play a game of cards and fish for whiskey. Prime scurried over to an interface that he would have been instantly rebuked for even looking at on the Kipragtsek and began connecting to it, wires and waldo arms extending to mate with the alien connections like they¡¯d been made for it. They probably had been, Bob had not been wasting his time aboard the Kipragtsek. ¡°What¡¯s going on in the rest of the ship?¡± asked Felix in his much lighter armour. He brushed a hand against his thigh and glanced around nervously. Felicity reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder and his anxious body language vanished, returning to the unshakably confident Prophet he usually seemed to be. ¡°Various species are fighting against the Shrell. They suck by the way. The Shrell aren¡¯t fighters but they¡¯re still driving them back. Bunch of ape-like things, bunch of cuttlefish looking bastards, bunch of- urgh those things are gross! It¡¯s like a real life monster mash,¡± muttered John. ¡°So who do we deal with first?¡± asked Evie, eager to get to the fighting. ¡°We need to prioritise defending the bridge and the engines. If they go we¡¯re all dead,¡± said a B-3000 that had joined the group to replace Prime who was busy hacking into the ship''s systems while other spider drones were stripping samples of metal and machinery from other parts of the room. ¡°I can¡¯t port us in. Both areas are covered by some kind of field,¡± John grumbled. ¡°We¡¯ll have to do this the hard way.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no such thing as an easy way,¡± said Raoul as he attempted to crack his knuckles before realising his armour made it impossible. ¡°Sam, are your clones immune to the lack of oxygen?¡± asked Vic. A clone appeared and moved forward, flexing her arms and trying to breathe. After thirty seconds it collapsed and vanished. ¡°No. They¡¯ll only last a minute or two at most unless we can get the air back on.¡± ¡°I¡¯m working on it. Need to get into the security systems before I take over life support. Security is going to take a few minutes, life support will be more like half an hour,¡± said Bob. ¡°I can summon and lose clones. It doesn¡¯t feel nice but I¡¯ve been through worse,¡± Sam reached out and clutched Raoul¡¯s hand. The armour separated their flesh but the connection felt very real to them.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. The door at the end of the cavernous space hissed open as the pressure balanced out. A hundred clones of Sam, lacking the heavy armour, rushed forward and quickly spread out into the nearby corridors. They were met with a series of ineffectual attacks that they batted aside with blasts of incandescent eye beams. As the rest of the team emerged they saw the clones pinning the aliens to the floor and walls around their base of operations. B-3000s ran past, their footfalls silent in the vacuum that had taken over the ship. Collars snapped out, immune to lack of oxygen as the collars would take what they needed from the prisoners once they were activated. The collared aliens were pulled back through to clear the corridor as flying drones took off ahead of the Carnival. John looked sadly at the captured fighters. ¡°They¡¯re all less than level thirty. This isn¡¯t even a fight! Bob, how can we stop them suffocating?¡± John asked. ¡°They can already breathe. Somehow. Ugly bastards. I¡¯ll set up an airlocked tent. It won¡¯t be able to take any damage but we can give them some basic life support.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going to move ahead. Bob, send some drones as well?¡± asked Sam. ¡°Sure,¡± a B-3000 said. The rest of the team moved out into the ship and began threading their way through the corridors towards the engines. Whatever was going on at the Lord Captain¡¯s location wasn¡¯t as urgent as the risk some random blast of power would rupture the esoteric machinery that contained the nightmare energies of the engines. John looked through the structure and assessed the situation. The aliens hadn¡¯t spared them any attention yet but that would change. The bloody things were all manner of weird. They flowed along on singular muscular feet, a multitude of tentacles or a pair of limbs. It was like watching a zoo being taken over by the animals. He took a moment to reassess his thoughts. They would all be sentients who had joined the system just like¡­ ¡°We¡¯ve got a team of humans aboard as well. They¡¯re just at the edge of- shit. They went into the command deck. Fuck! I should have just pulled them over!¡± His voice was angry and regretful. ¡°That changes things,¡± said Felix. ¡°Things. We must help other humans!¡± added Felicity as the pair began striding after the drones and clones who had moved deeper into the innards of the ship. Beams of black and gold power lashed out to clear their way. The rest of the team ran after them, their heavy footfalls silent. Shrell were splattered against walls here and there as they moved. As well as other species they didn¡¯t know the names of. The violence had been sporadic but intense. Hundreds of metres were pristine, gleaming metal then suddenly ten metres of the walls and ceiling of the corridor would be painted in various colours that came from a single source: blood. They moved fast towards the engines. Some of the enemies reacted too quickly to be collared and were put down mercilessly by the casters creating new sprays of colour on the bronze walls. Most were no threat and the impromptu prison they had built began to fill up with an oddball collection of aliens. ¡°Once the engines are safe we should rush the command deck,¡± said a drone as it unleashed a torrent of energy into an amorphous blob that had been blocking the corridor. ¡°We¡¯ll need to hold them!¡± gasped Vic as she ran along next to Evie. Evie reached over and pulled Vic onto her disc and continued to zoom along. ¡°Guess your suicide mission theory was bullshit Reg!¡± Evie giggled as she took a corner at high enough speed she and Vic ended up standing horizontally on her disc as she blurred round the turn. John appeared in front of them and the enemies ahead fell into pieces. He flashed forward again and led the way for the rest of their trip. Fifteen minutes later, having taken dozens of prisoners and killed scores of low level aliens, they arrived at a glowing barrier that had been holding back the locals. The gore was horrific. Greens, blues, pinks and the more usual red was splattered across the corridor. Vic stepped off Evie¡¯s disc and a wave of fire burned it clean, leaving pristine metal behind the wash of heat. ¡°How¡¯s the link back to Earth?¡± asked Flash as he eyed the barrier that had denied the native of Hagrutship access. ¡°Half of the main update is done. I can¡¯t get anything back until the whole thing goes through,¡± said a nearby drone. ¡°Let¡¯s secure the other access points to the engines. We must preserve this vessel for the Alliance,¡± said Felicity from the rear of the group. ¡°Bugger the Alliance! We¡¯re in this for our species!¡± snapped Reg, hovering behind her. Both of the twins spun and glared at him. With their silvered masks up the effect was largely lost on the massively armoured Scotsman who scoffed over the comms. ¡°Ye cannae intimidate me children. We need to get home for any of this shite to be of any fecking use at all.¡± The twins glanced at each other, seeing their silvered masks mirrored and stepped aside reluctantly. ¡°How many more access points are there?¡± asked John, looking to move the conversation away from something that could spiral into an argument. ¡°Two more. This is the central one. The other two are easier. I can send some drones to hold them. Next job: save the other human team and deal with the main mutineers,¡± said Bob. ¡°You should be able to port my drones into place?¡± ¡°At least it¡¯s not a suicide mission,¡± laughed John bitterly as his eyes moved through the structure. Reg barked a laugh that sounded even more bitter than Johns. All they¡¯d faced thus far were low level dross. If the mutineers weren¡¯t a threat why the hell had they been deployed to put them down? He blipped groups of drones into position to defend the other points of entry to the engineering section as Bob set up a series of turrets to help hold their current position. ¡°I¡¯m into the life support systems. God this is amazing! The coding, the tech! I¡¯ve got breakdowns of systems that will revolutionise things on Earth! Christ! The metal this fucking thing-¡± a metallic leg bashed against the nearest wall and the sound actually carried to the rest of the team as the atmosphere was quickly replaced, ¡°- is made of is amazing. I need to spend some time plating Doris in this crap!¡± Bob¡¯s voice was shrill as his excitement overrode any other concern. ¡°This alone made the whole trip worth it!¡± he chortled. ¡°We¡¯ve got humans to help. We¡¯ve got a ship to take back from mutineers. How are you enjoying this?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Zeeg isn¡¯t this mental!¡± ¡°I am not mental at all,¡± said Zeeg as she came through a wall and stood before the rest of the team. As long as she remained out of phase oxygen wasn¡¯t a problem for her and with her reserves she could remain intangible more or less indefinitely. ¡°Anything unusual?¡± Vic asked the dog. ¡°This entire place is unusual but I haven¡¯t found anything that is escaping Dad-John and the drone network,¡± the dog replied, sitting down and wagging her tail in and out of the wall. ¡°Then let¡¯s move to the bridge. With life support and the engineering sections secured, that''s our next objective,¡± said Flash ¡°Um. I wouldn¡¯t say secured,¡± muttered Bob in a resigned voice. Chapter 191 - Be right back A Shrell had emerged from within the barrier and was berating a B-3000 as John blipped the team over to intercede. ¡°You are in the architecture! This is not acceptable and you must leave now!¡± the Shrell was screeching. ¡°Savages cannot be allowed to access the wider internal workings of the vessel!¡± ¡°Easy mate!¡± The B-3000 had both hands raised to placate the irate little squid creature. ¡°We¡¯ve been deployed here to help take back the ship! We can¡¯t do that if we can¡¯t breathe!¡± ¡°Nonsense!¡± scoffed the Shrell. ¡°You have your suits. Get out of the architecture!¡± ¡°Our abilities work best if we have a functional environment to work in,¡± said Flash. ¡°Be silent, savage! I am talking to your commander!¡± snapped the Shrell. Name: Kedur Level: 29 Ability: System Administrator Like all the Shrell this one had an ability that made them sound like an engineer or a tech worker. John sighed within his armoured helm. This was a member of the crew and hostile actions against it would probably be frowned upon by the system. ¡°Let¡¯s drop the ¡®savage¡¯ stuff. If you were able to deal with these mutineers we wouldn¡¯t be here. Just hide in the engineering section and let us do our job, Squidward,¡± said Evie, stepping forward to tower over the four foot tall creature. It barely reached her waist. ¡°Animals! Perhaps it¡¯s better to send animals to deal with animals,¡± muttered Kedur. ¡°I must insist you leave the architecture! How sava- uh newly integrated species could even access them is beyond me! This will all be in my report!¡± It farted in a way that the team understood to mean frustration based on their time with the Shrell on Kipragtsek. The difference between this Shrell and the ones they¡¯d met on the Kipragtsek was stark. ¡°What¡¯s up with you, ye wee boggit?¡± demanded Reg, stepping forward and gently pushing Evie to one side. He crouched down and cleared the visor of his helmet so it could see his face. He tried to smile reassuringly but to a human it would have looked like a man trying to fart without following through. ¡°Your lot aren¡¯t usually this twattish.¡± The Shrell bristled, multiple limbs flicking back and forth, and emitted a series of bubbling noises. ¡°You have to retake the ship. Everything depends on retaking the ship. Do what you need to, but your intrusions into the ship systems will be logged,¡± it blurbled before undulating quickly back through the barrier shielding the engine room. ¡°Charming little bastard!¡± said Flash as he stepped forward and poked at the barrier. It repelled his hand, his fist bouncing backwards. ¡°I got a system warning not to test the barrier again!¡± ¡°The Shrell are terrible warriors. That is why we¡¯ve been deployed?¡± asked Felix. ¡°Deployed. Despite their higher levels they are unable to maintain control,¡± Felicity finished. ¡°I¡¯m breaking into the monitoring systems. I¡¯ll have all the logs and videos of what happened soon. We need to go secure the Captain, then either kill or collar the escapees,¡± said a Bob-bot. ¡°We¡¯re going to collar them, right? They¡¯re stupidly weak, it would be like murdering children!¡± barked Sam angrily. ¡°If they¡¯ll let us,¡± muttered Vic. ¡°How are the ones we¡¯ve captured so far?¡± ¡°Submissive. They don¡¯t have the translation thing the Shrell seem to have so I¡¯ve no idea what they¡¯re saying but they¡¯ve accepted food and water and haven¡¯t tried anything with the bots guarding them,¡± said Bob. ¡°So we¡¯re going non lethal, except in personal defence, from here on out? There¡¯s no bloody Essence to be had anyway.¡± Evie complained. ¡°John, does Identify work through the walls with your funky new eyes?¡± asked Raoul. John¡¯s scowl was hidden by his helmet. ¡°No. I¡¯ll have to go see. Be right back,¡± he said softly. He appeared to the rear of the ongoing melee outside the bridge. Shrell were fighting hard and failing miserably against much weaker enemies. The little squid things could hold their own physically against the much lower levelled enemies. The tentacle monsters, Yovgrips, according to Identify, were all less than level twenty and were still going toe to toe with the ship¡¯s crew. The Grelps were metallic looking humanoids with four arms whose levels were in the twenties who for some reason died almost immediately as soon as a Shrell waved a tentacle at them. The battle made no sense to John and he stood dumbstruck as creatures that should have just died in the face of the higher levelled crew held on while at the same time others who should have put up more of a fight were just demolished. He blipped in the rest of the team just as the Shrell holding the entrance to the bridge noticed him. His power armour caused the Shrell to turn a paler shade of grey and recoil once its black eyes locked on the titanic form looming behind the fray.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The Shrell backed away and the low levelled assailants bounced off the barrier and began flailing at it. The rest of the Carnival swarmed forwards and began collaring the rebels. The mutineers'' attacks were largely ignored. The members of the team in armour simply brushed them aside whereas anything that raised a limb at the twins was bound to the wall in black and gold beams of light. ¡°What the fuck are we even doing here?¡± demanded Evie as she moved to collar the creatures pinned to the walls by the twins. ¡°Let ¡®em go, guys,¡± she called over her shoulder to the pair. The black and gold bands vanished as the insectile legs of the collars closed around the back of the creature''s necks. ¡°I¡¯ll escort our new friends back to the holding area,¡± said a drone as B-3000s marched forward and began hauling away their captives. ¡°This is looking messy, guys. The logs are showing it was the humans that led the revolt. Ah shit. Look, the Shrells are a bunch of pussies. They freaked out, turned off the life support and then all the other fucking aliens went on a rampage. The reason we¡¯ve only had to deal with a few hundred rebels is that they killed thousands when they switched off the air.¡± ¡°Shit. So this lot weren¡¯t even rebels, they just wanted the heat and the air turned back on?¡± asked Flash. ¡°Pretty much. No wonder the squid bastards didn¡¯t want me in the ¡®architecture¡¯. They freaked out when the humans turned traitor and essentially opted to liquidate everyone else to try to kill them. Our lot weren¡¯t bothered by the lack of oxygen for some reason, it must have been an ability rather than tech as none of them have any kind of rebreather or face coverings,¡± Bob said glumly. ¡°We¡¯ve been sent to kill our own kind because the crew shat the bed and tried to murder fecking everyone?¡± asked Reg in disbelief. ¡°If that¡¯s the situation then we need to deal with it. We¡¯re here to level up so we can protect humanity. Why can¡¯t anything ever be simple?¡± aside John rhetorically. ¡°Why send us if it¡¯s easy?¡± Vic replied. ¡°So how do we deal with this? Bob, can you see what¡¯s going on inside this barrier? Will it let us pass?¡± ¡°We can pass, I think. We¡¯re coded differently to anything that was on the ship before we arrived. It wouldn¡¯t let us into the engine rooms as there weren''t any threats in those areas but the ship''s systems are aware of the presence of ¡®interlopers¡¯ on the bridge. It¡¯s not much of a threat. Half the humans are dead and the others are being whipped by the captain.¡± ¡°We need to help them!¡± said Flash. Sam shrugged. ¡°What can we do?¡± she asked. ¡°We¡¯re their executioners,¡± she finished bitterly. ¡°The system has sent us to bring order. If we can remove the threat we can honestly say we have achieved our goal,¡± said Felix. ¡°Goal. If we remove them from the ship our job is done. Death is not necessary for that to happen,¡± added Felicity. After a brief conversation via teamchat the Carnival moved carefully through the barrier. Bob said it was clear and they wouldn¡¯t be attacked but none of them felt terribly confident in the ship and its crew''s ability to tell friend from foe. Sam clones went first, followed by a handful of B-3000s. John was getting increasingly concerned about how many drones were now being used to hold prisoners. Prisoners they had only had to capture because the Shrell had panicked and tried to suffocate the entire ship. As the rest of the team moved through they were taken aback by the scale of the bridge but their instincts honed over years of combat covered for the reaction. The Captain was twice the size of the regular crew but it seemed even larger when it was balanced up high on its ambulatory tentacles. It held two humans, both women, around the throat in a pair of limbs and was waving them around like ragdolls. Their armour, closer to classical mediaeval equipment than anything the Carnival would consider armour, creaked and began to crack along the joins across their throats. John blipped them down to the ground where they were quickly collared by Flash and pushed to the rear of the room under guard by a pair of B-3000s. ¡°What the fuck!¡± snarled a man wearing what at first glance appeared to be some kind of caveman costume. He swung a club at a tentacle that swept towards him then leapt to defend his team mates. Unfortunately this brought him within arms reach of the twins. He was immediately plucked from the air and slammed into the ground by arcs of black and gold. ¡°Gotcha mate. Just calm the fuck down and let us sort this out,¡± hissed Evie as she snapped a collar around his throat. He squirmed, somehow freeing a hand that clenched at the nightmare wrapped around his neck. ¡°Fuck¡­ You¡­¡± he hissed. John blipped him back to the holding area next to Doris. The other two survivors raised their hands, clearing having been sensible enough to use Identify before committing to fight the humans. ¡°We just didn¡¯t want to kill anymore!¡± sobbed one as she fell to her knees. ¡°They wanted us to exterminate a town!¡± ¡°Easy now. We¡¯ll sort this out,¡± said Vic gently. She glanced up and despite the helmet sealing her face away John read her look correctly. He blipped the woman and the man back to the holding area where B-3000s took charge and began talking them down. ¡°Excellent. Execute the other savages and I will mark your mission complete,¡± burbled the Captain. ¡°What fecking savages?¡± muttered Reg. ¡°We have quashed the mutiny.¡± John tilted his head to the nearest B-3000 that nodded slightly. ¡°All hostiles are dead or contained. Our mission is complete.¡± ¡°They broke the rules! I insist they are killed!¡± the Captain writhed around and drew itself up to loom over them. The blinking lights and smooth chrome surfaces behind it gave it the appearance of a terror in the dark. Grey skin caught the light as tentacles flashed back and forth but its face was cast in shadows, with it¡¯s eyes forming two dark, uncaring pits. ¡°Why¡¯d you turn the air off?¡± asked Evie as she moved slowly around the room, poking at the machinery. Her armour was carefully sampling all the surfaces and the data was being fed back to Bob. ¡°Standard protocol. If savage species rebel the ship is to be purged, all lives are forfeit bar surviving crew members.¡± John used Identify. Huh. Level sixty. Not as bad as he¡¯d been expecting. He briefly considered their odds against this Captain. The Shrell were shit fighters so he wasn¡¯t as intimidated as he might have been. As though reading his thoughts Sam stepped forwards and a dozen clones poured out to move around the room, encircling the enraged Shrell. It twitched and eyed them as they surrounded it but other than a slight narrowing of its eyes and a very faint farting noise it made no move. ¡°Our orders said to put down the rebellion and restore order. We¡¯ve pretty much done that,¡± said Bob. ¡°It also said all the Shrell were dead and we were to consider anything moving on the Hagrutship to be hostile.¡± The squid recoiled and its flesh became a paler shade of grey. It began to burble and fart, rocking back and forth on suddenly limp limbs. ¡°I have been cast out. Kill me now, savages.¡± Chapter 192 - Literally what I said ¡°We¡¯re not just going to kill you, idiot!¡± barked Felicity as Felix nodded in agreement. The oversized Shrell seemed to shrink down for a moment before it bubbled up with an abundance of farting noises. Despite its stature compared to the power armoured humans it emitted a sense of menace that not even John, scarred and mutilated as he now was, could match. ¡°We¡¯re here to save your ship,¡± said Sam. ¡°Pretty sure that¡¯s covered now. So all we need to do is wait for the Kipr-whatever to get back and you¡¯ll be back in control.¡± ¡°Savages. Nothing makes sense to you, does it? Even the obvious things! End me or I¡¯ll end you!¡± burbled the squid creature. Despite the level gap the Carnival felt fairly confident against this being. Lower level Shrell were terrible fighters from what they¡¯d seen and after a few moments of armoured helms turning to each other in the sterile bronze room the confidence increased. ¡°Mate. you guys are, no offence, utter pansies!¡± exclaimed Raoul after the silence stretched too long. John resisted the urge to slap a hand against his face and simply gritted his teeth. ¡°Without us the ship dies. You were ordered to sterilise the vessel. Our resistance was ignored.¡± John had heard a wide range of emotion from the Shrell they¡¯d passed the time with over the last few months but bitterness had not been part of their emotional gamut. The tone of the Captain¡¯s voice was as far beyond bitterness as ¡°murderous rage¡± is compared to ¡°mildly miffed¡±. This was a being on the edge. ¡°Your resistance might not have been known. We got, like, an hour to prepare before we were deployed. Once the system recognises the ship is back under control it¡¯ll update. Fecking zealots!¡± said Reg. He glanced at the twins but they were ignoring him, all their attention was focussed on the alien in the room. ¡°You have served a long time,¡± Felicity said. ¡°Long time. Your duty is not yet done.¡± Felix¡¯s voice was firm. ¡°Service? Duty? You¡¯re savages!¡± snarled the Shrell. ¡°We¡¯re arguing not to waste the Alliance''s resources,¡± Felicity barked back. ¡°Resources. You are not replaceable, this vessel is not replaceable. We were sent to save you. Perhaps a little faith is in order?¡± Felix finished. The Shrell¡¯s eyes narrowed for a moment before it noisily deflated. It collapsed down until it was barely larger than one of the regular crew. ¡°What do you fight for, savages?¡± it asked in a low voice. ¡°Our world,¡± Evie called out defiantly. ¡°A world? I can see the sense. You have such limited experience. This is my world,¡± a tentacle waved around at the surrounding walls and screens. ¡°What would you give for your world, little savage?¡± Evie in her armour towered over the collapsed alien but she took a moment to prepare her answer. The tone of the Shrell commanded respect. ¡°Anything,¡± she replied. ¡°Anything. Your life? Don¡¯t bother to answer. I can see more than you would understand. You are bound to the war in ways that are beyond my species, woman. You have taken control of the vessel.¡± A tentacle flicked out causing the humans to flinch and parts of the wall flickered into blazing colours for a moment. ¡°We¡¯ve got the worst of it under control,¡± said a Bob-bot. ¡°I can see. What will you do with the rebels?¡± asked the Captain as its eyes shifted from the illusory screens back to the team. ¡°Hand them over to the system,¡± said Vic. The bubbling farting noises this comment caused lasted for almost a minute. The team shifted uncomfortably as they glanced back and forth. ¡°Just kill them to take the Essence. It would be the¡­ Just do it.¡± ¡°They¡¯re not giving us any Essence,¡± grumbled Evie. Us killing these guys is basically pointless. What was this stupid fucking mission? How are you guys so useless you couldn¡¯t put the rebels down?¡± ¡°Kiddo. Neck. Wind it in.¡± John¡¯s voice was cold. It had been a long time since Evie heard her father sound that way and she bit her tongue long enough for someone else to step in and redirect the conversation. ¡°We won¡¯t kill these people,¡± said Bob. ¡°I will not force you to,¡± the Captain replied. ¡°I can only recommend it.¡± ¡°Why?¡± demanded Raoul as he flexed his shoulders and his helmet flicked over the rest of the room. ¡°Savages. What were your orders?¡± ¡°Anything moving is to be considered hostile,¡± said Evie quietly. A tentacle flicked in her direction and bounced off a forcefield she threw up. ¡°That was the wording?¡± the Captain asked quietly, ignoring the battered limb tip that was retracted back into the nest below its main body. ¡°Literally what I said,¡± Evie enunciated slowly. ¡°Then there can be nothing left alive on this ship for you to complete your mission.¡± The Captain turned slowly and undulated over to a wall that retracted to reveal a starfield on the other side. ¡°To think it has come to this after so many cycles.¡± None of the Carnival moved for a minute while the Captain stared blankly through the window. ¡°You know what you have to do. Kill everything that was aboard when you arrived,¡± the Captain sighed. ¡°Some of the survivors are our own species!¡± said Felix. ¡°Species! The Alliance of Light must be better than this!¡± snapped Felicity in support. ¡°Go, children. Do what you must.¡± After it spoke the Shrell spun round and as it did so its eyes opened wide, its jaw dropped open. ¡°You aren¡¯t without options. Put my crew in your pocket dimension. Save their lives at least,¡± it rumbled, a shiver running from the floor up to the top of its head. ¡°Please, help my children,¡± it ground out in a guttural voice.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Teamchat: NumberOne DorisDayFan: We might have another option. Traveller: We can¡¯t stick them all in the stash so another option would be good, Bob. Titan: Feed them to Zeeg? BestDoggo: I don¡¯t eat humans. Or aliens. As a rule. OWA: We can¡¯t support them in the stash for long. What do the aliens even eat? We know the Shrell like booze but the other species? Is it nutritious for them? No fucking clue chaps. Sunstrike: Plenty of calories in alcohol. Is it a temporary option perhaps? NumberOne DorisDayFan: There is another possibility. John, you can open a portal back to Wayfaire from anywhere in the universe, right? That¡¯s what the modification said! Traveller: That¡¯s what it says. I can¡¯t promise it will work though. NumberOne DorisDayFan: It¡¯s worth a shot. We¡¯ll keep Captain Depression occupied for a moment, you go check. John didn¡¯t say anything, he simply blipped himself back to the hold they had arrived in. Nearly a hundred aliens were collared and sitting on the ground, eating and drinking whatever the spiderbots brought out for them. At least they weren¡¯t lactose intolerant or had a peanut allergy. That would help with any supply issues if they had to stash this lot in Doris¡¯ storage space. The aliens were all down beat. Heads hung low. Or the nodules that passed for heads. Having spent time around Pete John didn¡¯t have any real sense of anthropocentrism. Snake-spider hybrid things were the norm for Pete and Shelly, the lack of a human physical baseline didn¡¯t phase him intellectually. If he was being honest he felt at some level that intelligent creatures should look like humans, or at the least dogs. Drones were passing among them while a handful of B-3000s handed out rations. John glanced away from the four armed dudes as they apparently kept their mouths in their chest and it looked horrific as the damn things opened their mouths to eat. John reached out and tested the waters with his ability. He could feel the incipient connection, a bridge between here and there. With a mental flex he made the link. Beneath his armour he grinned and walked forward only to bounce off the event horizon of the portal. ¡°Fuck. Bob?¡± he asked. A drone rushed through the portal and came back a moment later. ¡°I¡¯m fine. Well, this ¡®me¡¯ is.¡± ¡°Is that a real you? Or is it remote controlled?¡± John grumped. He¡¯d wanted to go see Ryn. The situation on the rest of the planet was also high on his list of interests but mostly he wanted to spend some time with Vic and his daughter back home. ¡°It¡¯s just a drone. I guess I¡¯m kind of here and there at the same time,¡± said the nearest drone. ¡°Oi! What the fuck is that?¡± demanded a voice in English. One of the humans who¡¯d been taken had risen to their feet and was pointing at the portal. ¡°When did you leave Earth?¡± John replied. ¡°You¡¯re him, aren¡¯t you?¡± asked the woman next to him. Her dark skin shone as the lights around the hold gleamed as the lights scattered around the hold caught on the sharp angles of her cheeks. ¡°John Borrows,¡± John ground out. ¡°Traveller.¡± John cringed as his nickname was almost whispered. ¡°Let us go back?¡± asked the man who had called out at first. ¡°How long?¡± he reiterated. ¡°just over a year. There¡¯s only five of us left. Let us go home.¡± ¡°Can you go through the portal?¡± John wondered aloud. Rather than any kind of discussion the black woman moved. Despite the collar she vanished into the portal before John could think to react. A moment later she backed through again, arms raised as several slightly out of date Bob-bots came through with weapons trained on her. As soon as they came through one of them turned and bolted back to the other side of the portal. ¡°We¡¯re good. I can come and go and the humans are ok as well,¡± said the drone. The new drones lowered their weapons and made reassuring hand movements in the direction of the other human team. After a brief period of awkward discussion they persuaded one of the aliens to go through the portal. John felt a little guilty as the motivation they employed was more along the line of ¡°do this or else¡±, communicated by non verbal gestures. As the alien returned, limbs raised carefully, John sighed. The surrender gesture appeared to be universal, which was good to know, and the creatures on the ship before the Carnival were deployed all seemed to be able to go back to Earth. ¡°So all these outcasts can come and go through a portal but we can¡¯t. Has anyone from Earth tried to come through?¡± he asked Bob quietly. ¡°Yep and it¡¯s a nope, mate. But this is an interesting opportunity,¡± the drone replied. ¡°We can have a reserve force, if we can get them on side. What about Claire, Flash¡¯s sister, not the healer. She can talk to anyone, right?¡± ¡°She¡¯s on her way to Wayfaire. I say we dump this lot on Mars or the Moon and keep them in reserve until we know what they can do. They seem pretty weak overall.¡± ¡°Low levels.¡± John sighed and his armour settled into a crouch. Doris pivoted and moved forward slightly, causing all the captured beings to shiver and back away. She stepped carefully forward until she was standing with the portal between her ankles then held still, once again becoming a giant armoured statue. "Excuse me?¡± asked one of the women on the human team they¡¯d rescued. John craned his neck up to look at her. Tall and slender with long dark hair tied up behind her head. Her skin was almost ebony and the artificial lights in the hold reflected harshly on her damp cheeks. She had stopped weeping but her voice was weak and reedy. He stood up, towering over her, and reached up slowly with one hand to remove his helmet. As the bulky piece of armour came up over his head she blanched. ¡°Are you even human?¡± she asked. Ah. The ruby eyes and the scars and the freaky runes Magic had carved into his face. Perhaps he should have kept the mask on? ¡°I am. I¡¯m John. When did you leave Earth?¡± he asked again. ¡°About a year ago,¡± she stammered back. ¡°You¡¯re¡­ him. The baron of the Topping?¡± John grimaced and went silent for a moment. ¡°I was, sometimes. The Topping is gone though. A year of your time?¡± She nodded shakily. ¡°So probably a lot longer than that back on Earth. Time dilation,¡± he finished in response to her confused look. ¡°Can we go back to Earth through that?¡± she waved a hand at the portal. She clearly knew it was possible, she was asking for permission. ¡°You¡¯re valuable. We¡¯ll keep you somewhere safe while we assess what happens to you long term. We won¡¯t hurt you or any of these creatures as long as none of you attack our people back home. A lot has changed while you¡¯ve been away.¡± ¡°The Accords are still keeping everyone down?¡± she asked. ¡°No. Some people came back from one of these jaunts. So powerful they turned everything on its head. The Sigs are still some of the strongest but they are small fry compared to the Monarchs,¡± he answered. ¡°Where will you keep us?¡± her friend called out from where she huddled on the floor. "And when are you going to take this fucking collar off?¡± ¡°Once you¡¯re back and we¡¯ve checked you over, the collars will come off,¡± Bob chimed in from a nearby drone. They had been having a rapid conversation in the background as they made plans. They didn¡¯t want to kill these rebels so they only really had one option. ¡°Be careful when you level. You got some Essence from this so far? And you need to kill the big bad Shrell on the bridge?¡± John shrugged. ¡°Not very much so far. Most of them were below level thirty and we were trying to take prisoners rather than just kill everything.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get creative with your orders. You don¡¯t want to be an outcast,¡± the black woman muttered. ¡°You think us going back to Earth will count as completing the mission?¡± ¡°Hopefully,¡± John replied. ¡°We needed to sterilise the ship. If you ain¡¯t here then it¡¯s sterile.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll go. Hope it works out for you, Signatory,¡± the tone in her voice at the end suggested she was not a fan. She moved over and gathered her friends then marched them back to Earth under a heavy escort of drones. ¡°You got bots ready to receive the aliens as well?¡± John asked Bob. The drone nodded and they began shepherding the rest of the prisoners through the portal. ¡°I want to strip a load of tech out of this beauty as well.¡± The B-3000 gestured around the walls. Bring the rest of them back. We can figure out what to do with the Captain later.¡± John stood in silence for a moment then replaced his helmet, watching as the captured aliens were forced through the portal back to Earth. A portal that the team couldn¡¯t use themselves. Chapter 193 - Deferred gratification The team had all retreated back to the hold which was now clear of prisoners. Evie plinked a finger against the event horizon of the portal and scoffed. ¡°This is shit. We¡¯re a step away from home,¡± complained Sam. ¡°Nothing we can do,¡± grunted Raoul stoically. Bob had spent the last few hours stripmining the Hagrutship for materials and devices. He had become intolerable. All he would talk about was improved schematics and increasing the effectiveness of the fleet he was building above Earth and on the moon. ¡°The humans started the rebellion and the rest of the passengers got dragged in when the Shrell panicked. What does that tell you?¡± asked Flash. ¡°Rebellion results in collective punishment. It was merely unfortunate that there were no higher levelled passengers to maintain order. The Shrell are strangely ineffective when it comes to combat," said Felicity. ¡°Combat. Even their abilities all sound like manual or tech workers. The only reason they lasted as long as they did was because they were largely immune to casters. We would not have a similar problem on the Kipragtsek,¡± Felix added. Felicity shot him a scandalised look. ¡°Not that we would!¡± he added hurriedly. ¡°The mission isn¡¯t complete. There are a handful of Shrell left in the engineering sections. We need to get rid of them. Move them I meant! They won¡¯t let me go over the systems in there!¡± said a passing drone carrying half a ton of bronze looking metal it had pulled from the corridor''s walls. ¡°Don¡¯t go messing with those machines Bob! How long are we going to be stuck here until another ship comes by to pick us up? Weeks? Months? We need the life support systems.¡± Vic¡¯s voice brooked no argument and while the drone paused for a moment it gave a spidery shrug then scuttled off on six legs. ¡°Nah, we¡¯d be fine on our own.¡± ¡°I¡¯d rather have a bloody spaceship around us,¡± muttered Reg. ¡°What¡¯s Zeeg up to?¡± asked Evie. *** ¡°So you wish to die?¡± asked the giant lurcher, from where she was sitting opposite the Captain. ¡°I am an outcast. You do not understand what that means?¡± it replied. ¡°I do not. Please elaborate?¡± she said gently. Zeeg was fiercely loyal and protective of her team and packs but found it difficult to empathise with beings outside of that circle. ¡°You don¡¯t want to know,¡± the Captain bubbled. ¡°Let us just say that I am now fair game to every being in the universe. I had it all,¡± it deflated with a farting noise and its tentacles curled up. It looked like it was giving itself a many-limbed hug. ¡°Why not return to Earth? Someone with your knowledge and experience would be highly valued.¡± Zeeg was confused by the nihilistic apathy the creature was exhibiting. ¡°I will not leave my ship.¡± ¡°Why were we ordered to sterilise it? Why not rescue the crew?¡± ¡°The Alliance takes a harsh view on mutiny. If you allow one to happen you are treated the same way as the rebels,¡± it said sadly. ¡°How is that motivation? How often does this kind of thing happen?¡± ¡°It never happens! I am the first in ten thousand years to lose control of a voidliner! It is motivation,¡± the Captain continued in an icy voice, ¡°because if you don¡¯t immediately contain the rebels you are dead as well. Outcasts never live for long.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t lose access to the system?¡± Zeeg queried. ¡°Of course not. Once you start gaining Essence it cannot be taken back. Sometimes savage worlds go rogue. I¡¯ve sent many teams on missions to eradicate them. The only way to take back the system is to kill the species.¡± ¡°Noted. How did your rebellion take place?¡± Her voice was even and steady but the Captain became agitated, violently twitching with limbs thrashing around. Zeeg was keeping herself intangible so the occasional flailing arm that passed through her wasn¡¯t an issue. ¡°Your species-¡± it snarled, ¡°-refused an order. Life support was deactivated but they escaped their hold and went on a rampage. They released the other species! They kept yelling something about Spardatus.¡± Zeeg gave a half bark, half laugh. ¡°You mock me?¡± demanded the Captain, drawing itself back up to its full height. ¡°No. They were making a joke with what they yelled. What was their mission?¡± Zeeg cocked her head to one side and focussed on the twitching squid-thing. ¡°They were to go and serve as a second wave trial for a newly assimilated world.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°They were mostly over level thirty, what kind of species would it be fair to send them against?¡± ¡°Oh, it scales on a number of factors. Levels aren¡¯t the be all and end all, savage,¡± grumped the Captain. Zeeg carefully ignored the insult but she was filing them all away in her mind. She found herself content with this being''s fate. ¡°I am a canine, not a savage,¡± she replied mildly. ¡°What will you do now?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll deal with it myself!¡± with a manic bubbling sound it rushed over to a panel and began tapping at screens. Zeeg felt her hackles rise. The alien was insane. How an entire species could be kept caged on these ships, with no grass or skies, for generations and convinced they were blessed escaped her but she had seen fanatics in the past. People who kept cats came to the top of her mind in that category. If this Shrell was like a cat owner the creature should be treated with extreme caution. And disdain but in the current circumstances caution felt more appropriate. ¡°The engineers are countering me. Savage, go kill them!¡± barked the Captain as it moved to a new set of screens and began poking at them with multiple tentacles. ¡°Countering you?¡± Zeeg asked. ¡°Opposing my commands. Shorting the logic loops to trigger the final defense. They are without honour! Kill them, now you filthy beast!¡± Definitely a cat person. Zeeg considered her options for a moment. Zeeg! Kill the Captain now! It¡¯s trying to blow the fucking ship! Bob sent via her implant. She leapt forward, phasing back into the physical world and snatched the beast around what passed for its neck. With a savage shake, which she made as savage as possible, she flicked the creature across the room where it smacked into the wall with a wet splashing noise. It slid down the wall as its limbs organised themselves underneath the main body and then drew itself back to its ¡°feet¡±, turning to narrow its coal black eyes at the dog. ¡°So now you want to kill me?¡± it hissed. ¡°You were trying to kill us all. I¡¯ve heard that over short distances bipeds can outrun a quadruped. They have less limbs to organise before they can get up to speed.¡± Zeeg grinned, two inch fangs gleaming in the lights reflecting off the polished walls. ¡°I suspect I have the advantage here.¡± She blurred forward and slammed the Captain back against the wall. Tentacles squirmed out and wrapped around her torso, starting to constrict. She phased out, the tightening bonds snapping through her body to smack against themselves. With its main limbs tangled after her escape she re-entered the physical universe and did something she generally considered to be beneath her. She had seen the Dragon fight. Its body transforming into an amorphous thing, every inch of its flesh capable of becoming a weapon at a thought. Zeeg found the idea distasteful but in the current circumstances, due to the level difference it seemed better to swallow her pride. Among other things. She dissolved into a series of flashing jaws that shot forward on columns of flesh to rip and tear at the Captain. Grey blood sprayed as tentacles were ripped away and flesh gashed open. The bulk of her body dragged itself along, using the clinging mouths to heave forwards and envelop the body of the Captain. A blur of violence followed. Tentacles would slip out and lash at the ever shifting dog, most of the time landing in a spawned mouth lined with fangs. A few landed, knocking bits of the dog away but the blows were never enough to break off a part of the shapeshifter and deal real damage. Less than ten seconds later the Captain was a bloody rag of a creature, dripping grey where the many maws gripped it, shoving it against the wall. Zeeg¡¯s normal head grew out of the back of the thing the rest of her body had become and she sniffed at the Captain''s face. A tongue slid out and swiped up its right cheek, leaving a line cleared of the grey goo that passed for blood in a Shrell. She coughed, spat out the aliens blood, and her multivariate form contracted. There was a popping noise and grey liquid poured out of the bottom of the tangle the two fighters had made of themselves. With heavy breaths she gradually returned to her normal form, shaking vigorously before briefly turning incorporeal to let the rest of the muck fall away from her fur. Team report: 1 Outcast Shrell Captain killed. Essence per kill: 17167680177564 Essence gained per team member: 17167680177564 Teamchat: Traveller: Holy shit. Stormwitch: Now that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about! Good girl! BestDoggo: Bob asked me to end the Captain. It was attempting to destroy the ship. NumberOneDorisDayFan: Good girl. I¡¯m sending a drone up to harvest the body. Felix: Have you no respect? NumberOneDorisDayFan: Waste not want not. BestDoggo: There isn¡¯t much left. I can confirm that it tasted bad. Worse than a cat! John blipped Zeeg back to the hold and sent a spiderbot over to gather up what was left of the Captain as well as begin examining the technology on the bridge. Zeeg sat down and shared a doggy grin with the rest of the team. Evie gave her a thumbs up as Raoul walked over and gave her a rub behind her left ear. She tilted her head and leaned into it. ¡°I cannot condone harvesting the body of a sentient,¡± said Felix. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll just take some samples and then we can bury it,¡± snapped Bob. They all glanced around at the floor of shiny metal. ¡°We can do the whole Spock thing. John can blip the body into space,¡± the drone offered as a compromise. ¡°We should get them levels!¡± chuckled Evie, utterly unconcerned about the corpse of the Captain and trying to get everyone else back to what mattered. ¡°No. If we level we¡¯ll face tougher challenges. It¡¯s like the fucking waves,¡± said Vic angrily. ¡°If we keep the Essence unspent we won¡¯t get dropped in the deep end and can level our way out of a tough situation.¡± ¡°Oh c¡¯mon! We¡¯d be a match for the Monarchs with all of us at level sixty three! We could just go home!¡± Evie replied. ¡°How? We can¡¯t just portal there. We¡¯re on tour and there¡¯s no going home early. Best to hold on, kiddo. If we face a problem we can¡¯t deal with, then we can jump up and cheese it,¡± John said, crossing his arms which clanged against his armoured chest. Evie snatched off her helmet and scowled at her dad. He reciprocated and his gleaming ruby eyes made her look down. She threw her helmet off to one side and it skidded up against Doris¡¯ foot. ¡°Fine.¡± She looked up and grinned, mercurial as ever. ¡°At least we¡¯ve got a shit load of levels when we do decide to get them! How awesome is it going to be to jump up so many levels at once! Hell, I can almost see the appeal! Deferred gratification, you know? We could end up with enough Essence to jump like fifty levels at once! That will be a rush!¡± she finished happily, moving to pick up her helmet. ¡°What about the engineers? They didn¡¯t want to die. Maybe we can get them back to Mars?¡± said Flash. Chapter 194 - Teenagers Ryn approached Kev¡¯s door slowly. Her old friend had been increasingly withdrawn ever since the fighting in France. He hadn¡¯t wanted to hang out, hadn¡¯t been interested in anything other than training and meditating. She reached up her hand to knock and paused once again. Kev had been in seclusion from the team for the last few days. Ever since the outcast aliens had come through the portal. Ryn was delighted to get confirmation her parents were ok but when she¡¯d laid a hand on the portal and been denied a wave of sadness had washed over her. If Kev refused to see her now it would feel almost the same. Come in, Ryn, the thoughts appeared in her mind. It was like his voice simply imposed itself in her head. Her hand dropped and turned the oddly old fashioned handle, pushing the door open and stepping in. Kev was floating cross legged, hovering a couple of feet above his settee. As she entered his legs stretched out and he lowered himself gently to the ground. ¡°I¡¯m sorry you¡¯re worried about me,¡± he smiled sadly. ¡°I¡¯ll make you some tea.¡± ¡°Thanks.¡± Ryn walked over and sat down to the side of where he had been meditating. ¡°Is it hard?¡± ¡°I¡¯m trying to keep the voices out.¡± He paused before placing two cups on the counter and flicking the kettle on. ¡°It was easier before,¡± he muttered, reaching over to get a pair of teabags. ¡°Before what?¡± Ryn asked. ¡°Before the aliens came through. Humans think a certain way. They¡¯re all very different but the basic pattern is the same. The aliens are¡­ new. Difficult.¡± Hot water was poured and he stirred the cups before reaching for the milk. ¡°You still take sugar?¡± he asked. ¡°You know I do.¡± ¡°I like to pretend I don¡¯t.¡± He brought the cups over and put one in front of Ryn before moving to the far end of the settee and sitting himself. He blew on the steaming liquid before taking a sip. ¡°I can¡¯t go back to Earth.¡± Ryn picked up her cup and held it in both hands but didn¡¯t take a drink. ¡°We¡¯ll need you. Whatever Mum and Dad found on this ship they had to clear, it¡¯s changed everything for his plans. We can go back soon.¡± He chuckled, the bitterness in his voice made her cringe a little on the inside. She hated that he knew what she¡¯d felt despite her saying nothing or even twitching. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. None of us can help what we are. I¡¯m¡­ Ryn, can I tell you a secret?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± she pivoted to look him in the face. ¡°I¡¯ve been taking copies of minds.¡± ¡°Your mind clone thing?¡± ¡°Eater. Mind Eater. It is¡­ very strong. I¡¯ve got Bob, Amit, the team that came back from Hagrutship and a bunch of the more prominent aliens. We can¡¯t trust Mindscar anymore. She and Belisarius are behind a lot of the troubles on Earth.¡± ¡°How the hell do you know that?¡± she demanded, shocked that a pair of prominent Signatories were stirring up the rebels. ¡°I¡¯ve got a copy of Mindscar. I¡¯ve got a copy of War and Life as well. They¡¯re the two that give me the most problems. They¡¯re so strong!¡± "You got their permission?¡± she asked. ¡°No. No one knows if I copy them. Look, we''re getting off topic. The aliens make being here difficult for me.¡± ¡°Have you copied me? No, don¡¯t answer that. Why not just come back to Earth when we go!¡± Ryn snapped, her exasperation getting the better of her. ¡°Exasperation is such a beautiful colour,¡± the boy replied. ¡°I can¡¯t. I¡¯m proscribed.¡± Ryn gasped and reached a shaky hand out to reclaim her cup and take a long, scalding mouthful of tea. ¡°Mind Eater-¡± ¡°It¡¯s not Mind Eater. I got another ability. I can take control of people. Temporarily!¡± he raised a hand as she drew a breath to launch into a rant. Her parents'' views on control powers were deeply ingrained. "But the Accords are over! The Reavers made that obvious! Earth is being strip mined for Essence, it¡¯s a wreck now! We can help. You can help, Kev. You¡¯ll know a Reaver or a Culler if they come within a hundred miles of you! You won¡¯t be collared!¡± ¡°I¡¯m not scared of being collared, Ryn,¡± he said softly, staring deeply into his mug. The girl deflated a little, her shoulders fell and she put her cup down on the table. ¡°What is it then?¡± she asked, not looking at him.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°It¡¯s me,¡± he sighed. ¡°I don¡¯t want the temptation.¡± ¡°The what?¡± she demanded, beginning to lose patience. She needed her friend to join them when they went back. They all needed his power and his support. ¡°Temptation. You don¡¯t¡­ Imagine being able to take someone over, completely. As long as I concentrate they''ll just obey me. It''s like¡­ I don¡¯t have the words. You¡¯ve been worried about me. You think I¡¯m withdrawn and that I¡¯ve changed. You think of me and you don¡¯t think of the same person you¡¯ve known for years.¡± Ryn flinched as her thoughts were spoken aloud by her friend. ¡°Even this scares you. I know too much. Ryn, you¡¯re like a sister to me and you are scared of me.¡± she shook her head and he laughed softly. ¡°Yes you are, it hangs around you like a yellow cloud. If even a sister is scared of me what will strangers feel?¡± ¡°They won¡¯t even know you! We need you Kev!¡± she blurted out. ¡°I¡¯ll be there for you,¡± he said quietly. Never fear on that score, the words burned in her mind. ¡°I¡¯m not ready yet though.¡± ¡°If there¡¯s anything we can do¡­¡± she offered, finishing her tea and rising to her feet. ¡°Thanks Ryn. I¡¯ll get a handle on it eventually.¡± She leant down and gently kissed him on the forehead, resting a hand on his shoulder. He looked up as she pulled her head back and smiled slightly, half his mouth quirking upwards. Then he nodded slightly and she turned, moving to the door. As it closed behind her she fought down her feelings and headed back to the shared living space the team used between training missions. ¡°Any joy?¡± asked Simon, looking up from the swirl of grey mist in his hands as she entered. The rest of the team were spread around the room, lounging or pacing depending on their nature. ¡°He won¡¯t go back to Earth anytime soon,¡± she said flatly. ¡°Ah for gods sake Kev. No ones going to collar you!¡± Sally yelled at the roof. ¡°This is not helpful. He knows what you¡¯re thinking Sally, there¡¯s no need for dramatics,¡± said Andrea. The shy girl flinched slightly as Sally turned a baleful gaze her way. Sally exhaled a deep breath and shrugged. ¡°Fair enough. But if we¡¯re a team we should act like a team and work together. So there¡¯s some bloody aliens and their brains are weird? So what!¡± ¡°He¡¯s been struggling dealing with a few hundred people, now there¡¯s a bunch more of them, including some humans who are not the kind of people we would have liked before the Monarchs came along,¡± said Bad. ¡°What do you mean we wouldn¡¯t have liked them? Leaving the aliens aside for now, I can see that would be weird for him, what¡¯s up with the team that Carnival rescued?¡± demanded Jane angrily. ¡°They¡¯re humans like us!¡± The girl made of fire rose to her feet and spun towards Bad. ¡°Easy, hothead!¡± Bad smirked as Jane appeared to steam, the glow from her body increasing noticeably at the jibe. ¡°They were anti-Accords. They hate the Sigs.¡± ¡°And now the Accords are dead. We¡¯ve got Reavers laying waste to half the planet and Cullers sneaking around in the shadows murdering high levelled folks. They¡¯d love Earth now!¡± snapped Jane, fighting to contain her emotions and lower her temperature. I¡¯d love Earth now but that¡¯s the problem. Please guys, just give me some more time. I need to find stability before I expose my mind to the thousands and millions on Earth. You can¡¯t understand. I ask you to trust me and be patient. They all glanced around, looking up at the ceiling and across at the walls. The voice seemed to have come from everywhere. ¡°That¡¯s weird you lanky prick!¡± called Bad. ¡°If you¡¯re going to spy on us, why not just attend the meeting?¡± He looked back and forth, waiting for a reply that would never come. ¡°Teenagers,¡± Bob grumbled from a wall speaker. ¡°Give the lanky kid a few more days before you start beating down his door. We¡¯re going to have the Necklace at a reasonable state of readiness in a week''s time. The new tech I¡¯ve got back from other-Bob has changed everything.¡± ¡°It¡¯s that significant?¡± asked Simon, his eyes lighting up at the thought of finally getting his hands on some of the new materials. ¡°Wind your neck in, Batman. You¡¯ll get access once I figure out how to make more of the stuff. That might take a while.¡± ¡°I¡¯m a bloody Urchemist, Bob, you metal asshole. I can literally make more of it out of dirt if I can get a look at the bloody stuff!¡± Simon threw up his hands in frustration. The walls, for once, were silent. ¡°You sulking metal man?¡± Jane scoffed. "Fucking kids. Evie was a handful, back in the day, but you lot¡­¡± the walls muttered. ¡°Ok. I¡¯ll get you a sample. If you can mass produce it you¡¯ll get a raise. I need lots and lots and lots of the stuff. It¡¯s not quite a match for dragonmetal but it''s entirely inorganic, which makes things easier.¡± ¡°You mean you don¡¯t have to profit share with the Dragon?¡± asked Claire brightly. ¡°Yes. That.¡± Bob replied flatly. ¡°As long as we¡¯re clear on your motivations. And I will want a raise if I can synthesise the stuff,¡± muttered Simon. ¡°Children. I try not to use that word, you¡¯re all powerful, more powerful than most humans. But in this case you¡¯re being children and I have to. Our goals are the same but I¡¯m nearly eighty years old. I know, I know, age doesn¡¯t make you right but it gives you perspective. None of you lived through the Advent, none of you knew the mundane wars across the decades leading up to the Advent. You¡¯ve only seen the harshness of the world from behind your mothers skirts! Behind my fucking skirts!¡± barked Bob. ¡°I would ask that you not question my motivations again. I¡¯m in it for the species, even if I¡¯m not technically a human anymore. Sure I¡¯m happy to make some ¡®money¡¯, the vast majority of which gets ploughed back into more defences and better bots, it gives me the resources I need to build up our world!¡± A pin dropping would have rung like a bell at that moment in time. Ryn¡¯s friends looked back and forth at each other and the room erupted in angry shouts, calmly stated thoughts and everything in between. ENOUGH! The word overrode all their thoughts and the babble suddenly fell back into silence, the kids glancing around and rubbing their temples. Dammit. Bob is an arse but he¡¯s right. We need to be ready before we go back. We¡¯ll have a lot on our plate when we do and I AM NOT READY YET. Help Bob and fucking grow up, guys. Kev¡¯s telepathic rebuke elicited a round of muttering but the kids shook it off and began to settle down. ¡°So how long are we going to keep sitting on our hands?¡± asked Jane. ¡°Can we use the aliens as support when we go home?¡± ¡°No. They¡¯re being held in reserve. They might be deployed to support the Carnival if they get into trouble,¡± said Bob. ¡°Against their will?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Girl, I love you like a daughter so I¡¯m going to pretend that question didn¡¯t occur to you. For the record: no.¡± Chapter 195 - We have plans A week had passed since the death of the Lord-Captain. John was currently in negotiations with the remaining Shrell, the last of the original inhabitants that remained aboard the Hargrutship. His ruby eyes unfocused and he looked through the many heavy bulwarks between his delegation and the rest of the team. Vic was out of her power armour, one hand pressed against the impassable portal¡¯s event horizon with her head bowed and her eyes closed. She had made this a ritual over the last few days. They had set up a shuttle service, bots passing back and forth to transmit messages in not-quite-real-time. They had ¡°spoken¡± with Ryn everyday. Events on Earth had spiralled dramatically since they left. Newly unfettered people who had chafed at the Accords had run wild and the Monarchs were spending almost as much time dealing with Reavers and Cullers as they were preparing for the invasion. It varied from territory to territory. Magic and Death weren¡¯t putting up with any shit, to put it mildly, so east Asia and Africa had been spared the worst of the troubles. South America, as well as the entire world, were terrified of Frost after she put down a small band of Reavers, entombing them in ice but somehow keeping them alive. The unfortunate Reavers had been dragged through portals, trapped in their icy prison, and paraded through every settlement, their muffled screams of pain echoing faintly through their cryonic tombs. Death had invested his territory with millions of flying, undead drones. They were a mishmash of shapes and sizes, none the same as any other but all were equally grotesque. As soon as one spotted a Reaver it emitted some kind of silent summons that drew a vast swarm of the things together in order to kill the criminals, adding their biomass to his ever growing reserve of matter to craft yet more minions. The new mass would then dissolve into the small flyers again and spread out. No one messed around in Death''s territory anymore. Magic was seemingly some kind of teleporter, ritual circles appearing just in advance of his arrival. His mad laughter and insane ranting presaging the deaths of any Reavers or Cullers in his territory. Earth Bob had no idea what kind of monitoring system he was using, his best guess was that it was some kind of magical array across the whole continent, akin to something from a fantasy story. Liberty seemed to be less concerned about Reavers, she only put them down when their rampages came close to damaging towns and cities or impeding the construction of the new fortresses that were springing up. She spent most of her time hunting Cullers, the murderers seeking to level up by killing other humans operated in her lands only at great risk. Life had Europe in an iron fist with a velvet glove. Perhaps too much velvet glove and not enough iron, according to Bob. The factions and settlements in Europe were largely self governing and had to call on him to get him to intercede. As a result some areas had suffered badly, the weaker zones being wiped out, whereas more powerful locales, such as Wayfaire, were largely untouched by the new powerhouses. John was glad Ryn was on Mars. Large parts of the population from Wayfaire¡¯s allies, such as Ascension, had been moved to extraplanetary sites on the moon and in orbit. They commuted back to Earth for hunting and trading, the portals to the new colonies were fiercely guarded and no strangers were permitted to use them. Some had taken to living away from the pale blue ball of their birth with surprising enthusiasm while others naturally felt a great homesickness creating an almost bipolar feeling in those new cities with many ecstatic but with just as much melancholy. John watched as Vic turned and walked back into the stash at Doris¡¯ foot, vanishing from his new vision. He turned his gaze back to the conversation at hand. They had reached an impasse and had been going round in circles for days. The Shrell had to leave for their mission to flag as complete. The squid-things had to leave or be killed, and as the negotiations dragged on John had gradually been coming to terms with simply murdering the irritating, arrogant little bastards to solve the problem. ¡°I am now the Lord-Captain by right of strength!¡± Piop was the highest levelled Shrell left at thirty three. John suppressed a sigh. He wanted to be done with this messed up mission and get on with their little odyssey. ¡°I¡¯m fine with that,¡± he ground out from within his power armour. One reason he worried about Vic wanting to lay her flesh and blood hand on the portal so often was that these squids could vent the ship from the engineering section. ¡°With that acknowledgement I believe we can negotiate fairly,¡± Piop replied, farting smugly. ¡°What are your requests?¡± John asked. He fought off the urge to point out that deciding who was in charge of the Shrell was something the humans had not been involved in. Five days had been wasted while they bickered over who got a promotion in the ashes. ¡°We demand you withdraw from the ship and permit us to get back under way,¡± Piop burbled with its tentacles writhing happily. Easy John. We¡¯re finally getting somewhere, Bob sent via his implant.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. ¡°We cannot do that. You are outcasts and we have been ordered to kill everything on this ship. We can offer you another option, though. We would very much prefer not to have to kill you,¡± John said slowly, as though speaking to a child. ¡°We have a new Lord-Captain. Once you savages are off the ship we will be restored to our honourable station.¡± The little squid was apparently wildly optimistic. Some of his comrades shifted and burped uneasily as John crossed his arms and stared down at the newly promoted Shrell. ¡°We have a choice. Either you go back to Earth where you will be allowed to live as you see fit or we have to kill you. The system doesn¡¯t change its mind. You. Are. Outlaws.¡± He angrily spat the last three words in a harsh staccato rhythm. ¡°You savages! We are back in control of the primary systems and I am not without power. You will decamp the ship. There is an asteroid belt around the local star. Another voidliner will collect you once Hagrutship is back underway and blessed by the Light.¡± The Shrell was either ignorant or immune to John¡¯s rapidly diminishing patience. How is our little outpost going? John sent to Bob. We¡¯ve got a comm relay setup and some basic manufacturing. In a few years this system will be swarming with my drones, prepping resources for export back to Earth or wherever else we can set up on our holibobs. This isn¡¯t a fucking holiday, Bob. Could we survive there while we wait for the Kipragtsek? John replied. Sure but would they ever stop for us if we fuck up our first mission? Good point Bob. So either these guys go back to Earth, we kill them or we blip them off the ship. Can they survive in outside the ship? Bob made a snorting noise over the comm link. Dumping them in space is just killing them slowly. They¡¯ll live for a while but not a long while. ¡°We have three options for you. You can go back to our world where being an outcast will not be an issue. You¡¯ll be valued advisors and consultants, able to do whatever work you prefer. Next; we can leave you outside this ship with limited resources. Once you¡¯re off the ship we should get an ¡®atta-boy, mission accomplished¡¯ from the system and perhaps you live, for a while.¡± He took a deep breath before continuing. ¡°Or we kill you. Our assessment is you won¡¯t live for long if we teleport you outside the ship and that you¡¯ll die slowly. Which rules that option out for us. So you can either go back to Earth or we will be forced to remove the obstacle to us completing our mission that your presence represents,¡± he finished in a frigid voice. Very fucking diplomatic! Bob laughed in his head. ¡°You cannot speak to a Lord-Captain in this fashion!¡± bridled Piop but it''s colleagues had all backed away from the armoured giant looming over them. ¡°Piop. Please be realistic. We are currently in control of this vessel,¡± John replied gently. Bob had managed to infiltrate every system except for engine control and had been indescribably smug for the last couple of days as a result. ¡°We have clear instructions from the system to purge this ship. We are taking a fucking gamble because we don¡¯t want to kill anyone we don¡¯t have to.¡± He took yet another deep breath. There was a lot of whisky in his near future. ¡°Even if you¡¯re outcasts.¡± You know I¡¯m going to liquidate them back on Earth if the system doesn¡¯t recognise us as having cleared the ship? Bob sent. I fucking know, dude. Do not let Ryn see if it comes to that. There was a double click on the audio link for confirmation. John suppressed a sigh and marshalled his thoughts to try and deal with whatever crap Piop was about to burble out into the universe. Piop stood perched on its many limbs for a moment then deflated slightly. It slithered back and forth before moving away from John towards a large bank of controls. Next to the controls was a long window revealing the inner workings of the engines. The glass was heavily shielded and tinted so that the blinding energies flowing within the ships propulsion systems didn¡¯t roast all their eyes. John was quietly confident his new eyes wouldn¡¯t have a problem although his skin might if he was out of his battle armour. He could see through the shielding and the containment fields anyway. The intricate spirals of power that threaded through the barriers and fields within a machine John could only describe as insanely complex were like surrealist art in his vision. ¡°Piop, don¡¯t touch that console,¡± said a floating drone from behind John. The Shrell clenched up, bringing all its legs in close and wrapping them around its body. It shrank down till it was barely five feet tall, a tangle of limbs with a grey head and big black eyes popping out of the top of the nest. The head pivoted until the eyes were locked on John. He removed his helmet, the silver mask of his under armour retracting as one hand reached up to scrub over his shaved head. The metal felt cold and hard against his scalp. Christ, he wanted to get this job done. ¡°Piop. If you reach out to any console I will teleport you a million kilometres away from the ship,¡± he said sadly as his hand fell back to his side and his ruby eyes met the aliens black ones. ¡°How far away is that? Your savage measurements don¡¯t make any sense to civilised beings,¡± Piop replied but it was clear from it¡¯s tone the fire had gone out of the being. It was beaten and just needed a way out. A face saving opportunity. John thought for a moment before he opened his mouth and took a risk. ¡°You can never go back into the system, Lord Captain.¡± The Shrell rose up slightly at the use of the title. ¡°You and those of your people that remain will always be outcasts from the Alliance. But that doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t run a voidliner.¡± Shut up, John, Bob sent. John ignored his friend and continued speaking off the top of his head. ¡°We have plans to build our own versions of these vessels. Plans to set up our own runs between the stars. We¡¯ll need good crew-beings to serve on them. It will be a different kind of run, ferrying willing sentients and materials, you¡¯d be the lifeblood of our federation. It wouldn¡¯t matter if you¡¯re an outcast.¡± John you are an utter arsehole on occasion. Saying that shit out loud and outside the stash. Fucks sake man! John ignored Bob and smiled broadly as Piop untangled its limbs and drew itself up, slithering slightly closer to him. ¡°New runs and new ships?¡± it asked quietly, dark eyes gleaming. Chapter 196 - A finger in many pies ¡°So what are they thinking?¡± ¡°It¡¯s bad enough hearing all the voices in my head without the walls talking to me as well,¡± Kev muttered in response to Bob¡¯s question. He settled from his floating meditation, landing softly on the settee. He brought his hands up to rub his temples but it didn¡¯t help. Nothing helped except for being alone. Those hours he spent on the surface of the red world, where he sped through the pathetic dregs of the atmosphere until he was far enough away that his thoughts became his own again were precious, and far too rare. ¡°The first lot of aliens are ok. They figured they were dead as soon as they rebelled because of the atmosphere being turned off on the Hatgrutship. They¡¯ll play ball.¡± ¡°And the squids?¡± Bob asked. ¡°They¡¯re a different kettle of calamari. They¡¯re in it for themselves. Now the portal has closed, they feel stuck here and they are looking for angles and advantages.¡± The boy sighed as he dropped his hands to his lap and clenched them into fists. ¡°Their minds are so¡­ alien. And I¡¯m not being funny. They¡¯ve never seen the sky, never walked in a forest. They¡¯re comfortable with the corridors rather than the terrariums. They¡¯re like lab rats or something,¡± he muttered as he rose to his feet. ¡°I¡¯ll need a breakdown on their history as they understand it please. You¡¯re ready to go back?¡± Bob asked gently from a speaker. ¡°No. But if I don¡¯t I¡¯ll never take that jump. Where are the others?¡± ¡°Waiting by the portal.¡± Kev walked the empty corridors of Mars but he was never alone. The voices in his head kept him company. You¡¯re a devil, little Kevin. Mindscar¡¯s voice. The copy he had taken hated him as much as the real one would if she knew what he had done. Her laughter echoed in his mind. Freak! You should step out an airlock! One of the humans who had been brought back to Earth after being outcast by the system. Monster! One of the aliens. With a mental flex the voices fell away. They babbled away somewhere at the back of his mind but it no longer entered his main train of thought. Don¡¯t worry about them, kid. Bunch of assholes. The certitude flowing from his copy of Amit snuck around his controls, probably due to having a positive sentiment rather than shit talking him from inside his own brain. There was a sense of a fight, some battle of wills within the growing menagerie of minds he curated and Amit emerged triumphant, battering the others into silence. Having a good friend''s dad inside your head was a strange experience but he was glad he¡¯d stolen a copy all those months ago. Corridors flowed by, bland and grey. Endless walls and doors merged into a blur as he navigated using the map in his HUD. ¡°Hey mate!¡± Sally blurred over to him before the door had finished opening and pulled him into a hug. Their armour clanged as his body was pulled against hers before she backed off with a mousy grin and dragged him into the room. Bad smiled broadly at him and the others also either waved or smiled, happy to see him out of his room at last. ¡°So what¡¯s the job?¡± Kev asked as he moved over and sat down in a chair facing the circle of his friends. ¡°Got some Cullers. Might be left over Scunners, we never got all of those bastards. They¡¯re operating out of a small town in Ayrshire. Kirkcudbright, it¡¯s called. Catchy name, I know. It managed to avoid being picked clean by the Scunners all those years ago and has become a bit of a regional capital.¡± ¡°And what are we up against?¡± asked Jane, practically bouncing up and down on her fireproof chair. ¡°Maybe four or five Cullers. Level range is thirty to thirty five. Wayfaire wants to deal with it themselves rather than getting Life or War involved. Keep it in-house,¡± Bob replied. ¡°Local forces?¡± asked Bad, in a matter of fact tone. Kev was studying the air, watching the colours and smells that his friends'' emotions were generating in his warped perception. Enthusiasm, excitement, joy at the thought of release from this exile on Mars were the predominant flavours. A little nervousness but no fear¡­ he sniffed and his head spun. He locked eyes with Ryn and without meaning to dipped into her thoughts. They were a jumble. She was afraid. Afraid of being a disappointment, of failing to live up to the legacy of Sunstrike and the Traveller. Afraid of getting her friends hurt. The battle in France had left deep scars in her mind now she¡¯d had time to assimilate what happened. He pulled back carefully and smiled gently at her. She raised an eyebrow before looking away. He had to keep his power under control, damn it. They were all child soldiers but some of them had taken to it better than others. ¡°Some guardians. Been there since the end of the third wave in some cases, others are newer but they¡¯re all from the local area. Most aren¡¯t even in the twenties so won¡¯t be a problem for you. They are a bit close knit, though. We¡¯ve tagged you to look into it because of certain advantages you have,¡± Bob replied. ¡°You mean me.¡± Armand''s voice was glum. He¡¯d largely come through the depression that had resulted from his fathers death but sometimes it resurfaced at unexpected times.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Yep. You can fudge the teams Identify reports. You¡¯ll go in on foot as caravan escorts,¡± Bob replied gently. ¡°Don¡¯t they get most of their supplies from the airship routes and the portals?¡± asked Jane. ¡°And how the hell is Armand going to hide me?¡± Being made of fire did present an interesting challenge when it came to subterfuge. ¡°You, Sally, Bolf and Bad are being held in reserve. We¡¯ll deploy you separately and you¡¯ll wait a few miles away.¡± ¡°You want to send all the squishies in on their own?¡± Bad snapped. ¡°Let at least one of us go as well?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a deliberate move. The Cullers are bruisers around level thirty five. We send the ¡®squishies¡¯ in showing as high twenties, without bruisers to protect them. Then we let nature take its course.¡± ¡°We¡¯re bait?¡± asked Claire. ¡°I don¡¯t like that!¡± ¡°The heavies will be a couple of minutes out. Ryn can teleport you all out if she needs to. You¡¯ll have discreet drone support as well. This is a collar and catch job. You¡¯re playing Pokemon not Palworld. We want them alive for interrogation,¡± said Bob via a speaker on the wall. ¡°By interrogation do you mean handing them over to the Dragon?¡± asked Ryn, glancing up at the walls. ¡°Probably. Kev will be able to get most of what we need if we can get them somewhere isolated.¡± ¡°Why isolated?¡± Simon demanded. ¡°He can just park up a few miles away and read their bloody minds, right?¡± ¡°I could but I¡¯m not used to the number of voices I¡¯ll be able to hear. Before¡­ It was just feelings, then surface thoughts. Now it¡¯s like everything is laid bare. I have to fight to not know everything about everyone because if I don¡¯t I¡¯ll go mad.¡± Ryn leant over and put a hand on Kev¡¯s arm, smiling sadly at her friend. She straightened up and looked across at her friends. They seemed determined, if a little unhappy at the limitations they¡¯d be working under. ¡°So we identify them with Kev then I blip them out without roasting them too badly. Might it be worth having Claire at the secondary location to handle anyone who gets a bit too toasty?¡± ¡°That¡¯s fine by me!¡± said Claire quickly. Bad and Sally both chuckled at her eagerness to avoid playing bait. The girl was dangerous, extremely so, but she hadn¡¯t come to appreciate just how far beyond most of humanity she now was. ¡°You could serve as an off-tank no problem. Just heal all the damage as it happens. Or return it to the sender and watch them melt,¡± scoffed Simon. Claire looked uncertain, glancing back and forth between the alliance of Bad and Sally and the tinker. ¡°Best you¡¯re ready for the lightly roasted culprits eh?¡± said Jane, for once taking pity on the shy girl and not exploiting an opportunity to tease her. Claire grimaced but nodded. ¡°So Ryn, Simon, Armand, Kev and Andrea will be going in as caravan guards?¡± asked Sally. ¡°No offence guys but you¡¯re all too nice! Anyone who''s dealt with a caravan guard will know you¡¯re not legit.¡± ¡°No they won¡¯t. I¡¯ll deal with that,¡± said Kev. ¡°As will I! Mon Dieu! I can make anyone see anything. We can do this,¡± said Armand firmly. ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky, kid,¡± said a speaker on the wall. ¡°I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll all be fine but you need to be careful. The ¡®guards¡¯ will be leaving from Killinghall tomorrow. You can portal there, I¡¯ve already done the negotiations for you. I maintain a large number of online personas so I burned one of them setting this up. They¡¯ll be much more careful next time.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to be in the first team,¡± said Simon gently. ¡°I¡¯m not a good fit.¡± ¡°Why not?¡± asked Bob. ¡°I need to prepare the terrain to be valuable. I¡¯d just be a burden. I can prep your lines of retreat in case you need to get out of there.¡± ¡°Ok.¡± Kev nodded. ¡°If that¡¯s what you want.¡± ¡°How do the rest of us get into position?¡± asked Sally, flicking a foot back and forth. ¡°I¡¯ve got an Egg set aside for you all. It will drop you and some drone escorts off when Ryn and the others are in position.¡± ¡°What do we need to know about the caravan?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°They do the run from the Inheritors up to the hill tribes regularly. Someone offered their regular guards a very lucrative job that they couldn¡¯t turn down,¡± said Bob. ¡°An offer they couldn¡¯t refuse?¡± chuckled Bad. ¡°Not like that. A lot of Essence and better conditions to go work in Spain for a few months. They don¡¯t know it was me who made the offer or that it¡¯s me they¡¯re working for on the continent.¡± ¡°Bob, why the hell are you running caravans? You¡¯ve got BFOs, airships, Eggs and the best portal access on the planet!¡± asked Andrea with surprising confidence. ¡°I like to keep a finger in many pies.¡± "Gross, dude,¡± muttered Simon. ¡°Setting aside your dubious business practices, you¡¯re sure the switch will pass muster?¡± ¡°I need to know what goods are being run around off the network. It¡¯s good market research,¡± Bob said slightly defensively. ¡°Whether it passes muster is down to you all but mostly Kev and Armand. Are your illusions up to scratch?¡± ¡°Oui,¡± Armand said curtly, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. ¡°I can help,¡± Kev almost whispered. ¡°What characters are we playing? I¡¯m guessing the fake power name will be vaguely close to what we can actually do, in case we run into any monsters or Cullers on the road?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°You won¡¯t run into anything you can¡¯t handle, that I can promise. You¡¯ll need to not be too obvious. Andrea, it might be worth copying a bruiser, maybe Sally or if you can get a chance maybe someone like Brendan in Wayfaire. That would give you an on hand bruiser. Ryn you¡¯ll be a fire user, so blasting rather than blipping. Simon, you can pass as a tinker. Kev-¡± ¡°I can be a proscribed psyker. Just don¡¯t make it obvious,¡± he glanced at Armand who nodded hesitantly. ¡°What? Why? ¡° asked Sally, confused. ¡°Because I am. It will also give us credibility if this caravan is as off the books as Bob is suggesting,¡± he replied. ¡°You have control powers?¡± asked Bolf, his hackles rising slightly as his back tensed. ¡°I do.¡± ¡°No wonder you¡¯ve been hiding away in your room!¡± said Sally. She stood up and walked over to rest a hand on the lanky boy¡¯s shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t worry mate. We¡¯ll stick by you.¡± ¡°You¡¯re all forgetting the Accords and the proscriptions are basically gone. Some places still vet psykers, some don¡¯t, some have been taken over by people who used to be Minders,¡± said Bob. ¡°Mindscar''s little illegal club,¡± Kev muttered then winced as the copy of Mindscar began screaming in his head. ¡°Either way, Kirkcudbright pretends to stick to the rules Wayfaire and Ascension insist on. In reality they aren¡¯t that sticky. A guard with a proscribed power might be just the thing we need to get them to trust you,¡± said Bob. ¡°Can¡¯t Kev just rip the info from them against their will? Why do we need them to trust us?¡± asked Armand. ¡°If they have similar powers to me they¡¯ll have resistance to my ability. So we need to get close, maybe rough them up a bit for me to get in. The other thing is we don¡¯t want to reveal what we¡¯re capable of,¡± Kev said standing up. ¡°Right Bob? Wheels within wheels?¡± ¡°Something like that kid. Got to keep the bastards guessing.¡± Chapter 197 - No choice ¡°So you¡¯re the new guards?¡± Jake was a big guy, towering over everyone except for Kev. He looked them over and the Identify trick Armand was pulling must have worked because he nodded and gestured for them to sit at his table. The pub they¡¯d arranged to meet in was a strange mix of old fashioned bar and modern convenience. Human staff worked the tables rather than drones and the smells of tobacco and stale beer hung thick in the air. ¡°Little young aren¡¯t you?¡± he asked as they sat down in a booth that was somewhat secluded from the main room. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if I should order beers for you!¡± ¡°Bluejuice will be fine,¡± said Ryn as she smiled politely at him. ¡°Bluejuice? Expensive tastes for kids like you.¡± ¡°We¡¯re good so we make good money. You¡¯ve seen our references,¡± said Armand. ¡°Aye, I¡¯ve seen them. What happened on the Ponferrada run?¡± he asked as he accepted his drink and asked the waiter to fetch drinks for the teenagers. Ryn waited until the waiter had moved away before answering. ¡°We got caught up in the Imperium¡¯s war. None of the primaries died,¡± Ryn replied defensively. ¡°But you lost the stock?¡± he asked sharply, narrowing his eyes at her. ¡°We had a choice. Protect the stock or protect the people,¡± Ryn snapped back. ¡°Which would you have picked? It was all insured anyway.¡± The old man pushed his grey hair back from his eyes and smiled broadly. ¡°Sometimes the stock is worth more than the people and sometimes it isn¡¯t insured. What would you do then?¡± ¡°Protect the stock.¡± Kev¡¯s voice was firm and he mentally leaned ever so slightly on the man, exerting a touch of his power to establish a bond of trust. ¡°Sure. Sure. Ah, drinks!¡± The waiter delivered a tray to the table and waited patiently while Jake paid with Essence. ¡°Drink up!¡± he said, raising his glass as the waiter retreated to give them some privacy. ¡°We¡¯re a close knit team but I think you guys might be ok.¡± Ryn and her friends lifted their drinks in a toast to their new boss. ¡°We¡¯re leaving Easingwold later today. We¡¯ve got some mobility specialists who¡¯ll keep the carts moving at a fair clip. You guys can keep up?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± said Kev confidently. ¡°Alright.¡± Jake hunched down and leant forward. ¡°We¡¯re running some fun stuff for some fun people. As long as we don¡¯t draw any attention this run will be gravy and you¡¯re up five hundred essence a piece. I see you¡¯re all in the late twenties, in terms of levels.¡± He smirked at Ryn and Andrea before his eyes snapped back to Kev and Armand. ¡°You¡¯ll need to tread carefully too, kid. Some of our merry band aren¡¯t the nicest people left on Earth.¡± ¡°I will be fine but I appreciate your concern,¡± Armand said coldly. ¡°Not worried about you. I¡¯m worried about getting the job done without any fucking drama. You can handle yourself, no doubt, but I need to know you can handle yourself without jeopardising the run.¡± ¡°I will not be a problem, nor will my female colleagues,¡± Armand ground out. He briefly regretted not assuming an illusion to make him seem more mature than his natural form. Jake eyed him for a moment then nodded. ¡°Good. So how did you kids get so strong?¡± he asked, waving at the waiter to come and refill his drink. Kev began to spin a tale. He kept their origins as close to the truth as possible. He and Ryn had been born in the UK but in a remote village that wasn¡¯t on the portal network. After they managed to get their first Essence earlier than they should, they wandered and gained levels quickly, eventually making their way onto the continent via the portal to Toledo in Wayfaire. There they had served as bouncers and caravan guards until they met up with Andrea, or Thea as she was currently. Doing short runs across northern Spain until they had bumped into Armand¡¯s alternative identity. More caravan runs, now stretching into Southern France on occasion, until at last they¡¯d been caught up in the war and had managed to jump into the high twenties as a result of safeguarding the lives of their fictional employers. Without Kev¡¯s deft manipulation of the man¡¯s thoughts there was no chance he would have bought the fanciful story but between that and the electronic records Bob had fabricated their false history fell into place quite convincingly. ¡°So you had to burn a few Imps and a few Sigs?¡± he asked, the alcohol starting to slur his words slightly. ¡°No Sigs. We¡¯re good and we aren¡¯t fucking stupid,¡± Ryn replied. Jake laughed and slapped his leg, sending a thud into the floor that made the glasses rattle on the table. A strong bruiser then, she noted.Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. ¡°Very wise. We stay away from anything against the Accords, even now. No point drawing the attention of the Mech or Traveller.¡± ¡°Traveller went off world I heard,¡± said Ryn, earning a sharp look from Kev. ¡°So they say. Never know with that bastard. I saw him at London. When we took down the worms. Meteors falling from the sky to lay waste to everything, porting us about like game pieces on a board.¡± Jake spat to one side. ¡°Bastard kept all the Essence for himself.¡± Kev reached out and took control of Ryn. Her blood ran cold as she felt this presence take hold of her body and mind. She smiled slightly and laughed. ¡°Those Sigs were all the same,¡± her own voice said without any volition on her part. Wait Ryn. This is a delicate. Don¡¯t blow it before we even get started. Kev¡¯s though was like ice in her veins. She had never felt so violated and she was sure the colours swirling around her made it clear to Kev how she felt about this. ¡°Oui. The fucking Court are just as bad!¡± snapped Armand as he stayed in character. No choice. We know what really happened back then. Your mum nearly died and walking into the fire changed you while you were in her womb. Don¡¯t let this asshole get to you. "No joke? I¡¯ve not gone on the continent but I heard things are pretty fucked up. You¡¯re either a noble, in the Reich or an Imp if you want to get anywhere fairly.¡± Calm down Ryn, Kev repeated in her mind several times as he gradually removed the control he had forced on his friend. ¡°Not much different to here,¡± Ryn hissed, some of her anger at Kev colouring her words. ¡°People with power always abuse it!¡± Jake nodded sagely before standing up and pulling something from his pocket. He laid a slip of paper down on the table and grinned at the teenagers. ¡°Bring the chit to the warehouse at the east end of Mill Lane before five this evening. We¡¯ll get you set up and let you know what the arrangements are.¡± he belched loudly. ¡°See you then.¡± Without any further words he left and moved quickly out of the pub. ¡°Kev¡­¡± Ryn¡¯s voice was thick with rage but she kept it low. ¡°I had to! And I¡¯m Jim, remember?¡± Kev replied. ¡°What happened?¡± asked Armand. ¡°I thought it went very well?¡± He leant back into his chair and took a long drink. ¡°I¡¯m going to order some extra Bluejuice to go into storage for the road.¡± He rose and made his way to the bar, studiously ignoring the muttered comments from other patrons as he went. ¡°It was but Ry- Kat nearly blew it.¡± ¡°Because of what he said about your father?¡± whispered Andrea. She had opted to borrow Sally¡¯s power, making her far stronger and faster than she ought to be, approximately on par with a bruiser of the level she was masquerading as. ¡°Yes,¡± hissed Ryn in reply. ¡°That wasn¡¯t-¡± ¡°We know Kat. I bloody know. I¡¯ve read the memories out of their minds.¡± ¡°K- Jim! What the hell?¡± Ryn replied quietly but fiercely. ¡°It was an accident. While I was doing some work for them with the M¡¯s,¡± Kev said, mugging furiously to try and get Ryn to leave the topic alone. Talking about the Monarchs now would probably be a bad thing. Kev was monitoring the thoughts of everyone in the room and none of them were spying on the team but an overheard word could be passed on casually and have just as catastrophic consequences for their mission as deliberate sabotage. ¡°We are in at least,¡± said Andrea softly. ¡°It will be like the old times eh?¡± she said slightly more loudly, trying to move them back to acting in character. Ryn grimaced but on reflection concluded a small group having a quiet chat with someone who dripped shadiness like Jake would probably involve some hushed whispering afterwards. ¡°It¡¯ll be a good run. Good Ess for low effort,¡± said Kev. They played the parts they had been assigned for a while after Armand got back from the bar. They talked quietly about fake adventures, subtly trying to one up each other in creating a more interesting false story. ¡°And then there was that time on the Line-¡± Armand began but Ryn kicked his shin under the table. No one would believe they¡¯d spent time on the line at their age. ¡°It¡¯s not far off time. Let¡¯s head to this warehouse,¡± said Kev, drawing himself up before he tipped back his glass and finished his drink. As they headed towards the door the waiter approached and whispered something to Kev, leaning up to get close to his ear. Kev grimaced and nodded down at the man before hurrying to catch up with his friends. ¡°What was that?¡± asked Andrea quietly as they wended through the quiet streets of Easingwold. The walls were still there but much of the town now stretched out past those early limits. The monsters in this area of the UK had been thoroughly tamed or destroyed and even level fives could walk around outside the walls without fear. ¡°A warning. Jake isn¡¯t a trustworthy chap it seems and has a reputation for not hiring the same people twice,¡± Kev muttered, ducking past the eaves of a low slung cottage. ¡°What, he always uses new teams?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°He always has to use new teams is what I took to be the meaning,¡± Kev muttered as they moved past a food stall at the end of the street. The blue light of a portal shone round a corner but they ignored it and moved east into rougher parts of town. Easingwold had been under the control of Wayfaire, via the Baroness of Thirsk, since the end of the waves so there were a number of B-1000s patrolling around, all of which somehow managed to avoid going close to the kids. Human fighters also wandered here and there, not following any set pattern. They probably weren¡¯t part of any formal organisation, just locals with half decent levels that allowed them to swan around confidently. The sun was just starting to set as they reached Mill Lane. The long street was cobbled and the buildings on either side were dirtier than the rest of town they had seen. From where the team stood the nearest houses were homes, two up, two down buildings designed for couples or small families. As the shadows stretched behind them down the street they saw the homes began to give way to warehouses and workshops. Prices here must be cheap as the homes would be exposed to the noise of goods handling and crafters and tinkers plying their crafts at all hours of the day. ¡°Nice neighbourhood,¡± muttered Kev as they made their way towards their goal. ¡°This is worse than the Downs in Wayfaire,¡± Ryn whispered back. Despite knowing intellectually that she was stronger than anyone here other than her friends she still hunched down on herself, shoulders clenching up to her neck slightly. One thing her Dad had often pointed out was that it didn¡¯t matter how strong or fast you were, if you didn¡¯t see an attack coming you¡¯d be just as dead. Chapter 198 - This isn’t their first rodeo A slit in the door, at approximately eye height on an average person slammed to one side and a pair of beady eyes narrowed on the other side. ¡°Fuck off kids,¡± said a gruff voice as the slit slid shut again. Kev reached out and knocked again, leaving forward so his eyes were level with the hatch rather than his neck. The hatch opened again and the same beady eyes narrowed into a glare. ¡°Are you fucking deaf? I said get lost!¡± ¡°We¡¯re here at the invitation of Jake,¡± Kev reached out to offer the slip of paper they¡¯d received but the hatch began sliding shut. Kev reached out with his power and forced the man to leave the hatch open and accept the paper. The eyes blinked and Kev read his intentions in his surface thoughts. He leant on the man again and he blinked and turned to take the slip to his colleagues, leaving the hatch open. Ryn glanced through and saw a shambles. Long carts, fifteen feet in length, were laid out with their hitching bars resting on the ground. There were three of the carts and scattered around them haphazardly were crates and piles of materials. The warehouse was dark, poorly lit by strip lights along one wall that threw long shadows across the room. There was some muffled conversation from the other side of the door, out of sight. There was a thwacking noise and a moment later the dark eyes reappeared, glaring at Ryn and her team. The hatch slammed shut and there were a series of clicks as the door was unlocked. It swung open slowly and Kev pushed it aside, knocking the doorman back. ¡°Thanks,¡± he glowered down at the man who backed away slightly. He was only level fifteen so even allowing for the illusory Identify results he knew he was outclassed. ¡°Over here,¡± he grumbled as he righted his shabby coat and shuffled towards a table surrounded by much tougher looking people. Jake sat on one side grinning in approval, the other half dozen people gathered around were glaring at the kids. ¡°So you think you¡¯re tough eh?¡± asked a man in a broad Irish accent. He rose to tower over everyone except Kev before leaning forward and resting his clenched fists on the table. ¡°Take a seat.¡± The kids looked around and found no seats in sight. Armand shrugged and conjured four chairs that could almost pass for thrones opposite the table with the caravan guards. ¡°Fucking illusionists,¡± muttered a woman with the left half of her head shaved. She blew the long blonde strands that fell across her right eye out of the way as the kids sat down. ¡°Not just illusions,¡± Armand replied. ¡°Physical. I can conjure pack animals to pull the carts if you need?¡± The blond snorted and took a long gulp of her drink. ¡°We¡¯re covered in that regard, Frenchie,¡± said the Irishman as he lowered himself back into his chair. ¡°So what do you bring to the table,¡± he asked, waving a hand across the space between the teams and blowing out his insanely bushy moustache like a whale clearing its blowhole after surfacing. ¡°Fire, physical, illusion and mental support,¡± Ryn said calmly. Inside she was in turmoil. These people gave her a bad feeling. ¡°Mental support?¡± asked a Scotsman, his accent as thick as his red hair. He leaned back and crossed his arms revealing explicit tattoos lining his forearms. Andrea winced at the sight and the man grinned. ¡°I can detect monsters and people. Inflict various effects, stuff like that,¡± said Kev, shifting in his seat. ¡°So we won¡¯t run into any trouble? That might be handy,¡± said the blonde. ¡°Call me Jumper.¡± ¡°Nice to meet you Jumper. And your friends¡­ do they have names?¡± asked Kev. ¡°Use Identify,¡± ground out the Irishman. The kids ran their eyes around the group. Name: Jonas Shea Level: 27 Ability: Brute Name: Sarah Ward Level: 24 Ability: Flea Limbs Name: Harold Percival Level: 28 Ability: Telekinesis Name: Shia Hardy Level: 25 Ability: Electrokinesis Name: Alex Shea Level: 26 Ability: Hound Dog ¡°Ok Jonas. What do you need us for?¡± asked Armand. ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m wondering,¡± muttered Sarah, the blonde. ¡°Well Jean, we sometimes need a little extra muscle in case we run into something unexpected along the way. You lot are level twenty nine and shouldn¡¯t have any issues with the kind of stuff living between here and there.¡± Jonas smiled and pulled out a cigarette that he lit with a BME lighter. Ryn briefly wondered how much tech was in that lighter, listening devices, B-net connectivity, she wouldn¡¯t put any of that past Bob these days after living in his little world on Mars for so long.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°So what¡¯s the stock?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Does it matter?¡± Jonas narrowed his eyes on her. ¡°Not really. Just need to know if anything will go boom if it gets a bit warm.¡± Ryn raised a hand and a bright blue flame flared up from her palm. ¡°No, nothing explosive but some of the goods need to be respected.¡± ¡°No problem. I can snuff a fire as easily as make one,¡± Ryn replied with a nod. ¡°Good to know girly. How¡¯d you fall in with this bunch?¡± Sarah asked, waving a hand at the rest of Ryn¡¯s team. ¡°Bad luck,¡± Ryn deadpanned, earning a snort from Armand. ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem like bad luck to me. You¡¯re all pretty strong. Signatory material maybe.¡± ¡°Nah. We¡¯d never have gotten to serve on the Lines or the Wall. Bad families, or no families. Let¡¯s just leave it at that?¡± Ryn wasn¡¯t sure if it was her words or Kev messing with their heads but they accepted her reply and didn¡¯t push further on the subject. ¡°Fine. Suffice to say that you don¡¯t need to know what we¡¯re shipping but it is to be treated with the utmost fucking care.¡± Jonas¡¯ voice was flat and cold. ¡°We¡¯ve got a few stops to make along the way before we get to Kirky-cud. Then we unload, grab some local goods and head back south. If you¡¯re any good you¡¯d be welcome to join us on the return trip.¡± He became more jolly as he spoke but Ryn felt a threatening undertone throughout. ¡°We¡¯re heading further north after this. Just looking for a job along the way,¡± said Kev. ¡°That¡¯s fine, Jim. Where¡¯s your final destination?¡± asked Alex. Another Irish accent, probably Jonas¡¯ little brother unless Kev missed his guess. ¡°Up in the islands. Beyond that, it¡¯s as much your business as the contents of your crates is ours. It won¡¯t blow up in your face as long as we all play nicely.¡± ¡°Ha!¡± Jonas slapped the table, making all the glasses bounce. ¡°I like you kid. Just keep an eye out and put anything we can¡¯t handle down and we¡¯re golden.¡± ¡°I¡¯m happy you¡¯re happy. So when do we get going?¡± ¡°In the morning. Travelling at night is too suspicious and it¡¯s bad for the horses.¡± Harold, who hadn¡¯t spoken yet, snorted. ¡°Where are you spending the night?¡± Jonas finished. "Wherever. We can camp outside town or wait here if you prefer,¡± said Armand. ¡°Bed down over there. Best we¡¯re all ready for an early start in the morning. You need anything?¡± offered Jake, speaking for the first time in the meeting. He¡¯d been watching the team carefully throughout. ¡°Non merci,¡± replied Armand, summoning a plate of food from his storage space as he rose and walked off in the direction Jonas had pointed. He looked at the space then began summoning a modest building inside the warehouse. Walls, screened windows and a door. As they materialised a light sprang on inside, throwing shadows away from the single floor cottage. ¡°We¡¯ll see you in the morning,¡± said Kev, nodding at their new employers. "G¡¯night kids. Sweet dreams,¡± smirked Sarah. Ryn and Andrea joined Kev in walking away from the table. Armand opened the door and went inside, leaving it ajar for his friends. They entered and Kev, bringing up the rear, slammed the door shut behind them. We¡¯re safe to talk in here, Kev sent to the team. ¡°Thank Christ!¡± muttered Armand. ¡°Did anyone else feel like we were a starter dish being eyed by hungry gourmands out there?¡± He threw himself down on a settee and twisted so he could pull off his boots. ¡°Like little snacks,¡± grumbled Andrea as she moved over and began picking at the food Armand had pulled from his storage space. She nibbled on a spiced nugget of monster meat and waved it around. ¡°What¡¯s the cargo they didn¡¯t want to talk about Kevin?¡± she asked. ¡°Us.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± asked Ryn, confused. ¡°We¡¯re the cargo, to be fed to the Cullers. They¡¯ve got some shit in the carts, mostly dodgy tech from the US but we¡¯re the main course,¡± he said, settling down into an armchair and putting his head in his hands. ¡°Why not just lead us out of town and off us?¡± asked Andrea, grabbing some kind of sliced vegetables onto a plate with a fork and moving over to sit down next to Armand, pushing his feet out of the way and forcing him to sit upright. ¡°It¡¯s a case of getting people in the right level bracket. They can¡¯t gain levels without arousing suspicion in towns and they couldn¡¯t beat us anyway, even if we had the levels they think we do,¡± said Kev. ¡°So they get some kind of kickback in exchange for feeding slightly more powerful people to these Cullers? What level are these bastards?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Mid thirties. And this isn¡¯t their first rodeo. The Cullers will have plenty of Essence in reserve to jump up levels if we don¡¯t take them down quickly,¡± Kev replied with a sigh. ¡°I¡¯m really starting to wish we¡¯d passed this off to War.¡± No need to trouble the Monarchs with this. You¡¯ll do fine, Bob sent over their implants. ¡°Why not send it up the food chain? This feels like¡­ I don¡¯t know. Like we¡¯re bait or something,¡± said Andrea softly as she cleaned off her plate and stood to go and wash up. Conjured homes included running water when Armand was making them. Armand immediately pulled his feet back onto the settee and sighed contentedly. ¡°We are. But we¡¯re bait with teeth. We just need to make it to the targets, let them come at us then blip, blip, blip with the collars and we¡¯re out. We can intimidate the ¡®guards¡¯ outside,¡± Kev waved a hand back towards the centre of the warehouse. ¡°They¡¯ve sent the hound bloke to sniff around and try and listen to us but he¡¯s not hearing anything.¡± ¡°Just how much can you mess with someone¡¯s head, mon amis?¡± ¡°More than I want to be able to.¡± Kev whispered. ¡°How are you holding up? With all the extra, uh, voices?¡± asked Ryn gently. ¡°Better than I thought I would. You know the Inheritors are currently trying to set up a false flag with the Beastfolk and force Sylvia into attacking them? Then there¡¯s the Scunner captain on her airship who¡¯s floating out over the North Sea. She¡¯s been raiding the Netherlands and Denmark but her home base is just south of where Edinburgh used to be. Then there¡¯s-¡± ¡°We get it mate. Just try and focus on the local area,¡± said Ryn. ¡°Oui. Eyes on the prize as you roast beef like to say,¡± added Armand. ¡°It¡¯s not so bad. I just feel like a perv. If I don¡¯t limit my range- hell even when I do¡­ Do you know what the hell is going on just in the houses on this street?¡± ¡°Anything we should worry about?¡± asked Andrea moving back and shoving Armand''s feet off the settee again as he swore in French. ¡°French swearing always sounds so nice,¡± she smirked as the boy shuffled up to give her some space. ¡°Unless you¡¯re overly worried about Keith Jones¡¯ wife finding out he gave her the clap because he¡¯s been sleeping with her sister, who is apparently something of a slut -his words- or if you care about the shop at the end manipulating prices in the breakfast snacking market in conjunction with their competitors¡­ It¡¯s mostly bullshit.¡± "You could do a BV show. Streaming live: Kev exposes all your darkest and saddest secrets!¡± chuckled Armand. Andrea slapped his leg making him yip in pain. ¡°I¡¯m not going on Bob-vision,¡± laughed Kev, breaking out of his sinking mood. ¡°You think you know people, right? Well turns out you really fucking don¡¯t.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s happening with the hound bloke?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Oh he got bored. He gets enhanced smell and hearing and he can transform into a shitty version of Bolf¡¯s war-form. None of them are a real problem. The telekinetic will have to be put down fast. He can fly, fast, and throw up shields and rip out eyeballs with his mind and stuff,¡± said Kev. ¡°And the rest?¡± asked Andrea. ¡°Captain Shea is bog standard bruiser. Much stronger than he ought to be and he can hulk out for a while. Sarah is dangerous up close. Ultrafast limb movements so she can jump really well, punch and kick really hard. Shia is a budget version of Evie, electrical control. His power should bounce off us due to the level difference but he¡¯s the one who shorts out peoples nervous systems to make them easy kills for the Cullers. His internal monologue is really out there. If you want a stereotypical villain, asshole, psycho murderer. His thoughts are¡­ fucked up.¡± ¡°So they¡¯re all evil?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Nah. Shia is tapped in the head. Alex is just following his big brother. Sarah went through some shit and ended up crazy but she tries to do the right thing when she thinks she can. She doesn¡¯t like what they do. Harold is in love with her and goes where she goes. It¡¯s a right mess, guys. But they¡¯re feeding people to the Cullers to try and keep it off the radar.¡± Chapter 199 - A swarm of pugs? Harold was pulling the wagons with his ability. There were no ghostly horses or oxen or conjured vehicles. The man floated along ahead of the carts and they followed him like baby ducks in a row. They were making good time, fifteen miles an hour or so and they¡¯d been on the road before the sun came up. ¡°Anything nearby?¡± called Jonas from a perch on the leading wagon. ¡°Nothing that¡¯s worth worrying about,¡± replied Kev from where he was jogging along next to the lead cart. Ryn was orbiting them in the sky in between taking breaks on the last cart to regenerate her reserves. She didn¡¯t need to but it helped maintain the illusion the team was a lot lower level than they actually were. ¡°I will send out some summons to provide cover on the flanks, in case anything slips past Jim,¡± offered Armand. Hundreds of pugs sprang up from the ground around him and began bolting into the scrub lining the road with happy yips. ¡°A swarm of pugs? Really Jean?¡± demanded Jumper as she watched the dogs scatter out to run along the road ahead of the carts. ¡°What could you miss?¡± She was resting on top of a crate at the back of the leading wagon but keeping a vigilant eye out. Her head was constantly scanning back and forth as she watched the horizon and any bush or tree that provided cover close to the road. Armand shrugged. ¡°They are cute, non?¡± he smiled as he ran next to Kev. The woman snorted and resumed scanning the edges of the trees a hundred feet from the road. ¡°We¡¯ve got some critters coming up on the left. Kat?¡± called Kev. ¡°On it!¡± Ryn leapt down from the cart and into a flat sprint, outpacing the racing wagons. As soon as she was far enough away from the cart she launched herself into the sky on columns of fire, shooting ahead of the group. She found the monsters, little cockroach-like things that were swarming out of a hole in the ground, attracted by the rumble of the rapidly moving cart wheels. She fell into a holding pattern, circling above the nest and raining fire down. The beasts couldn¡¯t reach her and her actinic flames cut through them, leaving them as carbonised shells that crumbled in the wind. She paid some extra attention to the nest¡¯s entrance, reducing the dirt around it to glowing magma before she was satisfied and flew back over. She landed gracefully a little ahead of the wagons and leapt up to resume her spot at the rear as the wheels clattered past her. ¡°Sorted!¡± she said brightly. ¡°You guys are wasted here!¡± chuckled Alex. He was bounding along on strangely distended legs behind the last cart. ¡°We¡¯re worth the money,¡± called Andrea from the other side of the carts to Kev and Armand where she was watching their left flank. ¡°Maybe. What if we run into a Reaver?¡± sneered Harold from up front. ¡°Depends on their level. We¡¯re not stupid. Can¡¯t spend the pay if you¡¯re dead, ya know?¡± replied Kev. ¡°So you¡¯d run?¡± barked Jonas. ¡°You aren¡¯t paying us to die. There¡¯s no way we¡¯ll run into a Reaver anyway. This is Wayfaire¡¯s territory after all. They don¡¯t fuck about when it comes to those bastards,¡± called Kev. ¡°I need a break.¡± He leapt up onto the second wagon, landing on the bench the driver would normally use and stretched out his legs before pulling them in close and rubbing his calves. ¡°You sure about that?¡± asked Jumper, still scanning the surroundings like an automated turret. ¡°From what we¡¯ve heard Wayfaire¡¯s land is some of the safest on Earth as far as Reavers go. They¡¯re tied to the Beastfolk pretty tightly, right?¡± said Armand. ¡°Those monkey-fuckers don¡¯t like monster hunters!¡± agreed Jumper as she glanced down and clenched one fist. ¡°Do you have a history with them?¡± asked Kev. ¡°Not that they¡¯d remember. Watch your fucking section!¡± Jumper sneered. ¡°Ok! Sheesh! Didn¡¯t mean to poke an old wound! Those pricks don¡¯t like folks like us either,¡± Kev offered, although he knew exactly what had happened to the woman as well as what she¡¯d done to warrant it. ¡°Kat and I did a fair bit of unsanctioned hunting last year down south in the UK.¡± Jumper glowered at him before spitting over the side of the wagon, causing Alex to curse as he dodged the saliva. ¡°I don¡¯t trust your senses. I¡¯m going to have a look for myself,¡± she muttered, leaping down before hurling herself into the sky with a massive jump. ¡°Guess we know how she got the nickname!¡± said Andrea as she watched Jumper bouncing along, leaping hundreds of feet into the air each time before slamming down and throwing up a cloud of dust only to erupt upwards again a moment later. ¡°She¡¯s good at her job,¡± barked Alex, his face slightly distended giving him the appearance of almost having a snout. ¡°Can you do a full transformation?¡± asked Ryn, leaning back against a rattling crate. ¡°No,¡± Alex replied curtly. They knew he was lying, Kev had briefed the team on their ¡°allies¡± capabilities. ¡°How the hell are your casters keeping up?¡± he asked suspiciously. ¡°I¡¯m knackered after five hours and I¡¯m a bruiser!¡± ¡°We all took physical enhancement for the class one pick. We¡¯re a lot faster and stronger than we should be but we¡¯ll need to rest soon,¡± said Armand. ¡°Speaking of which, I¡¯m going to take a break and catch my breath!¡± He leapt up and joined Kev on the middle cart.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Something to eat?¡± he asked, offering sandwiches he pulled from his storage around. He tossed one to Ryn who caught it deftly and began eating. ¡°I¡¯ll take one,¡± said Jonas from the front wagon. Another throw and Jonas fumbled the catch, picking the wrapped snack up from the floor of the cart where it landed before unwrapping it and biting down. ¡°Good stuff! Is this puck meat?¡± he mumbled loudly. ¡°Oui. No point slumming it if you don¡¯t have to, correct?¡± Armand laughed. This was going too well, as far as Ryn could tell they had instantly inserted themselves into a criminal enterprise without any problems. She was quietly convinced that Jumper and Harold being so stand-offish was a ploy by Kev. It is. I¡¯m limiting my influence. If they all just started acting like robots with us they¡¯d resist and maybe break free. Mind control isn¡¯t a straightforward process. By letting Sarah and Harold act on their doubts, at least a little, it makes it easier to control all of them. At this point I¡¯m hardly doing anything. You know the phrase ¡®train of thought¡¯? People are like trains if their thoughts are on rails and most people, I¡¯m sorry to say, are always on rails. Ryn blinked at the telepathic message and hurriedly finished up her sandwich. The implications of Kev¡¯s ability were terrifying to her. If he went bad he would be incredibly dangerous. Then help keep me on the straight and narrow mate. The fact that he could hear her doubts and worries wasn¡¯t making dealing with the new reality any easier. ¡°How long until we camp?¡± called Armand. Harold orbited back to hover over the lead cart, maintaining the pace despite no longer looking where he was going. His face was lined with concentration but his eyes were arrogant as he looked down on his passengers. ¡°Another couple of hours. Then we should arrive sometime tomorrow morning. No point pushing through the night for this gear,¡± he sneered. ¡°If you¡¯re ok to keep going we¡¯re all good!¡± called Armand as he leapt down and began running along. ¡°I¡¯ll lighten the load for you a bit!¡± he joked. ¡°What¡¯s up with your pug swarm?¡± demanded Harold. ¡°How do they help?¡± ¡°They¡¯ll get very noisy if they stumble on something dangerous, of course,¡± the boy replied. ¡°They can¡¯t fight?¡± asked Jonas. ¡°You can¡¯t see through their eyes or any shit like that?¡± ¡°Non. Just distractions but very effective ones. I know if one gets ¡®killed¡¯, that is all.¡± Let them probe us for information about our abilities. We¡¯ll be met tomorrow by the Cullers while we¡¯re on the road. This is the normal process for them, Kev sent to them all. Yes, the rest of the team is in position. No, I don¡¯t think the Cullers are going to be any problem. We¡¯ll have the drop on them. Anything else? Kev was clearly reading the questions in his friends minds and answering them as they were formed. Ryn found that even creepier than the pseudo-telepathy of their implants or the teamchat function. ¡°Where are we making camp?¡± asked Ryn as Harold spun to face forwards along the road again and moved back up to fly ahead of the carts. ¡°Safe place we know. A little off the beaten path but don¡¯t worry about that. We¡¯ve got some monitors to keep watch over night so there¡¯s no need to take shifts,¡± Jonas called. ¡°Any objections to us keeping a watch anyway?¡± asked Kev. Jonas shrugged. ¡°None at all. If you don¡¯t need the sleep you¡¯re welcome to stay up.¡± The conversation lapsed for a while. Ryn did the occasional orbit of their path while Armand and Kev continued to run. Andrea took a break at the same time as Alex, sitting in the rear wagon and joking with each other. Alex seemed like the most agreeable member of this gang, just a simple guy who liked to laugh. His laugh had a chuffing sound to it that only reinforced his faintly canine appearance. Eventually Jumper came bounding back down the road ahead of them and landed near a cart that she jumped up onto carefully as it rumbled onwards. ¡°Good trip?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Nothing ahead,¡± Jumper called to Jonas. Ryn was confused by the woman. She had seemed one of the more friendly people at the meeting yesterday, now she was tense and rude. She was like claws down a blackboard personified, setting everyone else on edge by her presence. Ryn shrugged at being ignored and settled back to stare at the sky as the clouds scudded past above them. Moving like this felt so antiquated. The portals, the airship networks, people with storage spaces who could run at a hundred miles an hour¡­ this was deliberately inefficient. You¡¯re right. They could do this a lot more efficiently. Jonas has a storage space that could fit all three carts. They do this run to hook people like us. Or who they think we are, at any rate, Kev sent. How many times? She thought back at him. On this run, we¡¯re the third group. They¡¯ve done something similar in half a dozen places in the UK and across Europe. Do two or three runs to feed some local Cullers then move on to avoid suspicion. Most of the team changes when they move on. Usually because they kill them. Jonas, Alex and Sarah are the core team. They¡¯re going to kill Harold and Shia? What about Jake? Ryn thought. Shia, who has been sleeping the whole run so far, isn¡¯t reliable. Harold is a convenience but he¡¯s unstable. He wants to be a Culler himself but this shadow society doesn¡¯t like wannabes. So you know where all the Cullers are and how they stay in touch? No Ryn. Too many cutouts. There are people like Jake in various places who know the local cult and serve as intermediaries. I¡¯ve got enough to wrap up half a dozen of the bastards but that looks like it¡¯s a drop in the bucket. The cults have had to adapt as a result of War and Life coming down on them. Ryn leaned back and thought about the implications. This was the tip of the iceberg. Dozens, hundreds of these psychos were getting smart and learning to operate their murder gangs in the shadows and avoid the consequences of a Monarch catching up with them. Not all. Death and Magic have largely stamped the cults out. Liberty has scared the shit out of them and they¡¯ve bolted from North America. Europe and South America are infested with them though. Hopefully we can crack the organisation open and put an end to it, Kev sent from where he maintained a steady run that would have been inhumanely fast before the Advent. Ryn blinked slowly at the clouds. She very much hoped they could make a difference on this job. After France she had struggled with the idea of killing people. Monsters were fine but having murdered, in self defence no doubt, so many people she had been left confused and conflicted. Even worse she had enjoyed it at the time, that sense of power and accomplishment as she had won. That had left her sick to her stomach, rather than the act itself. A thread of fear wormed its way into her heart as she began to understand why the Cullers did what they did. Kev stumbled and cursed before catching his rhythm again and shooting his friend a worried look. Chapter 200 - Plan B The campsite was in a depression half a mile off the road, shielded from the road and the sky by a copse of trees. Armand had set up his little cottage with some difficulty, having to create a weirdly shaped property that fitted around the bases of the trunks. They¡¯d had a tense evening, eating and sleeping separately from Jonas¡¯ team. The few interactions they¡¯d had were cordial, the tension of being on the road having faded. Ryn and her friends had turned in early and after a brief discussion of plans for the next day they¡¯d gone to their beds and gotten some fitful sleep. ¡°Morning,¡± yawned Ryn as she poured herself a cup of bluejuice. ¡°Urgh, how can you drink that at this time in the morning?¡± muttered Armand as he made coffee for himself and Andrea. ¡°How can you drink that stuff? Caffeine is bad for you!¡± scowled Kev as he also helped himself to fruit juice. ¡°Anything from our friends?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Nothing new.¡± Kev shrugged. ¡°The targets will try and hit us on the road this morning. We can expect the three Cullers who¡¯ll be supported by Jonas¡¯ people.¡± ¡°So nothing to worry about then?¡± Ryn grinned. ¡°Don¡¯t get cocky. We need to take this seriously.¡± ¡°C¡¯mon Kev, my summons can take them all down solo!¡± scoffed Armand. ¡°Kev¡¯s right, we should treat this like a run through the hive on Mars. We¡¯re under test conditions and need to excel,¡± said Andrea. ¡°Yeah, ok. Still seems like a joke. We¡¯ve got another six level forty ones in position to support but it¡¯s best to play it safe,¡± Ryn said sarcastically. ¡°I swear Jane is a bad influence on you,¡± Kev grumbled as he grabbed some toast and began buttering it. Once they¡¯d eaten they tidied away and prepared to face the day. ¡°We all good? Anyone need the loo?¡± asked Ryn. She received flat stares. Her dad¡¯s habit of checking if people needed the toilet before a fight was well known. Kev pushed the door open and ducked down to step out into a bright autumn morning. The leaves were just turning golden and while it was still too warm for frost but dew lay thick on the grass. ¡°Morning, How long is it going to take to pack up that thing?¡± asked Jumper, waving at the misshapen cottage. Armand winked at her and the building dissolved. ¡°Not long, mon amis,¡± he replied with a smirk. ¡°Good. We¡¯ll be on the road in ten minutes. Send out your scouts. Kat, if you want to do a quick orbit feel free. Jim, anything in range?¡± Kev made a show of glancing around, narrowing his eyes in concentration before he shrugged. ¡°There¡¯s some travellers heading south that we¡¯ll bump into in a few hours, no monsters of note anywhere nearby. There¡¯s a few low level critters but they¡¯ll run from us if they¡¯ve got any sense of self preservation at all,¡± he replied. ¡°Ha! Monsters that run? Where have you been? They never fucking run,¡± Alex called bitterly. ¡°They do sometimes,¡± muttered Andrea. ¡°Well let¡¯s get our shit together and get on the road,¡± called Jonas as he began packing his stuff onto the back of the rear cart. A few minutes later they were back on the road, rocking along at twenty miles an hour as Harold pulled the carts in a line behind him. ¡°So, you guys sleep well?¡± asked Ryn after she got back from a quick orbit and settled into the middle cart. ¡°Would have been nicer if you''d have kept me warm in the night,¡± called Harold with a throaty laugh. ¡°I¡¯m fifteen you perv!¡± she barked back. Harold glanced over his shoulder and shrugged. ¡°I¡¯ve had younger,¡± he smirked. Ok so he isn¡¯t on the ¡®take them alive¡¯ list, Ryn thought to herself. Kev glanced over and nodded once. They rattled along for another hour, peaceful greenery passing them by, before Jonas stood up and waved at Harold to slow down. ¡°What for?¡± the floating man demanded. ¡°Need to go carefully here. We might not be alone,¡± Jonas replied. ¡°We are,¡± said Kev firmly. ¡°The travellers ahead are still a few miles out. What¡¯s got you spooked?¡± Jonas scowled at Kev and opened his mouth to snap back before closing it with a clop sound. ¡°There¡¯ve been flights out of Wayfaire passing by. Unusual ones. Can you detect BME drones?¡± His voice was laced with acid. ¡°No, I can¡¯t. I can detect people controlling them though and there¡¯s nothing suspicious for fifty miles,¡± Kev shrugged. ¡°Fifty miles eh? That¡¯s an impressive range,¡± said Jumper casually. ¡°It all gets a bit fuzzy that far out but I¡¯d know if someone was planning anything against my interests,¡± Kev added, carefully avoiding rushing through the explanation. ¡°Well I¡¯ve got access to other sources of intel. My sources say we need to go carefully here so Harry; slow it right down to walking speed,¡± Jonas ordered. With a series of muttered complaints and foul language the carts stopped rushing along and began to move at about three miles an hour. ¡°This¡¯ll take forever! We should be at Kirkycud by lunchtime but we won¡¯t fucking get there today at this rate!¡± snarled Alex, his face distending into a snout as he became frustrated.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. He¡¯s acting. He has perfect control of his transformation. Something is off. You all need to be ready, Kev sent to the entire team, including their aces in the hole stashed a mile away around a very small fire. What are you getting from Jonas? Andrea replied, Kev relaying it to the team. That something is wrong. This wasn¡¯t part of the deal but he¡¯s received some new instructions. No info, just a message to slow down and brace. I think we might be rumbled folks, Kev replied. The team all stretched out on their carts and tried to look as relaxed as possible. Some were more successful than others. Armand summoned a series of purple butterflies and focussed on having them perform aerobatics above his head. ¡°We¡¯ll get there sooner or later. What¡¯s the rush?¡± Jonas said. Andrea had visibly tensed up but at a gentle nudge from Kev she relaxed. Ryn had managed to keep herself under control and didn¡¯t react at all. ¡°Well we¡¯re paid a flat fee, not by the hour so the longer it takes the worse it is for us,¡± called Armand as butterflies formed intricate patterns above him. ¡°You¡¯ll get a bonus,¡± Jonas ground out. Time dragged by second by second. Seconds stretched into minutes that felt like hours as the team feigned nonchalance. It began with an undignified squawk as a chain flew out of some bushes and snared Kev, throwing him to the ground, unable to move his arms. Andrea was the first to react, blurring into motion and slamming into Alex running alongside her. She knocked him over with a shoulder and viciously kicked him in the head twice before rushing at Jumper. Jumper had pivoted and launched a lightning fast kick at Ryn who vanished before it could connect. A moment later Ryn was in the sky in her fire form and she reached out to the little fire her other friends had been gathered around. Being able to see out of fire was an ability her mum had always neglected but in this case it allowed her to obviate the line of sight requirements for her teleport ability. A giant hound appeared ahead of the carts and grew to a monstrous size, sprouting extra heads and tails. As Simon crouched next to Kev he began converting the chain tangling the boy into sand, a moment later they both rose to their feet and glared around. Kev began snapping out telepathic orders but they were largely unnecessary. Jane had already commenced bombing runs, leaving burning brush behind as she overflew the sites the initial attacks had come from. Graceful machines flowed out of the fire, largely unharmed if a little charred. Ryn immediately took them apart by shrouding parts of them in fire and blipping them to pieces. ¡°Shit! Plan B!¡± yelled Jonas as he accelerated away to the north. Alex shook his now shaggy mane out and began loping along on all fours. Jumper leapt upwards, aiming to cross paths with Ryn in the air, both fists extended in front of her body as it rocketed upwards. Ryn blipped to the side and the startled woman continued a nearly vertical trajectory. Collars that had been hidden in their backpacks and on their belts came out and began slapping closed. Harold had started fighting for altitude as soon as things went sideways but Ryn appeared behind him and the wrist blade on her right arm slid out. A flicker of movement later and his head and his body fell to the ground separately. The Shia hadn¡¯t been sleeping, it seemed he hadn¡¯t been sleeping at all on the journey. He flashed into electricity and blurred towards Kev and Simon. Kev flinched back but Simon casually pulled something from his pocket and gently tossed it to intercept the line of the lightning-man. There was a fat spark and a stink of ozone as Shia¡¯s normal body tumbled to a stop at his feet. He casually bent down and clipped a collar around the lightning-users neck. Ryn glared up at the still vanishing form of Jumper before disappearing. ¡°You sure messed up didn¡¯t you?¡± she asked as she blipped along to keep pace with Sarah. ¡°Who the fuck are you people?¡± snarled Jumper as she pivoted in the air to face the girl. ¡°Dealing with people like the Cullers has a long and glorious history in my family. They were called Scunners back then.¡± Jumper went pale and began thrashing her limbs to change her direction but Ryn wrapped her in fire and blipped her to change the woman¡¯s momentum to drag her back to earth. Jumper shot straight down towards the dirt with a scream, trailing smoke and the scent of burnt meat behind her. Ryn blipped down, and slapped a collar around her throat before bringing her to a less than gentle landing. Jumper appeared gasping for breath then gagged as she found herself facing Harold''s head that was staring sightlessly into her eyes. She vomited and began scrabbling at the collar as her feet dug into the soft earth to push her away from the macabre trophy. More mechanical fighting machines dug themselves out of the dirt on either side of the road and began rushing in towards the carts. Bad and Sally intercepted them, brutally crushing the devices into the soil. ¡°The Cullers are running. They aren¡¯t waiting for Jonas. Ryn, collar him then bring us all up to have a chat with our buyers,¡± called Kev as he reached out with his mind. Over a mile away Jonas stopped moving and crashed to the ground, throwing up a trail of dust as he decelerated from somewhere around sixty miles an hour to zero on his face. Kev winced at the flash of pain but Ryn appeared over the man a second later and collared him. Kev tracked his friend''s mind as she moved ahead, zeroing in on the Cullers who were moving at breakneck speed back towards their base outside Kirkcudbright. He gave her directions as needed and a warning. He couldn¡¯t interfere with their minds. They must be shielded by some ability or tech that blocked him. He could still borrow their senses and he felt the rush of fear go through them as a figure of fire appeared in the sky ahead of them, bringing them to a stumbling halt. The rest of the team began appearing below Ryn and he felt a moment of profound disorientation as he suddenly found he was looking at himself from someone else''s eyes. He decoupled from the lead Cullers senses and shook his head to clear it. Even as Kev was gathering his thoughts Bad and Sally leapt forward only to be met with an equal fight. The three villains were capable close combat fighters and managed to fend the pair of them off despite the level difference. ¡°They¡¯ve jumped up in levels. They¡¯re forty now. Ryn, collar them if you can!¡± sent Kev on the team comm channel. Ryn vanished and began a game of cat and mouse. Everytime time she appeared behind one of them they would spin to dodge or pivot to lash out, forcing her away. As Andrea joined the melee fighters it became easier. Three vs three leaned the odds back in Ignitions favour and the rest of the team joined in to increase their odds even further. Bolf was leaping around, incorporeal and distracting them at the same time as Armands summoned butterflies began getting in their eyes and noses. Within a few seconds the first one left enough of an opening for Ryn to collar him, then his companions fell in quick succession. ¡°Eat shit!¡± snarled one of them as they snatched something from their belt and threw it at their feet. Ryn blipped back as fire blossomed from the vial the man had thrown down. The rest of the team leapt back as the green flames rose up but Ryn immediately quashed the burning. As she blipped back in she saw all three of them were shaking and frothing at the mouth. ¡°Claire!¡± Ryn called, blipping the timid girl close, ¡°Help them!¡± Not needing any further prompting Claire rushed forward and laid a hand on one of the Cullers. The woman had brown hair, cut short and her eyes were arctic blue as she thrashed back and forth. As soon as Claire laid a hand on her she calmed and became still. ¡°I can¡¯t cure it! All I can do is contain the poison,¡± she called as she laid another hand on the suicidal Culler. ¡°What about the others?¡± asked Kev as he hurried over with the rest of the team. ¡°Already too far gone. Another couple of¡­ nope. There they go. I¡¯ll keep this one alive until we can get her back to Wayfaire. This will need the Dragon. She needs modifying to be resistant to whatever this stuff is. I can¡¯t stop it. It must be some kind of alchemy or something!¡± ¡°Keep her stable. Bob¡¯s got an egg and some drones inbound. We can air lift her back to Wayfaire the easy way, without charbroiling her!¡± Kev glanced at Ryn who shrugged then grinned. The adrenaline of the fight was still running strong in the girl. ¡°Ryn, Go grab the rest of the assholes who made it will you? Relatively cool flames for when you teleport them please?¡± Ryn nodded and vanished. ¡°Well that was a bust. I only got to burn some bloody trees!¡± complained Jane as she landed next to Kev, carefully making sure her jets of flame didn¡¯t get too close to the others. ¡°It went pretty well considering we got ambushed. What were those drones? Hijacked BME gear?¡± asked Simon. ¡°I don¡¯t think so. I think they were North American tech,¡± said Andrea softly. ¡°Ah shit. Belisarius.¡± said Jane. Chapter 201 - Maybe we should be more proactive? Ryn stood and stared in silence as a dragon bent down to glower at a prisoner only kept alive by Claire constantly healing the damage the poison she had taken was doing. The woman''s muscles had withered, her limbs were now stick thin, her skin sallow and a sickly yellow colour. She had long since lapsed into unconsciousness, drool marking the top of her tunic where it had dribbled from the sides of her mouth. The light green cloth was stained dark to either side of her throat. ¡°I am losing this battle. She won¡¯t last much longer. The rot has spread to her major organs and I can¡¯t hold it back. It¡¯s adapting to everything I try like it¡¯s alive,¡± Claire grunted as the dragon delicately extended a four foot claw to rest gently on the prone woman''s neck. ¡°Interesting. Shelly?¡± rumbled the giant beast. ¡°Yes Maker?¡± One of the resident Shelly¡¯s skittered forwards and turned her multiple eyes up towards Pete. ¡°Can you sample this?¡± Another claw bent down from the paw held at the woman''s throat. It bent awkwardly and plunged carefully into her chest, coming back out coated with a mix of red blood and blue brown ooze. ¡°That wasn¡¯t helpful,¡± muttered Claire as sweat broke out on her forehead. Shelly leaned forward and delicately placed her mandibles around the sample. Ryn fought down an urge to gag. Some of the others present lacked her self control. Jane wretched and turned away. Andrea became even paler, her usually dusky skin fading to the colour of milk. Kev narrowed his eyes and managed to control himself. The others all made disgusted faces, the spider made a faint slurping sound as she stripped the sample from the claw before clicking her mandibles together. ¡°Interesting. A biotoxin keyed to the person who took it. This is powerful stuff, Maker,¡± Shelly offered thoughtfully in her scratchy voice. ¡°That is my view as well,¡± rumbled the dragon. ¡°I could make something like this but I would never have thought to. The risk of mutation¡­ Claire would kill me!¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t but I will if you don¡¯t save her!¡± muttered the healer. ¡°Not you, my sister is also called Claire. I am not sure I can save this woman. Not as she is anyway,¡± replied Pete sadly. ¡°What do you mean?¡± asked a Bob-bot standing to one side. ¡°The toxin has avoided her mind so far, for some reason I cannot explain. If we remove the head and attach it to another body we should be able to rouse her back to consciousness and get some answers.¡± ¡°Do it,¡± said Bob at the same time as Claire and the rest of Ryn¡¯s team recoiled in horror. ¡°What? No way!¡± were among the mildest of the exclamations that echoed around the large chamber. ¡°Shelly, can you have some biomass brought here quickly please?¡± asked Pete. The human sized door at the far end of the room opened and worker drones, two metre long woodlice with flat backs and their sides lined with flickering tentacles moved in, laden down with, for lack of a better phrase, undifferentiated meat products. ¡°Already on the way,¡± replied Shelly doing a little tap dance, pleased to have anticipated Pete¡¯s request. As the nightmarish servitors deposited their payload behind the dragon, its tail uncurled and touched the pile of flesh. A silver mist covered the pile and the tail looped around the thing it had transformed the meat into. The headless body of a young woman was pulled clear as the mist dissipated. The neck was a gory blank, like a chopped steak, but nothing dripped out as the tail moved the replicant over to the dying woman and laid it gently down next to her. ¡°Claire, I¡¯ll need you to act quickly. Shelly will sever the head precisely. We will have about 90 seconds before irrevocable brain damage sets in due to lack of oxygen. This body is a perfect clone of the original so there will be no risk of rejection, I need you to make the nervous and blood vessel connections as quickly as possible,¡± said Pete. Claire swallowed audibly and nodded jerkily. ¡°I can do that.¡± ¡°Thank you. Shelly, when Claire gives you the word, make the cut.¡± The giant spider pivoted, her legs clattering on the stone floor as she pivoted to bring her many eyes to focus on the teenager. Claire nodded again, more confidently this time and the spider skittered forwards. One limb flashed out, slicing cleanly across the neck. Blood began to spill but the head had been grabbed by a pseudopod of flesh growing from the dragons palm. The Cullers mouth hung open as it was lifted and positioned carefully over the vacant neck of the replicant. Claire rushed round and laid one hand on the forehead, another on a naked shoulder. The flesh at the throat began to knit together as Claire frowned in concentration. Thirty seconds later she stepped back at the same moment the eyes on the recently disembodied head snapped open.The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Shit!¡± Claire leapt back as the replicant lurched into a sitting position and emitted a horrified wail. ¡°Why? I have to die! Let me go!¡± An armoured paw the size of a car gently pushed her back onto the table. More raving and screaming came from the transplanted woman until silver mist flowed over her and she fell silent. ¡°Kevin, did you get a copy of her?¡± asked Bob. ¡°Yes. She¡¯s insane. She¡¯s been tinkered with,¡± replied the lanky boy. Ryn turned to stare at him and he grimaced at her shocked expression. ¡°Why did you copy her?¡± Ryn demanded. ¡°In case she found some other way to self terminate,¡± Kev replied softly. ¡°Self terminate? You¡¯re spending too much time with Bob!¡± she snapped. ¡°I spend less time with Bob than almost anyone else. He¡¯s a closed book to me,¡± said Kev. ¡°She¡¯s been programmed to end her life if she is captured and it includes a mental self-destruct. She was driving herself mad before you put her down. She¡¯d been forced to do that. Whoever was in her head was powerful. At least as strong as me but with some really nasty modifications to be able to do this,¡± he waved at the now peaceful looking woman. ¡°Did you get anything useful?¡± asked Bob quickly. The dragon settled down onto its haunches, forcing the rest of Ryn¡¯s team to back away slightly. ¡°Maybe. It¡¯ll take me some time to get much out of her. She was already mental before the trigger kicked in. Can you modify her brain?¡± Kev looked up at the dragon staring down with red-gold eyes at him. ¡°Perhaps. I can prevent emotional responses, limit neurotransmitter production and a few other tricks but I suspect that would only slow the process down, correct?¡± replied Pete. ¡°Probably. Shit, it¡¯s like having an angry wasp in my mind! She¡¯s buzzing against the barriers!¡± grumbled Kev as he raised his hands to his temples. ¡°What about the tech?¡± asked the dragon, pivoting to look at the Bob-bot. ¡°Belisarius¡¯ gear, like we thought. Hard to prove but I suspect he was remotely controlling the drones in the ambush. Best to assume that, anyway.¡± ¡°Why assume, Bob? Let¡¯s go ask the bastard!¡± called Jane from the back of the group of observers. ¡°Because he is dangerous. He¡¯s got a Samson option and if we push him too far before we can neutralise that threat it will get messy,¡± said Pete. He sighed, a whuff of air flowing from his fang filled maw that ruffled the hair of everyone in the room. ¡°Can you prove it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s definitely his tech. Whether he was controlling it? Impossible. We have to assume he was, that he is involved in the Culler network in a significant way and that we can no longer play the long game.¡± ¡°So we¡¯re blown?¡± asked Andrea quietly. ¡°The Cullers know it¡¯s us after them? What about our families?¡± ¡°The Cullers can¡¯t get to Mars. Your families, those who are still on earth at any rate, will have to stay off world for now but they¡¯re safe as can be. There¡¯s no point in any more undercover missions. Shit. I¡¯d hoped we¡¯d get a few more done and have a better idea of the network before it came to this,¡± grumbled the drone. ¡°How will you move against Belisarius?¡± asked Pete. "No bloody idea. If the rest of the team was here it would be easy enough. Overwhelming force had a quality all of its own but we don¡¯t have that.¡± ¡°What about the Monarchs? Why not get whatever info we get to War? He¡¯s got a zero tolerance policy on people farming people,¡± offered Armand. ¡°We wanted to deal with this in house. Make a point that the Monarchs are great and all but we can still sort out our own shit,¡± said Bob. ¡°So it¡¯s pride? There¡¯s a network of organised mass murderers farming humans for Essence, being way slicker than the Scunners could ever have dreamed of and we won¡¯t get help because it might hurt our egos?¡± barked Simon angrily. ¡°I¡¯m going to talk to the Church. They¡¯ll help and they¡¯ll get Life and War and probably Liberty involved.¡± ¡°Not yet, kid. Ascension already knows what we were up to. They co-signed the op. Just because you¡¯re part of Wayfaire now doesn¡¯t mean they¡¯ve abandoned you and Claire. No, we need to be clever about this but I¡¯m buggered if I can think of the right move,¡± snapped Bob. ¡°What¡¯s happening at their base?¡± asked Bad. ¡°The Culler¡¯s base?¡± asked Bob, Bad nodded in reply. ¡°We¡¯re stripping it down. All the electronics are clean, they had monthly scans of the Bob-net that were delivered by chip to stay current. All other messages were delivered by hand. Or by drone. That Yankee prick is really starting to piss me off,¡± the drone grumbled. ¡°Maybe we should be more proactive?¡± asked Ryn. ¡°Why hide what we¡¯re doing? The Carnival is off-world so why doesn¡¯t Ignition step up and fill that vacuum?¡± ¡°You¡¯re human children!¡± chittered Shelly in a scandalised tone. ¡°Let my children fill that gap. They are replaceable!¡± ¡°Your children are replac- you know what nevermind,¡± said Simon. ¡°Replaceable! They aren¡¯t capable of the divine spark! We have millions of soldiers ready to deploy right now!¡± the spider replied. ¡°Dammit Shelly. That isn¡¯t the kind of information we want spread about,¡± growled the dragon. The giant spider winced, almost curling up as her legs contracted beneath her main body. ¡°Sorry Maker! Shelly is sorry!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry.¡± A taloned forepaw descended gently onto the spider and rested across its carapace. ¡°These good kids won¡¯t be leaking any secrets, I¡¯m sure.¡± A red-gold glare passed over the teenagers who hurriedly nodded. ¡°So if we¡¯ve got millions -really? Shit!- millions of nagas and whatever other monsters you¡¯ve cooked up, why are we screwing about larping as mercs?¡± demanded Armand. ¡°You can only use a secret weapon once, boy,¡± growled the dragon. Armand, brave and childish, was wise enough on this occasion not to argue with the titanic lizard. ¡°They aren¡¯t meant to be used against human elements. Like Bob¡¯s drones they kind of suck at fighting people. The level difference doesn¡¯t protect them.¡± ¡°They aren¡¯t monsters!¡± hissed Shelly, spinning to narrow a multitude of eyes at the boy who blanched. ¡°My children are meant to face the real monsters and the void but if humans turn into monsters -killing humans!- then my children will protect the Makers species!¡± ¡°Easy Shelly! He didn¡¯t mean it like that,¡± an eye the size of a dinner plate narrowed briefly at Armand who nodded vigorously. ¡°We might need to look into deploying more of our resources in the near future though.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got the Necklace up and running. It needs some massive refits to install the improvements I¡¯ve gotten from the Hagrutship¡¯s schematics. We¡¯ll have voidliners of our own within a couple of years. In the meantime we need to focus on Earth and dealing with the renegades, Cullers and Reavers. I think we are going to have to talk to the Monarchs,¡± said the Bob-bot. Chapter 202 - My planet, thanks very much ¡°So what do you think John? Asked the Bob-bot. ¡°Ah thank Christ!¡± all eyes pivoted to Reg. ¡°Whut? I was worried ye¡¯d ask me first.¡± The team had appeared near a purple sea. The coast stretched away to both sides behind them, weirdly coloured waves lapping softly against the pink sand. ¡°Well it¡¯s pretty enough?¡± offered John with a mechanical shrug. With the alien coast behind them they were faced with a vast plain of pink, grey and black that gradually rose up to mountains in the far distance. Evie scuffed her armoured foot, throwing a shower of pink sand a couple of metres ahead of her. They hadn¡¯t had the option of choosing their own deployment site this time. After another four months of boredom and cards with the Shrell they¡¯d received ten minutes notice before the system teleported them off the ship and down to a moon of MW-537 to clear a continent infested with void monsters. MW-537 was a gas giant and it loomed large in the sky above, partially eclipsed by a series of debris rings orbiting its equator. The brown and blue giant cast an eerie light across the land they had been sent to conquer. The briefing had included a short description of the history of the planet. A sentient species of slug-like things had been inducted into the system, survived their waves but had fallen to the Void. They had been sent to wipe them all out. ¡°Can we just nuke it?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Dad can drop some, Vic can toast it, the rest of us will do our bits and then we can all go home for tea, crumpets and medals.¡± ¡°I guess?¡± replied John. I don¡¯t have any custom rocks here. I¡¯ll have to rip chunks out of the surface.¡± ¡°Are you really worried about damaging the planet we¡¯ve been sent here to slag?¡± asked Vic, one eyebrow raised. Her face was hidden in her heavy outer armour but her tone made it clear an eyebrow had been elevated. ¡°Um-¡± John began but Bob cut him off. ¡°We should try and preserve the world if we can, so no really big rocks John. I¡¯ve got an idea you¡¯ll like but we need to at least keep the moon intact.¡± ¡°What the hell for?¡± grumbled Reg. ¡°There is no need to destroy unless we have to! I agree with the robot!¡± chimed in Felix. ¡°Robot!¡± echoed Felicity. ¡°What is on your mind tin-man?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a bloody- never mind. We can set up another portal. Drones can come through, probably some of Pete and Shelly¡¯s little pets as well. This could be a permanent extra-solar colony! Imagine the resources, the biological samples- hell even Void tech! We can¡¯t wreck up the place too much!¡± ¡°You would seek to benefit from the Dark? I am not sure I agree with that. We must fight for the light,¡± muttered Felicity. ¡°Know thy enemy, girl,¡± said Reg. ¡°So we can¡¯t blow up the moon to get this done quick. John, what¡¯re your magic eyes seeing?¡± John scowled but twisted his vision to see clearly. He narrowed his perception the the hundred or so miles in front of him and his scowl became a grimace. ¡°It¡¯s like an ant hive. Those surface structures-¡± he waved at the dark grey towers looming out of the arid plain, ¡°-are the tip of the iceberg. It¡¯s all one huge nest connected underground. There¡¯s bloody millions of the things crawling about under the surface. They won¡¯t go near the water for some reason, the nest starts about ten miles from the coast.¡± ¡°So we¡¯ve got a safe beachhead. Get a portal going and we¡¯ll set up proper comms with Earth and bring through some support drones,¡± Bob laughed, rubbing his metal hands together in anticipation of an entire world to exploit. Doris towered behind them, shoulder mounted cannons and launch tubes tracking slowly back and forth as Bob pulled data from John¡¯s senses. The sight was profoundly reassuring. There wasn¡¯t much outside of very high level enemies that could rush them. Having your back to the sea was great in a way but it also meant they had very few options if they did need to retreat. John reached out and twisted, ripping a hole in reality that linked Earth to this place, somewhere that wouldn¡¯t even be a glint in the sky from their homeworld. He glanced at his reserves as they quickly began to tick back up. Being on a new world, infested with an ancient enemy that has had centuries to dig in and being short on reserves left him feeling twitchier than usual. Spider-bots began pouring through the portal, laden down with crates and materials. Bob-prime began moving among the goods being delivered and soon fortified positions were being thrown up with automated weapons coming online and starting to join Doris in her constant vigilance.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°I¡¯ll send some clones to do some recon?¡± offered Sam. ¡°Thanks.¡± A column of B-1945s, outdated models since the tech Bob had stolen from Hagrutship had begun to be incorporated, peeled off and followed the fifty clones of Sam that appeared and began to spread out towards the inland. ¡°The air¡¯s good at least,¡± said Sam. ¡°Having clones suffocate in waves sucked.¡± Raoul reached out and rested a hand on her armoured shoulder for a moment. ¡°So can I get out of this suit and go big?¡± he rumbled. ¡°Sure. Just don¡¯t go stomping around yet,¡± muttered Bob. Raoul¡¯s armour cracked open down the right side and he awkwardly climbed out. As soon as he was clear the armour closed itself and moved over to stand guard by the portal. Raoul grew to half his maximum size, looking like a child next to their mother as he stood next to Doris. His armour and weapons appeared and he began glowering at the blank landscape as well. ¡°We¡¯ve got some movement,¡± called John. He could see slug-like creatures flowing through the subterranean tunnels towards the nearest towers. Some had already come up onto the surface and were fanning out to secure the exit points. ¡°The ones on the surface are only level tens so far. The odd one is a bit higher, up to fifteen but nothing we need to sweat about.¡± ¡°How many?¡± muttered Evie. She was a little nervous that her big hitter, the lightning barrage, would even work on this world. There were no clouds in the sky, either they¡¯d appeared on a remarkably nice day or the water cycle was a bit weird here. ¡°Too many to count. There¡¯s about ten thousand on the surface now.¡± John grumbled. ¡°I need to get some rocks in the air.¡± ¡°Nah, look up ye fecking eejit!¡± scoffed Reg. All eyes turned upwards. ¡°I can¡¯t drop a fucking gas giant on them!¡± ¡°Bloody Sassenach wanker,¡± Reg muttered. ¡°What¡¯s going around the planet above us, ye genius?¡± ¡°Rings? Isn¡¯t that just ice? I¡¯m pretty sure it isn¡¯t as closely packed as you¡¯d expect. It looks solid from a few million miles away but up close it¡¯s all spread out,¡± said Evie. ¡°Go check, Englishman. We¡¯re not going to be swarmed in the next few minutes are we?¡± Reg asked. John checked his reserves. He once again had a comfortable leeway. ¡°Ok. Be right back.¡± John vanished into the sky and moved close to the orbital ring in three quick blips. He stopped well back from the streams of frozen rock and ice so he could watch the stream flowing round the gas giant. He¡¯d never taken the time to blip out to Saturn when he¡¯d been back home but now he wished he had. The plant below occupied almost three quarters of his vision and he began marking points in the orbit where he would pick up the smaller particles flying round at the edge of the ring. He was slightly irritated that Reg hadn¡¯t been totally wrong but either way he now had a bunch of coordinates to use to open portals into the vacuum. He blipped back to his team and shrugged, armour clattering as the pauldrons moved. ¡°No good,¡± he said. ¡°Whut? Did ye even really look?¡± demanded Reg angrily. ¡°Yeah I looked. It should work. It¡¯ll be like turning on a frozen hose or something. I wouldn¡¯t want to be on the receiving end of it but it shouldn¡¯t fuck up the planet too much,¡± John laughed. ¡°My planet, thanks very much,¡± snapped Bob. ¡°Ok. Frozen hose the bastards then!¡± John opened a temporary portal linking the outer band of the rings to one he summoned above them and a few miles in land. He set it up so the ice and rocks flew in one side and erupted into the atmosphere from the side of the portal aimed at the distant towers. It turned out John and Reg had neglected one minor issue. The improvised projectiles retained their momentum. The same momentum that kept them in orbit above the massive gravity well of a gas giant. It was almost impossible to track them as they tore out and battered instantly into the land below them. John tracked the portal upwards, then panned it left and right. Where the beam of matter erupting from the portal hit the ground it flashed into dust and white hot flames. The clouds of steam and particles blasting into the sky like mushroom clouds, quickly obscuring the once clear sky. John snapped the portal shut and a heavy silence fell over the team. ¡°What part of don¡¯t destroy THE FUCKING PLANET WAS I NOT CLEAR ON?¡± screamed a B-3000. ¡°Oops?¡± said John as Vic and Evie began laughing. ¡°Don¡¯t worry love, it was a fixer-upper anyway,¡± Vic chuckled. ¡°It was Reg¡¯s fault, right?¡± Evie giggled. Reg turned to glower at her, forgetting that his face was hidden by his helm. ¡°It feckin¡¯ wasn¡¯t! Not my fault yon John is touched in the head!¡± he complained. ¡°John, can you please confirm how much of my planet you just nuked?¡± said Bob in a tight voice. John looked over the devastation he had accidentally wrought. The impacts had been significant, leaving half mile wide lines cut into the surface where he had tracked the death-beam. Underground structures had collapsed and anything on the surface had been vaporised across a fifty mile swath of the plains. Team Report: Void Creatures killed (various levels): 746310 Essence gained per kill: 0 Total Essence gained per team member: 0 ¡°Well I think I thinned the herd a bit. Kind of surprised I didn¡¯t get anything worth any Essence at all,¡± he muttered. ¡°No Essence for three quarter of a million kills? That¡¯s bullshit! What was that? Did you set the portal to only kill babies or something?¡± Evie complained. ¡°Um¡­ not deliberately?¡± said John. ¡°I don¡¯t think you can get a genocide award from the system for killing little ones, love. It won¡¯t be on your permanent record,¡± said Vic, patting John on the back with a clang. ¡°They are creatures of Darkness and we are on the side of the Light. We can do no evil here, do not trouble yourself with worry for the antithesis of life, Saint,¡± said Felix. ¡°Saint. Anything we do here is good,¡± added Felicity. ¡°I¡¯m not worried about having killed low level Void-things for god''s sake!¡± John snapped. ¡°Then what¡¯s the problem?¡± asked Flash. ¡°I can see their mum. She¡¯s fucking huge and looks really pissed off. I hope Doris and Raoul are up to this. I¡¯d probably kill the moon before I could take it down. Well boys and girls, time to face a level fifty two Void monster. I¡¯m sure it will be educational.¡± He began blipping chunks of rock from the ravaged world into the sky to let them build momentum. He missed his custom K.E.W.s from home already. Chapter 203 - The rest is mine ¡°I¡¯m bored,¡± Evie complained. It turned out a half mile long slug didn¡¯t move very quickly. ¡°We¡¯ve got a few more minutes. Bob, how close to being ready are you?¡± asked Vic. ¡°A few more minutes,¡± grumbled one of the few drones not rushing back and forth to complete the construction of their redoubt. Sloped walls had been thrown up by bots equipped with bulldozer rams and other bots had swarmed over them spraying some kind of polymer over the hasty ramparts that solidified into something harder than concrete in a few seconds. The team was now surrounded by a fortress that was bristling with ever more turrets as the bots hurriedly bolted them in place. Plasma weapons, lasers, good old fashioned rotary cannons and artillery were being installed at a pace that most humans would find dazzling. ¡°Arty is up, watch your ears!¡± called a passing spider drone as a deafening whump was unleashed as the first battery opened fire. Clouds of dust flew out around the guns as drones rushed to fetch more boxed ammunition from the Earth side of the portal. Another whump echoed out a second or so later. ¡°Automatic artillery?¡± asked Flash over the internal comms. ¡°Semi-automatic but pretty much,¡± Bob replied happily. ¡°Time to target is thirty seconds and the fire will be walked back to weaken the little ones escorting the momma.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll start bringing some rocks down. Vic, Evie, can you drop your big hitters? Reg hold fire on the black holes for now, we¡¯ll keep them in reserve. Anyone need a pee?¡± said John. ¡°Piss off John,¡± said Sam as waves of clones began rushing forwards, unleashing blazing blasts of energy from her eyes into the dust cloud sweeping towards the tiny enclave of humanity on this alien world. Booms echoed out, muted automatically by their armour, and new dust clouds billowed out, knocking the existing ones into whirlpools of smoke and fire. John had begun bringing down his big rocks. Not terribly big rocks by his current standards. They were only a hundred tons, not the thousands of ton rocks he could be dropping. He was trying not to accidentally wreck Bob¡¯s new toy, at least somewhat. He narrowed his ruby eyes and looked through the boiling miasma of dust and steam obscuring the first wave of the counter attack. The little ones serving as escorts were dying in droves as the giant slug undulated forwards. The big one itself was taking a beating. The last time they¡¯d fought a creature like this was the Shadeworm, way back before the signing of the Accords, but everyone on the team was considerably more powerful than they had been in that fight. John was quietly confident that while this wouldn¡¯t be easy it wouldn¡¯t be as life and death as the fight to retake London had felt. Then the slug did something unexpected. It dove down into the solid rock, carving a new tunnel hundreds of metres wide that went deep below the crust of Bob¡¯s World, as his egomaniacal friend was no doubt planning to name this planetoid. Once it was half a mile underground their aerial attacks were completely useless and the surviving escorts flowed down after it to avoid the slicing beams of light Sam was filling the air with. ¡°That¡¯s annoying. Fucker has to come up to get at us though. Let it come to us?¡± asked Flash. ¡°We should ferret the beast out of its den!¡± barked Felix. ¡°Den. Peace brother, we should be cautious here. This thing is a true Emissary of the Great Night and should not be underestimated,¡± countered Felicity. John blinked in shock. He¡¯d never heard the pair disagree about anything. They almost seemed to share a mind most of the time. ¡°I¡¯ll go have a look. As usual the noble canine must bravely go where humans fear to tread. You will be able to use your powers through me,¡± Zeeg scoffed. Doris began taking earth shaking strides to move beyond the boundary of their suddenly insignificant-seeming fortress. ¡°Raoul, need you outside the walls as well please,¡± Bob said. ¡°Ok. When you¡¯re fishing for giant slugs you need big bait and it¡¯s me and the old girl to the rescue!¡± laughed Raoul, growing to his full size and striding forward as well. He was still noticeably shorter than Bob¡¯s giant mech, something the older man turned drone swarm politely didn¡¯t mention, yet. Zeeg had sunk into the dirt and according to John¡¯s sense of her location she was running through the rock towards where the slug was expanding its underground complex by widening the tunnels and digging short side passages. John focused and could see it just melted the rock and dirt in its path to nothing. The matter simply ceased to exist like a human using an ability. ¡°Do we know if the Void monsters have abilities like us or are they more like monsters? You know, tough, hard to kill and maybe some kind of spitting attack or whatever but no real abilities like we got from the system?¡± he asked worriedly. ¡°Someone didn¡¯t read the briefing notes!¡± chuckled Vic from where she hovered above Doris¡¯ location a mile ahead of the fortress. ¡°Yes they do but they¡¯re different from ours. Tending towards destructive abilities and physical enhancement. They don¡¯t have many casters but the ones they do have are very, very powerful for their levels.¡± ¡°Most of them are bruisers but OP versus our kind of bruisers,¡± added Evie. ¡°Dad, I know you don¡¯t like paperwork but you should have read the shit we got from the Monarchs about the enemies we¡¯re likely to face,¡± she chided. ¡°They could have condensed into video form,¡± grumbled John, on this very rare occasion genuinely regretting his bad attitude to paperwork. ¡°Given it a rocking soundtrack and made it animated and stuff. Maybe have a big boobed lady do the narration¡­¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pretend I didn¡¯t hear that, husband,¡± said Vic cooly. John¡¯s wince was hidden by his armour.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°Perhaps those of you with remote powers would like to start using them through me?¡± came Zeeg¡¯s voice, much to John¡¯s relief. They all borrowed Zeeg¡¯s senses to examine the situation underground. The slug was deeply disturbing to look at up close. Zeeg was poking her head through the rock wall, above and to one side of where the slug was currently working to expand its new tunnel network. Lightning blasted out, followed by arcs of white fire and bars of black and gold power. The attacks slashed through the smaller slugs and other nightmares running along on multiple, articulated legs next to the big one. While the slug form predominated there were also weird winged things, with rows of feathery wings running down their backs as they scurried along on tentacle-legs. Others looked like armoured shellfish, the ones you might expect to see fossilised in museums. Strange trilobite and ammonite monsters made of slick shadow-stuff were interspersed with the mound-like slug forms. Arcs of electricity snapped from one to another leaving smoking ruin behind. Eldritch wails filled the air, a noise like nothing any of them had ever heard before. The fire following the lightning silenced most of the screams and the black and gold bars of power finished off the rest. In a matter of moments the only thing moving below them, other than the bubbling remains and acrid smoke was the giant slug. It emitted a series of babbling noises that sounded like crazed laughter, high pitched and repetitive, as it began slamming its body from side to side. The walls melted away wherever it touched them, soon widening the cave into a cavern that shook, chunks of rock falling to bounce off the things back. Name: Void Symbiote (Heftiul Gargant) Level: 53 Ability: Void Guardian John reached into the rock above the creature and blipped a millimetre thick sheet away causing a two metre thick section of the ceiling to collapse. The rock passed through Zeeg¡¯s face causing her to flinch back into the stone she was using for cover. When she peaked back out they all saw the tons of stone vanish where it landed on the beast''s back. ¡°It¡¯s being selective. Pebbles bounce off, big rocks get absorbed or banished or whatever it¡¯s doing with them,¡± said Flash. He and Evie were throwing out fields of force to either slice into the thing or drive it back towards the surface. Its face was a mass of squid-arms, reminding John of a Shrell¡¯s lower half, many of which were now smoking on the ground after the slicing attacks had focussed on the appendages. ¡°Can we blind it?¡± asked Felix his power slashed down the symbiotes'' flanks leaving shallow grooves that began to bubble. A beam of gold followed after digging deeper and causing the bubbles to burst and shower the rocks with dark grey ichor. ¡°It doesn¡¯t have fecking eyes ye wally!¡± grumbled Reg. ¡°So it¡¯s relying on vibrations or something? John, drop some rocks behind it!¡± suggested Flash. John didn¡¯t see how it could hurt so he brought down some big sections of roof behind it. The thing spun, surprisingly nimble, and undulated towards the impacts. ¡°What we need is a lure. Like a thumper to bring up a sandworm," said John. ¡°Get Doris to do a jig! Go all Riverdance!¡± suggested Evie with a laugh. ¡°She¡¯s not a bloody dancing monkey-mech,¡± grumbled Bob but Doris began stomping her feet back and forth, gradually shuffling towards the entrance to the tunnel the symbiote had created. ¡°Hey, I can get in on this action!¡± boomed Raoul. He began to do a parody of a Flamenco dance across the dusty plains, gradually fading into the still roiling clouds of dirt and steam. ¡°Love, can you get some clones over here to deal with the little ones? I think they¡¯re regrouping or something!¡± he called as he noticed his feet smashing things gliding across the surface. They were only a few centimetres tall but covered a few metres each. As they started dying the rest rushed forwards and began undulating up Doris and Raoul¡¯s bodies, coating them in a thin film of darkness. ¡°Christ! A little help here?¡± Raoul yelled as he began swiping at the cloying film now covering him up to the knees. ¡°This shit hurts!¡± Vic flew down and began bathing the mech and the titan in fire, making sure to keep the heat below the belt. Raoul squawked and began patting at his now smoking legs but Doris continued her shuffling dance. ¡°I think it¡¯s working? The thing is moving back into the main tunnel. John be ready with the comet blaster,¡± said Bob. ¡°The what?¡± ¡°The portal to the ice ring! When it sticks its head up I want you to blast it as the rest of us move in!¡± ¡°Didn¡¯t you just bollock me for using that thing?¡± John asked as he prepared to rip open another tear in reality. ¡°Just try and keep it focussed on the big bloody slug this time. Don¡¯t wreck my real estate,¡± Bob snapped. ¡°Um, as shareholders in BME, surely it¡¯s our real estate?¡± asked Flash. ¡°We accept part ownership on behalf of the Church,¡± Felix and Felicity said simultaneously. ¡°What? Can we focus on dealing with the giant fucking slug and discuss property rights when we¡¯re done?¡± Bob demanded. ¡°Sure, sure. Just so you know we have a stake here,¡± muttered Evie as she prepared to unleash a lightning barrage on the symbiote as it broke out from below the ground. As soon as it crested the surface it made a very slow beeline towards Doris. Raoul hurled his spear and charged forward with his shield and sword. The sky cracked, fire and lightning falling on it eliciting a faint screech. Then came the black hole. Reg put it directly ahead of the creature and cackled like a loon as its undulating motion fed a long section of itself into the maw of the infinite. John opened a much smaller portal and a torrent of shards of ice and rock pelted down at orbital speeds, slicing into the Void creatures back where it was emerging from the tunnel. Flash charged forward, crossing the intervening mile in a matter of seconds and ran up its side, hurling spears of force into it and using them as stepping stones. As soon as he reached the top he began creating discs of force that sliced chunks away from it as he began hacking away with a pair of conjured blades. The twins walked through the sky on black and gold platforms until they were high enough up to begin weaving nets of ebony and golden threads that sliced into the monster and began cutting off pieces like a cheese grater passing across the Void Symbiotes outer layers. The fighting continued for a couple of minutes. More bolts fell from the sky, torrents of flame washed out to bathe the writhing alien in burning pain. Rocks fell, in addition to the ice cannon coming from the ice ring of the gas giant, some of which were absorbed or disappeared. As time went on it was clear the creature was running low on whatever the equivalent of reserves was for the Void. More and more began to slam home, blasting divots out of the thing. Eventually the thrashing began to die down and its efforts to attack Doris and Raoul became feeble. Both of the human¡¯s giant combatants were coated in dark grey gore and were starting to look like mobile statues as the ichor dripped down their bodies. As the thing finally spasmed and died the group sighed, their shoulders slumping in exhausted relief. Raoul shrunk back down to a more modest height and the guns lining the fortress fell silent. He leaned on his spear and blew out a cloud of foul smelling gore that had gotten inside his barbute during the fight. ¡°Well they don¡¯t bloody smell nice,¡± he complained, removing his helm and shaking it out. He glanced longingly at the purple waters and began trudging towards the shore to start washing off some of his gear. ¡°Just unsummon it and then call up another one,¡± called Sam as her clones began to dissolve. ¡°Oh right.¡± The helm vanished and reappeared in pristine condition. ¡°I¡¯ll have to figure out a way to do that mid fight,¡± the titan muttered. ¡°So back to property rights?¡± said Evie brightly. ¡°Sure. You can have this chunk,¡± laughed Bob as a drone waved a limb at the ruined landscape around them. ¡°The rest is mine.¡± Chapter 204 - I am not sure you earned that privilege [Book 4 stubs soon] For two weeks they had slaughtered their way across the plains. Constant streams of low level enemies had poured out of the underground structures, throwing themselves into the fray with suicidal abandon. Occasionally a larger beast would surface but nothing to match the level fifty three they¡¯d put down on their first day. A network of maglev trains had been built to link a series of forward positions. Each of them was heavily fortified and staffed by swarms of drones. They had cleared most of the lowlands and were now looking up at the hills that had been a smudge on the horizon before. ¡°That¡¯s a lot of broken architecture. Why would slugs have built so many housey-things?¡± asked Evie. ¡°They¡¯re towers, not dissimilar to the ones the Void-slugs have built. Different colour though,¡± said Flash. The hills were constructed of broken towers, similar to the ones the team had been wrecking as they advanced across the flatlands. They had been scraped across the surface and piled upwards. John could see the convoluted structure, composed of decomposing buildings, had been scraped together. The landscape around the hills was covered in long sweeping grooves where some overgrown bulldozer, that had probably resembled a giant slug, had swept the now sandy plains clean. John glanced through the rubble. Deep below the central hill a huge chamber had been built. It almost looked like the jills had been built to provide a bulwark against airborne or orbital attacks. There was no chance he could get at the thing lurking below with his rocks-from-god tactic. On the far side of the hills the ground fell away into the ocean. It ended in colossal cliffs that ran for hundreds of miles in either direction and fell for nearly half a mile to the purple waves. The underground tunnels maintained their aversion to the sea water and stopped dead at least two miles from the coast. ¡°Well. It¡¯s not a big bastard at least,¡± he offered with a faint note of optimism. ¡°What level?¡± asked Reg grumpily. ¡°No idea. I can¡¯t identify stuff through stuff mate.¡± ¡°Have to assume it¡¯s higher than anything else we¡¯ve bumped into. Any little ones?¡± asked Vic. ¡°A few but again not many. I think they¡¯ve thrown everything they had at us,¡± said John thoughtfully. ¡°What¡¯s on your mind, Saint?¡± asked Felicity. ¡°It feels too straightforward. We¡¯ve got to be missing something.¡± ¡°The other continents are uninhabited. They aren¡¯t even really continents, just archipelagos and the odd larger island,¡± said Bob. ¡°I think these guys don¡¯t like the water.¡± ¡°So how do we do this?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Let''s just kill the bastard and move on. Leave the portal open and the extra drones can set up our holiday homes or whatever we¡¯re going to use this place for!¡± ¡°Sea life here is interesting. I¡¯ve sent some samples back to Pete and he¡¯s interested in more. Same with the Void beasts. His new pet monsters are getting pretty evil looking. This is also a great place to set up industrial plants that won¡¯t be attacked when the Void gets to Earth,¡± said Bob. ¡°Aren¡¯t Mars and the moon already in that category though?¡± asked Sam. Raoul nodded in agreement, his wider family had been relocated to Mars when the Carnival left Earth all those months ago. According to Bob, Ryn and the others passing messages through the portal over four years had now passed back home and they were nowhere near having enough Essence to jump past the Monarchs. ¡°We don¡¯t know if they¡¯ll hit off-planet sites. Mars and the moon bases are pretty well hidden, half a mile underground, but the bastards will have space ships of some sort and we don¡¯t know what their tech is capable of.¡± ¡°So do you think the Void has ships like Kipragtsek?¡± wondered Evie. ¡°We don¡¯t know. The voidliners just seem to dump us out or make us teleport off ourselves. We haven¡¯t seen any orbit to ground vehicles on board. Have we?¡± Flash turned to look at John. ¡°The bloody ship is full of weird shit I don¡¯t recognise but I haven¡¯t seen anything that looks like a dropship to me,¡± John confirmed. ¡°What are we going to do about the Thing Beneath the Ground?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°Go in kill the fucker,¡± muttered Reg. ¡°Thanks Captain Obvious. How exactly are we going to go about doing that?¡± Raoul countered. ¡°Send the wee puppy in then yon Sassenach can blip us in. We kick it¡¯s arse into the next life. Bob¡¯s yer uncle. No offence Bob. Your lack of genitalia sometimes slips my mind,¡± Reg snorted. ¡°So most of the time you¡¯re consciously thinking about his genitals or lack thereof?¡± asked Evie. ¡°I¡¯ve got more balls than any male present. Across various bodies. Can we leave my bio-bits out of this discussion? This is serious! We can¡¯t just penetrate the unknown, genitals or not.¡± Evie snorted and Raoul¡¯s shoulders began to shake.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Sod off. Maybe sending the dog in is a good idea?¡± Bob offered. ¡°The same old tale of human arrogance. Am I disposable to you? I lack male genitals as well, is it something to do with that?¡± the dog demanded. ¡°No girl! You¡¯re just usually the best choice when it comes to probing the unknown,¡± said John. Evie¡¯s shoulders began to shake as well. ¡°Why not just bombard it? Might take a while but you¡¯ll dig down to it sooner or later,¡± said Felix. ¡°Sooner or later,¡± agreed Felicity with a nod. ¡°It¡¯s too deep and the hills will just compact as they get smashed. They''ll end up forming another layer of armour over the top,¡± said John, shaking his head. ¡°That-¡± he waved a hand at the towering landscape, ¡°-is all chunks of towers like the ones we battered over the last couple of weeks. It will pancake down for months before we start chipping away at it.¡± ¡°Scoop it out with portals?¡± suggested Flash. ¡°I can¡¯t move the portals. We¡¯d need to shovel the stuff through. Nah, we¡¯re going to have to go in and do this one manually.¡± ¡°Why not flood them out?¡± asked Zeeg. All heads turned to lock onto the dog. ¡°We don¡¯t have that much water. This place is tectonically dead so there¡¯s no volcanoes. What can we flood it out with? Our tears of frustration?¡± asked Evie. ¡°No, sister. It amazes me that humans managed to luck into opposable thumbs. I am not sure you earned that privilege. We are surrounded by a vast swath of water that is apparently filled with something that the void creatures do not like. Why not use that?¡± replied Zeeg primly. ¡°Huh. Good point girl.¡± John carefully brought his armoured gauntlet down to ruffle the giant dog''s ears. Her tail wagged happily. ¡°Hey, do you think it will work on all Void creatures? Have we just found a superweapon for the invasion? It¡¯ll be like Day of the Triffids but with alien seawater!¡± said Sam brightly, miming aiming a fire hose in front of her. ¡°It¡¯s worth investigating,¡± said Bob thoughtfully. ¡°John, think you can flood this thing out?¡± John checked through the tunnel network and the confused rubble piled above it. ¡°If I let the water pour over the highest hill it should filter through fairly quickly. The whole structure is riddled with fissures, it¡¯s like a giant sponge.¡± ¡°So it¡¯ll absorb it all?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°No dude, it¡¯ll drip through. Imagine a giant sponge made of non absorbent alien coral perched on a massive ant hill,¡± said John. ¡°That makes more sense,¡± nodded the big guy. ¡°Seems like it¡¯s worth trying?¡± asked Vic. ¡°What if it ends up flooded and we need to go in afterwards and fight underwater?¡± asked Sam. ¡°Underwater combat isn¡¯t fun.¡± We can deal with that when we get to it. John can always open a new portal to drain the place,¡± said Flash. ¡°Only if a certain brave canine goes down to give him line of sight,¡± grumbled Zeeg as she lay down and rolled over to beg for tummy rubs. Evie went over and obliged the demanding dog. ¡°I can see it from here. You won¡¯t need to get wet,¡± John reassured her. ¡°So we try the drowning option?¡± asked Bob. A round of agreement followed. ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll go diving and find a good spot to pull the water from,¡± said John in a resigned voice. ¡°Can¡¯t you just use your fancy red eyes?¡± asked Evie. ¡°I¡¯ll appreciate the peace for a few minutes,¡± John replied as he vanished. He moved down into the depths via a series of blips. As the light faded he instinctively reached out with his mind to switch his helmet''s vision spectrum to low light but realised it was a waste of time. Bob hadn¡¯t even built that functionality into his latest armour so he just squinted and flexed some unknown muscles to adapt the weird vision Magic had ¡°gifted¡± him. The sea shimmered around him, currents trying to drag him down. His armour weighed over a ton but he fell through the depths faster than he thought he should have done. Strange jellyfish-like blobs or life drifted past, a few coming over to investigate him. They drifted down around him as he fell deeper until the water became too cold or the pressure too much and then they darted towards the surface on squirts of pressure from beneath their skirts. John was scanning around religiously. The deeps tend to be relatively uninhabited, at least on Earth, but the things that do live down there tend to be impressive. Visions of giant squids and sperm whales kept flashing through his mind as the surface grew ever more distant. The depths were quiet, the only sound was the echo of his breathing in the confines of his helmet. Fortunately his armour was rated for much higher pressure than he was being subjected to and he didn¡¯t have to experience the creaks and rumbles of contracting metal. There was no natural light at this depth but he could still see perfectly. He took an executive decision that this was deep enough, the pressure would force the water through sufficiently quickly that the network of tunnels a mile above him wouldn¡¯t take too long to fill. He blipped back to the surface, appearing next to the team and shaking off the excess water that had come with him. ¡°That¡¯s weird,¡± said Vic. ¡°You¡¯ve seen me teleport enough that I¡¯m assuming that¡¯s not it?¡± asked John. Evie, standing next to Vic pointed down at the ground where the splashes were fluorescing a virulent pink where they had landed on the dirt. ¡°Huh. Weird. Shall we crack out a barbeque or something while we wait? I call dibs on working the grill!¡± asked John as a portal appeared in the distance and began gushing purple water onto the tallest of the hills. ¡°That¡¯s pretty!¡± said Sam. ¡°Reminds me of that scene at the end of Voyager into the Black Hole!¡± The team turned and watched as the water hitting the hill was also glowing pink as it cascaded down the side of the crushed masonry. The torrent continued and the wave began falling behind the lower peaks. John checked and it was soaking through, gradually filling the cracks and tunnels. ¡°We might be here a while,¡± he muttered. ¡°Open a couple more?¡± suggested Flash. John did so, spacing the portals out so three purple waterfalls fell separately before they flashed to pink and began to roll down the hill. ¡°Yeah, that should do it,¡± he confirmed. ¡°Now, barbeque time?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve got some food left over from last night. No need to cook. You can bring it over if you want though,¡± said Evie. ¡°I could go for a bite.¡± An array of cooked meats and vegetables appeared in pots on the ground. ¡°Love, any chance you could¡­¡± John waved a hand at the pots. ¡°Do you need me to clean them afterwards as well?¡± laughed Vic as flames sprang up around the base of the pots. Once they were steaming happily in the chill air the team cracked their helmets and slipped off their gauntlets to grab bowls and spoons. ¡°This ish nishe!¡± rumbled Raoul, awkwardly working around his breastplate to bring the spoon to his mouth. The ground rumbled and they all glanced around. ¡°That washn¡¯t me!¡± Raoul coughed as he hurriedly swallowed. ¡°I wasn¡¯t responsible for that!¡± he reiterated. ¡°What the hell was it? This place has zero tectonic activity,¡± said Sam. ¡°Right? That is what you said Bob!¡± ¡°It was and it¡¯s still true. John?¡± ¡°Hmm?¡± asked John, glancing up from the bowl he was holding at a strange angle to try and see into it around his bulky armour while he scraped out the last of the meal. ¡°What can you see?¡± demanded Felix. ¡°See!¡± echoed Felicity urgently. John glanced around as he licked the spoon clean before blipping it back to their last base of operations fifty miles away. ¡°Crap!¡± John blipped the whole team back to their previous base in less than a second. ¡°Take cover!¡± Chapter 205 - They sent children to kill me? [book 4 stubs soon] Taking cover wasn¡¯t really an option. The ground shook and threw them all off their feet. Even Doris had to drop to one knee and plant her spear deep into the dirt to stabilise herself as the world shook. ¡°We weren''t meant to be blowing up the world!¡± complained Bob over the comm link. The distant hills exploded, hurling megatons of matter into the sky, completely obscuring the gas giant that hung low on the horizon. ¡°Shields!¡± called Flash. He and Evie threw up their strongest barriers in a series of shells to protect the team from the rapidly approaching dust cloud that moved across the surface like pyroclastic flow. ¡°Up top as well!¡± called Raoul who had shrunk down to a mere four metres and was struggling into his power armour despite the still shaking ground. Sam threw up a concrete and steel dome that while illusory still echoed as debris began to fall from the sky. Evie and Flash shifted their shields to cover directly above them as well. The twins held hands and black and gold power spread out to form yet another shell surrounding the team. Soon all vision was lost, except to John, as the dust and debris rained down on their little bubble of life. The shields heaved and sank deeper into the ground. The narrow gap, only a few metres, gradually creeping closer to the teams heads. Evie and Flash were both cursing but Zeeg was wandering in and out of the barrier and provided a running commentary on how many metres of dirt were building up above them. John had long since lost his irrational fear of heights but claustrophobia was something he hadn¡¯t really had to deal with. That worm of fear began inching through his guts and he forcefully reminded himself he could blip everyone out if he needed to. Zeeg wasn¡¯t exaggerating, although her blas¨¦ attitude to their unexpected burial wasn¡¯t helping the nerves of people who couldn¡¯t teleport. ¡°Most of it has stopped now. I think," said Zeeg happily. ¡°It¡¯s a good twenty metres deep. I¡¯m pretty sure you don¡¯t need the shields. It¡¯s formed its own structure and should hold up if you stop using your powers.¡± It had been a long half hour as the thuds of falling debris became more and more distant above them. ¡°I think I¡¯ll keep the shield up until we teleport out,¡± muttered Evie. ¡°Is it safe to go back onto the surface?¡± ¡°Yeah. Everything got trashed. Shit, even the first base I built is in ribbons!¡± Bob complained. ¡°It seems like it¡¯s pretty much safe now though. John, if you¡¯d like to do the honours?¡± John blipped himself into the now clouded sky. When he''d used the ice cannon the dust had blocked the sky for a few hours until it was whipped out into streamers by the high altitude winds. Now the sky was black and grey clouds stretching from horizon to horizon. He brought the others out at the first base, near the portal. ¡°Bloody hell. How long are the clouds going to last?¡± asked Evie. The sight of the looming gas giant had become both familiar and reassuring to the team over the last few weeks. At first it had been disconcerting, a constant reminder of how small they were, how insignificant Earth was in comparison to that giant world. It had gradually shifted to become a reassuring beauty that made this new world less bleak and desolate than it truly was. Now that was gone, replaced with roiling black and grey clouds. ¡°It¡¯s a bit like being back in Yorkshire now. Constant clouds!¡± she finished with faux-cheerfulness. ¡°It¡¯s going to take months or years to clear. I¡¯ve been building some satellites to go up around Bob-World-One but it wasn¡¯t a big priority while we were clearing out the Void critters,¡± said Bob. ¡°Dad it might be worth going to check on the slug we salted,¡± said Evie. ¡°Why? It¡¯s got to be dead!¡± said Felix. ¡°Dead!¡± affirmed Felicity. ¡°No team report. Either we didn¡¯t get credit or¡­¡± said Sam as she caught on to Evie¡¯s point. ¡°Ah crap. We just devastated the world!¡± said John. ¡°Yeah and we specifically weren¡¯t meant to do that!¡± grumbled Bob. John ignored him. ¡°How can it still be alive?¡± John finished. ¡°Might be some kind of ability or power. Might be that we didn¡¯t get credit because we salt-bathed it to death. We need to be sure though,¡± said Vic. ¡°Run along Mr. Teleporter!¡± she laughed as she slapped him on the butt, shoving him forwards. With a grumble John vanished. He appeared a good kilometre up, below the new cloud layer by a good margin but as he moved towards the site of the detonation the air became even more clogged with debris. He stopped when the roar of the dust around him was echoing through his armour and looked down. He was still nowhere near vertically over the crater so had to look through the sides. The crater was huge. A couple of miles across and that was only because the surrounding hills that hadn¡¯t been launched into orbit had subsided and filled most of the hole back in. He narrowed his eyes and focused. Below the crater floor, strewn with jagged rock and smooth sections where the dirt had formed a flood, something still lived.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. It was the same size as before, tiny in comparison to the other high level Void beasts they¡¯d slain over the last few weeks, and it was moving feebly. Whatever it had done had vapourised the water. With a start he noticed he had closed the temporary portals instinctively when he had fled with the team. He hadn¡¯t intended to do that but perhaps it was for the best. The beast was only under a few dozen metres of rubble at this point. John began blipping away the rubble. He tried to be careful but every layer he blipped away caused a new land slide. The primary Void monster became increasingly distressed, squirming and wriggling desperately, as it tried to wriggle away from the rumbles and sliding sounds above it. It took a few minutes but eventually he had cleared the rubble enough to get a proper look at the thing, unobstructed by debris and crushed dirt. It was a few metres long, a pale white slug that began to heave itself onto the surface. Name: Void Overlord Level: 92 Ability: Planetary Management Huh. That¡¯s a lot of levels. As he contemplated the thing from a few miles away it pivoted and pointed itself straight at him. So you¡¯re the executioner they¡¯ve sent to end me? The voice appeared in his mind. It slithered in. There was something distinctly serpentine or¡­ slimy to it. He began transferring his sensory feed to Bob directly so they¡¯d have a record of the first time they spoke to the Void. ¡°I am. It¡¯s not the first time I¡¯ve done this kind of job,¡± he replied aloud. He didn¡¯t boost his volume or transmit it across the speakers built into his suit. He just understood that the thing would hear him. It settled down, almost collapsing and seeming to deflate, before it continued. A noble crusader, fighting for your world. The voice was androgynous and this time there was a definite sneer to the tone. ¡°A man¡¯s got to do what a man¡¯s got to do. You¡¯re invading my world and we need to get strong enough to stop what happened here happening there.¡± A man? Can a slave ever be a man? ¡°I¡¯m hardly a slave!¡± John scoffed. Oh they threw some power at you so you¡¯re free? Pfft. ¡°They came to us because you- you¡¯re side- is planning to invade us.¡± So they told you. I won¡¯t last much longer. The water¡­ ¡°The salt?¡± Hah, such stupid creatures! There is a microbe in the water that is rapacious when it encounters Heftiul biology. It robs us of our minds. Ah, you have a similar concept: zombies? John wasn¡¯t terribly happy this thing was rummaging around in his brain. Hah. You fear what you do not understand. You don¡¯t even know how little you understand. I suppose it¡¯s the only thing that allows you to function. Is there such a thing as a just war? ¡°I¡¯m not here to argue philosophy with you.¡± Then kill me now and claim your Essence! Or don¡¯t and listen. I find I no longer care. I am numb to the pain and soon my mind will have been consumed. I wasn¡¯t able to avoid infection. Its mental voice became bitter towards the end. Bob and the team were spamming him with messages, suggesting things to ask about or in the case of the twins, telling him to kill it quickly. ¡°There is such a thing as a just war. Good and evil are in all of us and sometimes the evil wins out. When that happens on a societal level they become a threat and need to be fought, whatever the cost.¡± They sent children to kill me? I am offended. Can you define evil, little human? ¡°Ugh, not very well. But I know it when I see it!¡± So it¡¯s something you perceive? Could another not perceive it differently? You¡¯ve killed all my children, how do you think I see you, morally speaking? Who is the arbiter of good and evil? ¡°Shit I don¡¯t know! God?¡± Hahahaha! The wheezing laughter echoed in John¡¯s mind. You¡¯ve met your god and my own! The gold and the black, remember? When you ¡°died¡±? ¡°I don¡¯t think those were gods,¡± John replied. The twins began screaming in his ear and he muted his comm link. ¡°I think they were once like us. Like you and me.¡± Perhaps you are not as lost as you seem. You love your species? If you do find a way to escape the trap the ¡°gods¡± have put you in I would be surprised. Now I''m tired. End me, if you want the Essence. That¡¯s why you¡¯re here, after all, little mercenary. ¡°Kill it John. It¡¯s fading fast,¡± sent Bob. John remembered the beauty of the ice rings orbiting the gas giant. It seemed only fair to reunite this thing with a sight it would never have again. He opened a portal and a blast of ice and rock shot down into the crater. The Overlord withstood the blast. It was dug deeper and deeper into the dirt as the bombardment pushed it into newly loosened soil. John summoned half a dozen hundred ton slabs of rock and let them fall. He brought them down in quick succession, barely a fraction of a second between each impact and a new cloud of dust shot out of the crate, reaching up to try and connect with the omnipresent clouds above. Team Report: Void Overlord (Level 92) killed: 1. Essence per kill: 19740274219166800000 Essence Gained per team Member: 19740274219166800000 ¡°Holy Mother of God!¡± exclaimed Evie. ¡°How many levels is that?¡± ¡°Enough to get to ninety two. Maybe a bit more with what we got from the Captain and the other void-things but probably not. Don¡¯t level up yet! We¡¯ll level just before we get back to Earth, otherwise we¡¯ll get totally fucked on the mission levels!¡± snapped Bob quickly. ¡°Can we just head home now? We¡¯re way past the bloody Monarchs!¡± said Sam excitedly. ¡°How do we do that love?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°Ask the Lord Captain to detour and drop us off?¡± ¡°We could ask?¡± Sam said hopefully. ¡°It was just an administrator. It was weak,¡± muttered John. ¡°Like Anna and the Cogitator, Christ, I can¡¯t even remember his name! Like them. Bugger all combat ability.¡± ¡°That was for the best,¡± said Felix coldly, still annoyed about John¡¯s blasphemy. ¡°Perhaps in the future we should allow people with stronger faith to speak to our enemies?¡± ¡°Enemies!¡± snarled Felicity. ¡°I¡¯m not so sure who the real enemies are,¡± said John. ¡°John, We¡¯ve completed this mission. We¡¯ve got enough Essence to make a huge difference when we get home and thankfully none of us have died so far. Let¡¯s not make things more difficult than they have to be?¡± Vic asked softly. ¡°We¡¯ve got a daughter to get home to. People we need to protect. Let¡¯s play the game for now?¡± ¡°Sure. Looks like we¡¯re stuck here until the Kipragtsek decides to pick us up. We might as well make ourselves comfortable for now,¡± John said. ¡°You mean now you¡¯ve trashed the bloody place?¡± Bob complained. ¡°I really liked that view!¡± ¡°You were on board with the ¡®drown the bastard¡¯ plan as well you grumpy git!¡± laughed Evie. ¡°How long is it going to take you to set up some kind of resort? I¡¯d like to go swimming!¡± ¡°The temperature¡¯s going to drop. You might have been able to do some skiing but we blew up all the hills as well,¡± Bob muttered. Chapter 206 - Understand the impossible [book 4 stubs soon] Over the next few months the skies of BW-1 began to clear. At first just brief glimpses of the gas giant, or hazy outlines through the dust, could be seen. The rains had come and washed away a lot of the dust revealing the hard stone. John walked through the Garden, running a hand across the transplanted vegetation that was finally beginning to thrive. ¡°So how long until the greenery expands?¡± he asked quietly. Bob, in one of his biological bodies, turned and grinned. ¡°Turns out the slug-nuke winter won¡¯t be as bad as we thought. Another few months and the sky should be largely free of dust. We¡¯ll still need to use the low-light mutants, regular Earth fauna won¡¯t survive here.¡± ¡°And the temperature?¡± The world had been kept warm via some oddity of its core interacting with the vast magnetic field of the gas giant. Trapping it in constant moist clouds had paradoxically resulted in a temperature increase rather than decrease as less heat was lost to space. ¡°It will go back to normal once the clouds clear. About the same as a chilly autumn day in England so no beach side fun times but once we''ve greened the place it will be good for wilderness walks,¡± said Bob. ¡°We¡¯ll need to introduce animal life as well. Might have to get the Dragon to do his ¡®make a new species¡¯ trick to give us a chance of a stable population. ¡°I¡¯m pretty sure his sister will kill him if he plays with that power again!¡± laughed John, remembering the slight woman taking an eighty metre long dragon to task in no uncertain tones. ¡°Maybe. Claire is busy at the moment. She¡¯s our primary diplomat with the aliens we sent back last year.¡± ¡°Hard to understand how this time thing is working. Ryn is nearly eighteen now! Are the gifts safe?¡± John had sent a collection of beautiful stones and shells that he, Evie and Vic had gathered as they explored the strange shores of this alien world back as a birthday gift for his youngest¡¯s upcoming celebration. ¡°Yep. After Pete got done going over them for biological samples. He¡¯s sealed himself away to research the Void samples we sent him. He wants to fight fire with fire when the invasion arrives.¡± ¡°Huh, dunno if that¡¯s going to work. Won¡¯t Void things just switch sides?¡± ¡°Shelly is partly based on Void biotech. So are a lot of her fighting drones. We¡¯d better hope that doesn¡¯t happen. The main problem is that prick in the US!¡± ¡°Belisarius? I thought Liberty was going to deal with him.¡± ¡°She bloody was,¡± Bob grumbled. ¡°But she decided to give him a chance or some shit! The bastard needs putting down, Ryn got all the proof we needed that he was working with the Cullers.¡± ¡°Not much we can do from here,¡± John growled, clenching a fist in frustration. ¡°When the ship gets back¡­ We need to head to Earth. We¡¯ve got enough Essence to deal with all the shit going on back there.¡± The reports Bob was running back and forth had revealed that Death and Magic had become increasingly reclusive, their territories ruled with iron fists and brutal repression. What was worse was that Life, Liberty and Frost were taking a hands off approach and chaos was erupting across Europe, North and South America. ¡°Wayfaire is still ok?¡± ¡°For various values of ok, I suppose. They¡¯re not as badly off as the Beastfolk or the Court. The Reich is holding it together but roving warlords have become a major issue across the central stretch of Europe, from Poland to the steppes; it¡¯s a warzone and Life isn¡¯t able to react quickly enough to put them down. War is doing his best but he¡¯s only one man.¡± ¡°We need to get back. Has Fashtaal answered you?¡± John had asked Bob to reach out to the reptile overseer of Earth, hoping for a way to speed up their return. ¡°No. He doesn¡¯t fancy me like he does you,¡± Bob smirked at the scowl that crossed John¡¯s face. ¡°We¡¯re just going to have to go with the program.¡± ¡°We¡¯re going further and further away from where we need to be. Two years on Earth and everything has changed. Only a few months for us! Bob-¡± ¡°Don¡¯t John. Don¡¯t even think what I reckon is on your mind. We stick with the program until we¡¯re sure we can make any other options work. The twins would bloody kill you if you did¡­ that thing we won¡¯t even talk about.¡± John growled and paced deeper into the greenery. The large fronds of the ferns and the waving stalks of the grasses helped calm him somewhat but a core of frustration had been growing. He heard tinkling water and familiar voices coming through the foliage so he steered in that direction. He pushed aside a particularly florid fern to find a picnic taking place. Evie, Vic, Sam and Felicity were all sitting on blankets, passing round food and drinks.Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. ¡°Hey! No boys allowed!¡± Vic scowled at him before smiling and moving over to let him sit down next to her. ¡°Oy!¡± she swatted at his hand as he helped himself to a sandwich from her plate. ¡°So this is what girls get up to when left to their own devices?¡± he asked around a mouthful. ¡°You wish. This is tame!¡± laughed Sam. ¡°What brings you to our little gathering, Captain Grumpy?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not grumpy, just¡­ restless,¡± John fidgeted and leant back against a rock behind him. ¡°We should try and go home.¡± ¡°The journey will take as long as the Light wills it to, John,¡± said Felicity. Since his ¡°blasphemy¡± neither of the twins had referred to him as Saint. ¡°Dad¡¯s right, Liss,¡± said Evie as she reached out to a bottle of wine and refilled her glass. She offered it round and John accepted a cup of the sweet white wine. He grimaced after his first sip but continued to drink the sickly stuff. ¡°As soon as we level we¡¯re bloody god- er- we¡¯re very powerful!¡± Evie corrected herself about any use of the G word around the sensitive woman. ¡°Well there¡¯s bugger all we can do about it. The Kipragtsek train has no brakes. It¡¯s a one way trip,¡± said Sam. ¡°Not one way! That sounds terminal! More of a circular route,¡± offered Vic. ¡°Nothing we can do until they pick us up again anyway,¡± complained John. ¡°There is nothing we can do when they pick us up, either,¡± said Felicity firmly. ¡°It must be an unusual route these ships take.¡± ¡°How so?¡± asked Vic as she leaned back and rested her head on John''s arm which snaked out to rest over her shoulders. ¡°We have been dropped off and left alone for months, twice now. Yet collected by the same vessel. It must follow a general route and move back and forth for each deployment, otherwise we¡¯d have been picked up by another vessel,¡± Felicity replied. John found it refreshing not having the last words of her sentences echoed by her brother. Apart they were far easier to tolerate. ¡°That¡¯s a good point. So it¡¯s currently zipping off to drop off or grab other teams and that¡¯s the delay?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just parked up to let us sweat,¡± John suggested darkly. ¡°Maybe it¡¯s pissed at us.¡± ¡°It?¡± asked Vic, craning her head back to look up at him. ¡°The system. It might not like that I had a chat with a Void commander.¡± ¡°It might not like the fact that you-¡± Felicity began. ¡°I¡¯m sure that¡¯s not the problem. How many teams were on the ship?¡± Vic interrupted before Felicity launched into another rant about John¡¯s bad judgement. ¡°Dozens. Maybe a couple of hundred. They came and went without us dropping back into real space, now that I think about it. The only times I could stand to look outside the ship was when we got dropped off,¡± said John. ¡°Only the relevant hold gets access back to real space and the ship itself is always outside reality?¡± suggested Sam, helping herself to a teacake. ¡°That would rip the whole ship apart?¡± argued Vic. ¡°Nothing is impossible with the Light,¡± said Felicity. ¡°Maybe that¡¯s right. Might be some kind of ability in the Shrell? Or the tech?¡± said John. ¡°If it¡¯s the tech Bob will ferret it out once he finishes going through the downloads he stole from the Hagrutship. I¡¯d put money on it being a power though,¡± said Evie quietly. Team Report: Pacify MW-537. Remove Void infestation complete. Collection in four time units. ¡°Crap! Not much notice! Bob?¡± called John. ¡°I¡¯m sending all the excess drones back to earth, bar a handful. There¡¯s a small factory setup that can make basic drones in case the portal closes. Grab anything you want to take with you. If you want to send a message home you¡¯ve got ten minutes to give it to a drone,¡± Bob sent over their comm links. ¡°For a galaxy spanning empire they aren¡¯t big on planning and giving decent amounts of notice!¡± complained John as he began blipping around to help Bob and the rest of the team gather at the original base by the portal. A few frantic minutes later they were gathered and the bots were swarming to set everything in order before the stash, and possibly the main portal. John took a moment and composed his thoughts. Hey kiddo, I hear you¡¯re doing well. Keep it up. We¡¯ve got more than enough Essence to justify coming home but the system has its rules. I¡¯ll write again when we next get sent on a mission. Happy birthday! I doubt we¡¯ll be let out in time to send another message before then. You¡¯re mum and sister are looking after me. You make sure to look after your friends, sweetheart. In this crazy world it¡¯s friends that keep us on the straight and narrow. Listen to Bob but I trust your judgement. Sometimes the old guy is a bit of a relic. Stay safe, get strong, Love Dad He processed into an encrypted file on his implant and transmitted it to a nearby bot that nodded and began heading back to Earth. He looked around at the expanding swath of green that now surrounded their original base. Even without the portal the drones left behind would be enough to keep the garden growing. He blipped up and marvelled at the kilometres they¡¯d turned from dull rock and dirt to vibrant life. If the rate of change kept up it would only be a few years before this whole continent was terraformed. That time would pass in the blink of an eye to them due to the time-fuckery of the voidliner. He sighed and watched as the last few drones to head back to Earth rushed through the portal. A timer he¡¯d had running on his implant began to get down to mere seconds and he sighed. Back to that ship to be whisked off somewhere else that they¡¯d be required to do morally dubious things for a galactic order he didn¡¯t trust. The seconds ticked down to zero and the team was once again in the hold aboard the Kipragtsek. He blinked and adjusted his vision to seal off the nightmare that was Outside of reality. He took a second, listening as the team began to fall out and make themselves once again at home on the ship. He wondered how long they¡¯d be stuck here twiddling their thumbs this time. Maybe there was something he could learn during this down time though. He opened his ruby eyes and began to extend his vision until he was once more exposed to the Outside. The fractals and swirling shapes, the waves of incomprehensible force that bounced against each other and diverted around the ship caused a splitting pain behind his new eyes. He fought through the pain, studying the polygonal things swooping through something even more alien than the vacuum of space. Gradually the pain began to fade and he started to make some progress. He would understand the impossible and learn what he could of the medium the ship travelled through. Chapter 207 - Revelation [Book 4 stubs this weekend] ¡°What the hell is wrong with him?¡± demanded Vic. Evie paced behind her scowling at anyone who went near her. ¡°I don¡¯-¡± ¡°Bob. Fucking spill it. You know more than you¡¯ve been letting on. All this metal in here¡­¡± snarled Evie as a nimbus of lightning crackled around her. Evie inside the stash was a real risk to Bob¡¯s capabilities and she was just about irrational enough at the moment to do something rash. John had been sat cross legged in the hold for two weeks. He would drink if a straw was put near his mouth but hadn¡¯t eaten or slept since they¡¯d come back aboard the Kipragtsek. He¡¯d just stared at the wall with his otherworldly eyes, blinking once every hour or so. ¡°Ok. ok!¡± Bob raised his hands in submission. ¡°I don¡¯t know what he¡¯s doing but I can see some of what his implant is doing. Don''t fry my manufactorum!¡± ¡°And?¡± demanded Vic as the clone of the old tanker clammed up. ¡°It¡¯s insane. He¡¯s hacked it or something. It¡¯s running programs, using language that I just don¡¯t understand. It doesn¡¯t make any sense but the longer I¡¯ve looked at it¡­ It starts to seem less insane. Like there¡¯s a pattern there just out of reach. It makes my head hurt to think about it.¡± ¡°You don''t have a real head, Bob. Is he in pain?¡± asked Evie as the lightning died down. ¡°Yes but he¡¯s embraced it. It¡¯s just background noise now according to his biometrics. He hardly seems to register it in his mind.¡± ¡°How do we stop him?¡± asked Vic. ¡°I don¡¯t think we can. He¡¯ll either achieve whatever he¡¯s working on or quit,¡± replied Bob quietly. ¡°Or die!¡± snarled Evie. ¡°We should drug him or something! Knock his old ass out and bring him into the stash.¡± ¡°The last time we went near him other than to give him the nutrient liquid he just blipped us away. I checked the logs on his implant, he knew what was happening. He¡¯s hyper focused on whatever the hell he¡¯s doing,¡± Bob shrugged. ¡°If we try to interfere he¡¯ll stop us, would be my guess.¡± ¡°What is he focused on?¡± Vic asked softly. ¡°It¡¯s not of this world. The maths is contradictory, the rules are in defiance of reality,¡± Bob replied. ¡°He¡¯s looking Outside? He said it hurt and was it frightening to look at. Why the hell would he suddenly want to stare at it for fucking weeks?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know Vic. I don¡¯t even know if that¡¯s what he¡¯s doing. Maybe he had some kind of epiphany about his power and this is all related to his portals. I¡¯m logging it all but I¡¯ve had to burn two server-Bobs that went mental from trying to suss it out.¡± ¡°Dad¡¯s lots of things, most of them good, but he¡¯s never been a bloody genius. Now he¡¯s doing maths that a server farm of you¡¯s can¡¯t suss out? We¡¯ve got to stop him!¡± snarled Evie. *** John was conscious of the conversation inside the stash. He was conscious of all the conversations aboard the ship on some level. The only conversation he was interested in was the one with the Rhombus. It didn¡¯t have a name, or even a concept of a name. It existed outside of reality as a middling predator. It fled from more powerful concepts and consumed the weaker ones. Time had no meaning to it and it didn¡¯t communicate with speech or even telepathy. Back before he¡¯d been chipped he¡¯d had other people invade his mind and manipulate his reality. Talking to Rhombus was like that. He lived a timeless aeon as a tiny fragment drifting through the Outside. Hunter and hunted in an endless loop that happened all at once. There was no fate, no time. It felt like when he had died and met the gods all those years ago. The clouds of gold and black had appeared but had always been there at the same time. Rhombus¡¯ life story was a constant self contradiction. It was still that tiny fragment that had begun a great migration across a space without distance and it was also the mighty concept that would one day, and already had been, be consumed by an even greater presence. This mid stage form was the only way John could perceive it. The true state of the thing, babe and titan simultaneously would melt his mind away to madness. But John was learning. The pain had been tremendous at the beginning. His body hadn¡¯t twitched but his nerves had burned. Eventually the pain switched from being a physical thing and it became somehow spiritual. Despite his lack of faith he felt like something outside of his material world, some part of him that had always been invisible, was being strained and its complaints were the worst type of pain imaginable. He had suffered through it. Shunted it to one side as he fought back to retake control of his mind. As he came back to himself he began recording and trying to translate his experience of ¡°speaking¡± with Rhombus. He began to understand how his power really worked. He began to get a glimmer of how all power really worked.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. It all came from Outside. The swirling, inchoate chaos of this dimension beyond reality was the source of the Void and the Light. Essence was¡­ soul fragments wasn¡¯t quite the right phrase. It was more like a material form of the tiny fragment of a concept that Rhombus had been and still was. The power that drove the ship through the Outside was a trapped concept, a being like Rhombus, ripped from the Outside and into the material universe. He could see the way to use the Outside. He could elevate his strength or that of his allies as easily as he could cut others off from the source of their power, leaving them helpless. He just needed to understand a little more! If he could grasp the fundamentals of the Outside, the roiling Chaos of infinite possibility he would be unstoppable. *** Back on Earth, War stood on his golden cloud and scowled down at Magic¡¯s flying island. A craggy landscape a kilometre across that floated above a vast amber ring of power. Smaller golden circles and multicoloured geometric shapes moved languidly within the ring that held Magic¡¯s kingdom in the air. It was hovering over what had once been Ghana as Magic dealt with an uprising among the coastal settlements. Magic was sending down waves of power that selectively interacted with whatever was below his floating fortress. Some people were crushed to paste while others simply lay down, unable to move under magic¡¯s influence. ¡°What the hell are you doing Magic?¡± War demanded aloud despite hovering alone in the sky. ¡°Suppressing a rebellion. These mortals would ruin themselves fighting each other rather than becoming what they could be. Such a shame to waste their potential, don''t you think?¡± Magic''s voice came from all around the fat man. ¡°Enough of your shit. We know you¡¯re a bit mad but you usually keep it under wraps. Mostly. Why have you summoned me here? Why not just tell me with teamchat?¡± ¡°Some things cannot be mentioned. Certainly not things that should not be scried. Oh no. Come, I have a safe space where we can talk freely. Your thoughts are safe but you cannot ever speak them aloud, oh no no no.¡± A pink portal appeared in front of War who crossed his massive arms and blew out his moustache. ¡°No way am I going in there without some kind of explanation,¡± he said firmly. Magic dropped his illusions and War narrowed his eyes at the remnant of a man, shabby rags hanging over his ruined half-body, as he showed himself between the portal and War. "No tricks. But no truth. Not here. Perhaps you need a revelation as well? Hmm¡­ what kind of apocalypse would be right for you?¡± mumbled Magic. ¡°Apocalypse?¡± War tensed slightly and Magic started cackling. ¡°No threat. No need to treat you. The truth is all the morsel you need! But not here, old friend. Are we so far gone that no trust exists?¡± Magic became serious, sounding almost sane at the end of his little speech. The Monarchs had drifted apart over the years since their return. War had deep concerns about Liberty and Death but Magic was at the top of his list when it came to potential problem children from their little band of survivors. He was a simple man who fought with his fists and feet. War had no understanding of what Magic was capable of beyond the various spells and tricks he¡¯d witnessed over their years together. The injuries that had turned Magic into a floating half-corpse had hurt the man''s mind as well. As they had levelled up Magic had become increasingly strange but after his wounds he had become ever more deranged. War paused and considered for a moment. He couldn¡¯t think of a time that Magic had genuinely worked against their goal of securing earth against the coming invasion. He had his own methods and plans, many of which War was certain were kept very close to what was left of the man''s chest. But his old friend had never acted to endanger their mission. With a sigh War uncrossed his arms and nodded once before striding forward and into Magic¡¯s portal. On the other side he blinked and closed his eyes. ¡°What the fuck is this place?¡± he demanded. The distant walls roiled with fractal shapes in various shades of pinks and blue. Like a lava lamp the shapes merged and separated before coming back together once more. He opened his eyes and squinted down at the ground. ¡°Welcome to my little pocket of reality. Not many have seen this place. And none of them have survived the experience,¡± said Magic, now sounding completely sane. His voice was flat and emotionless. War tensed again but Magic flashed a rictus grin at him before cloaking himself in an illusion. His old friend appeared as he had been. Aged and wrinkled with long grey-white hair pulled back into a ponytail, Magic leant on a long staff that was propped on thin air. ¡°Come. I¡¯ll explain my plans, at least as much as I am able to. He¡¯s seeing things beyond even my sight. If he lives then we¡¯ve won. Well, if he¡¯s still sane then we¡¯ve won.¡± ¡°Who?¡± demanded War as his cloud drifted down to the ground. ¡°Come.¡± Magic said curtly and led the big man into a long hall through a baroque doorway. Inside War flinched. There were specimens in tubes lining all the walls. Most were animals but there were a number of humans. They all had their eyes mutilated. ¡°It took me years. I got the idea when I was injured. Well something told me anyway. Since then I¡¯ve been trying to get back in touch. To return a call that was cut off too soon, if you like.¡± War continued walking behind his teammate, grimacing at the increasingly complex mutilations on the specimens. ¡°So I came up with the idea. Or it was given. I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯ve dreamed of explaining this for years and now that it¡¯s time to explain it to my oldest friend I find I don¡¯t know the words. These were the first experiments. It needed a particular type of soul and a particular power and a special alteration.¡± Magic said in a sudden rush before slowing back down to a flat drawl. ¡°I needed to see so they needed to see. So I improved their eyes! I gradually refined the spell. Using it against itself was the trick! Matter becomes translucent and reality is transcended!¡± ¡°What have you done?¡± asked War in a cold voice as more and more humans and intelligent aliens they had fought during their long journey off world were revealed, floating in preservatives. ¡°Young John has used the eyes I gave him properly at last. I¡¯m surprised it took him this long to work it out. He¡¯s seeing Outside. He¡¯s seeing Chaos. If he survives, and if he is still sane, then he will be our greatest weapon against the false gods.¡± Magic smiled a dead smile that made War¡¯s skin crawl. Chapter 208 - Never make it easy [book 4 stubs this weekend] ¡°I wish you¡¯d just fucking wake up John,¡± Vic said softly as she held a straw to his mouth. He didn¡¯t move but once the straw met his lips he began slurping the nutrient fluid Bob had cooked up down with noisy swallows. ¡°What the hell are you staring at?¡± Hell wasn¡¯t quite right, John thought with the fraction of his brain left in the material universe. It seemed a bit like hell in a way. Perfect Darwinism, natural selection applied to the idea of ideas. His thoughts stumbled. That wasn¡¯t right. How do you express the inexpressible? How do you describe something that is beyond language? Rhombus had moved on. He didn¡¯t know when, time wasn¡¯t something he could currently understand anyway. But his communion with Rhombus had ended in the same way it had started. It had always been happening and then it had always been over. Now he was marvelling at the savagery of the concepts feeding and fighting as the ship flowed past them. The ship was piggybacking on the trapped concept. Despite being pulled through into the material universe the concept wasn¡¯t able to exist fully in reality. The technology of the ¡°engine¡± simply forced the concept to move in a non-direction that happened to translate into the right place in reality. John couldn¡¯t understand it, he¡¯d pass that over to Bob at some point and his server-selves could go loopy trying to make it work. One thing John did understand was the pain of the engine-concept. It wasn¡¯t pain as a human would understand it. There was no burning or twitching agony. It was a wrongness that caused the concept to bleed away, gradually weakening. The concept experienced the whole process as a simultaneous event but being dipped into the material world meant it was happening very gradually. In a few thousand years the tortured entity would collapse and a new propulsion system would be needed. His fractured mind returned to the issue at hand. It had always been the issue at hand. Time was so infuriating! How to reconcile this new perception with the material world? The enslaved concept seemed like the best source of data to find the compromise needed to be able to function without losing this new ability. ¡°I don¡¯t know what¡¯s happening to you John. You know all the shit we¡¯ve been through? Years of fighting and getting stronger. Years of love and friendship. Well this can¡¯t be the end. You aren¡¯t going to just drift off into some weird fucking coma because magic gave you some fucked up eyes! Come back to me!¡± she snatched the straw away and his lips immediately closed. ¡°Maybe we need to do something a bit more physical?¡± she asked in a sultry voice. She harrumphed at his lack of reaction. Maybe you didn¡¯t understand what I meant?¡± she asked as she pulled back a hand and swung through to slap him on the cheek. His body didn¡¯t move, despite the force she¡¯d put behind the blow. She shook out her hand. It had been like slapping a statue. ¡°Vic! I don¡¯t think that¡¯s going to help!¡± barked Evie as she hurried over. ¡°Something has to wake him up! He has to come back!¡± Vic¡¯s voice was tinged with madness. Even in his fugue state John felt something stir in his distant body. He began to reach out, to claw his way back to reality. One part of his mind was still locked on the ¡°fuel¡± driving the ship even as he reached out to comfort his wife. ¡°Don¡¯t you remember Katie doing that? Ah, no, that was before we rescued you. If there is one thing I¡¯d not recommend, it''s that! He tends to react badly to physical violence when he¡¯s out of it, he looked like he was going to kill her when he focused. Mind you I was about to fry her as well!¡± Evie said, giving Vic a brief hug. ¡°He¡¯ll come back when he¡¯s ready.¡± The confidence in her voice wasn¡¯t mirrored in her worried eyes. ¡°Fate is flexible but doesn¡¯t like to be seen being flexible,¡± muttered John. Both women turned to stare at him. ¡°That¡¯s what she said. She was wrong though. It¡¯s all already happened.¡± He leaned back, legs still crossed and stretched out across the hard metal of the hold. Vic crouched down and tried to pull him into a hug but his body couldn¡¯t be moved. ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Why won¡¯t you hold me?¡± she asked. ¡°Not fully present. Reintegration¡­ assimilation of true reality. Wrong words.¡± ¡°Dad, you¡¯re being weird, old man. Have you snapped out of it or not?¡± demanded Evie. ¡°Not. Still everywhere, everywhen. Can¡¯t focus properly. World is broken, you know? Magic let me see. Set me up,¡± he slurred. His mouth wasn¡¯t forming the words correctly. ¡°Are you in pain?¡± asked Vic. ¡°Pain. Always and never. Perhaps that¡¯s part of it?¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°You want us to hurt you?¡± asked Evie. ¡°Can¡¯t. Not strong enough now. Material flows around immaterial. Do you want to know how I die?¡± ¡°What do you mean die?¡± demanded Vic but John lapsed into silence, staring upwards with his strange eyes. Evie nudged him with a foot, careful to keep her head and chest well back but John stopped reacting. ¡°I think he¡¯s gone again. Still, it¡¯s a good sign right?¡± Evie asked. Vic looked up at her with tears running down her cheeks and neither woman spoke for a moment. ¡°He¡¯s got to be on the mend.¡± Evie said softly as she laid a hand on her step-mums shoulder. The next day proved more challenging. He couldn¡¯t drink from a straw while laid out on his back. ¡°He¡¯s not fucking budging,¡± said a B-3000 that had been roped in to try and prop John back up. ¡°Move over, let me try,¡± said Raoul. The big man grew another metre in height and reached down to scoop John up with one hand. His drainpipe-thick fingers bounced off and no matter how hard he tried he couldn¡¯t scoop them underneath his friend. ¡°Never send a giant to do man¡¯s work,¡± scoffed Flash as he knelt down and also failed to move John. His muscles bulged, as had Raoul''s, but John was rooted in place somehow. Flash tried to slide a force field under him and the field could slide along the metal floor but it couldn¡¯t move him. ¡°Well that¡¯s weird. I can move tons with those fields,¡± Flash grumbled. ¡°I tried that shit yesterday,¡± said Evie. ¡°It¡¯s like he¡¯s built into the floor or something!¡± ¡°Or an immovable object,¡± muttered the drone. ¡°Shit! That cost me two more server-me¡¯s!¡± ¡°Eh?¡± said Vic. ¡°Whenever I make a bit of headway on whatever it is John¡¯s been working on, bits of me blow up. That was a particularly bad one. I¡¯m not sure he¡¯s actually here,¡± said the combat drone thoughtfully. One hand rose and cupped the metal chin in a parody of a biological response. ¡°What the hell do you mean? You can see him! He¡¯s right fucking there!¡± said Sam. ¡°I don¡¯t think he¡¯s really there, there. It¡¯s hard to explain. It¡¯s actually impossible to explain but that¡¯s the best I can manage. That-¡± a metal arm was waved at johns prone form, ¡°-is more like an echo. Or an anchor. It¡¯s like a¡­ a fossil?¡± ¡°Bob, do we need to grease your gears or something?¡± demanded Evie. ¡°I don¡¯t have gears. Well, not like you mean. I don¡¯t have the right language. John¡¯s thinking in something that isn¡¯t like a language but it does the same thing. It¡¯s all contradictions!¡± snapped the robot. ¡°So how the hell do we feed him in this state? We can¡¯t move him, can¡¯t prop him up and he¡¯s stopped drinking. He¡¯ll only last a couple of days without water!¡± barked Vic from where she knelt at John¡¯s side, one hand resting on his chest. ¡°He isn¡¯t actually breathing anymore. He might be using the oxygen bladder Pete gave him but I don¡¯t think he is. I don¡¯t think he needs any water or food. He was drinking because his body reacted automatically to the straw.¡± ¡°Bob. He is breathing!¡± snapped Vic. She moved her hand to hover over John¡¯s mouth. Then she leant in and held her cheek in front of his nose. ¡°Ok. He isn¡¯t. What the hell! Am I a widow now?¡± John¡¯s conversation with Spiral, the concept trapped in the engine of the Kipragtsek, had come to an end and he had been able to spare a little more of his attention for his surroundings. The word widow rang like a bell in his new world, making everything shake and pulse with previously unknown colours. Pain returned. True pain of the merely material type but he wasn¡¯t bothered by it. The lives of the concepts had inoculated him against merely physical pain. He craned himself upright, all the rigidity was gone and Vic almost knocked him back down. He released his hold slightly and he became immovable again. He had closed his eyes as he rose up and now he brought his hands up to cover his face. ¡°You always would be a widow but not on this thread yet,¡± he groaned. ¡°Are you ok?¡± she asked, her hands fluttering across him to check if he was hurt. ¡°Pain,¡± he said flatly. ¡°Where is it?¡± asked Bob. Prime had come over and was waving some complicated, wand-like device in John¡¯s direction with one of its six legs. ¡°Me,¡± John replied unhelpfully. ¡°Well we know that Dad,¡± Evie laughed nervously. John didn¡¯t move but his brain cried out at what he had lost. He would never be the same again. He had been reborn by his exposure to the chaos. He fought to limit his awareness, narrowing his perception and sensation down to the merely human in much the same way he had altered his ruby eyes to avoid seeing through things he wanted to focus on. ¡°All at once. Need control!¡± he groaned again, his body reacting to the stimulus that didn¡¯t reach his mind anymore and his hands clenched into fists, rubbing against his crystalline eyes. ¡°What can we do?¡± asked Sam cautiously, maintaining a healthy distance from her old friend. The control he had been fighting for slipped and he was back in the chaos, everything and everywhen all at once assaulted him in the material world. His body went rigid again before he pried his fists away from his face. His expression didn¡¯t change but he tilted head back and emitted an inhuman noise. It didn¡¯t come from his throat. His voice box wasn¡¯t capable of making the discordant static that spilled out. He struggled to regain control but the power was bucking wildly, the more he tried to throttle it the wilder it fought him. As his screech came to a stop his head flicked forward and his eyes split with a crack. There was a grinding noise of crystal on crystal as his hands spread out to his sides and his fingers dug into the metal flooring. Vic was accidentally pushed away by the move and as she picked herself up she saw blasts of red dust spew out of John¡¯s face. Vic pulled herself round and put her hands on his cheeks. His empty sockets stared back at her, the runes Magic had carved into his forehead and cheeks glowed fiercely for a few moments before going dim. They still glowed faintly, purple and pink sparks drifting away from his face that vanished as they moved more than an inch or two from John¡¯s now empty sockets. His body went limp and he fell backwards. A forcefield flared up before his skull smacked against the metal and lowered him gently. Vic grabbed his cheeks and pulled him back up, cradling his face in her hands. ¡°Raoul, get him into the stash. We need to put him in a med-pod and get a look at his newest ultra-weird situation. Bloody hell John. You never make it easy do you?¡± muttered the drone. Chapter 209 - Wave two: Purifying Wave [book 4 stubs this weekend] John was spreadeagled in the med-pod. The devices had started out as the cybernetic implantation suites where John had received his first prosthetic limb to replace his missing right arm. It still looked like a crucifix-shaped coffin but the whirling blades and metallic spider arms had been phased out. Now they were housed on telescopic tentacles built into the frame of the device and only deployed when needed. Knowing those blades were still in there meant that the new, more sanitised appearance didn¡¯t reassure Vic or Evie. Fortunately those scalpels and cutting wheels wouldn¡¯t be needed under the current circumstances. ¡°How long will he be like this?¡± asked Evie. ¡°He¡¯s stable. The pod would be maintaining his body functions, if he still needed them. He doesn¡¯t by the way. He doesn¡¯t need to breathe or eat or shit,¡± said the resident bio-Bob. ¡°How is that possible?¡± asked Vic, her eyes were locked on her husband''s body and had been since John had been interred in the technological sarcophagus. ¡°Don¡¯t know.¡± Bob shrugged. ¡°Whatever he was doing while in his- uh- trance has changed him on a fundamental level. He¡¯s not even really there.¡± An arm was waved at John¡¯s prone form. ¡°How the fuck is he not even there?¡± demanded Sam. ¡°Why did he scream like Neo getting sucked out of the matrix just before his fucking eyes exploded?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know. Christ, I¡¯m going to say that a lot if you guys keep pecking at me! His body is partially outside the universe? His mind is completely out there, if I had to make a guess about that.¡± ¡°How do you know?¡± asked Felicity. ¡°Know?¡± echoed Felix. ¡°I. Don¡¯t. Know. I¡¯m making best case approximations. His implant is now making my servers explode like popcorn in a bloody microwave when I give them access to the feed. I¡¯ve firewalled it off so all of the me¡¯s don¡¯t go pop!¡± ¡°Has he transcended?¡± asked Felix, addressing the question to his sister. ¡°He was¡­ heretical. I don¡¯t think transcendence is possible,¡± she replied. ¡°Possible,¡± muttered Felix. ¡°What the hell are you two on about? And no fucking riddles and finishing each others sentences. Just answer the fucking question as best you can!¡± Vic snarled, rounding on the newest members of the team. The twins shared a long look and nodded to each other. ¡°Based on what we have seen of the system in our visions the gods will permit a select number of individuals to ascend to something approaching their level of power,¡± said Felicity. ¡°Those individuals become something like demi-gods. Our language isn¡¯t entirely suitable but that is the best phrase we can use. These individuals are a step above entities like the Overseer. They retain their form and are deployed against their counterparts from the Void,¡± Felix added. ¡°You guys just fake the patois?¡± demanded Reg. ¡°What the actual feck!¡± ¡°Leaving that aside, and we have our reasons, we don¡¯t think John is capable of Transcendence. He has met the gods but his heart is not committed to the System. He is, at best, capable of being a class five. He won¡¯t be elevated beyond that.¡± Felicity¡¯s voice was filled with regret. ¡°I¡¯m sorry but he isn¡¯t pure enough.¡± ¡°Pure enough?¡± snapped Evie. ¡°Remember when we were snatching people out of your way because we thought you were fucking psychos?¡± ¡°Before we founded Ascension? We had speculated it was John but had no proof. The eyes in the sky were you? The visions warned us about them,¡± asked Felix, turning to Bob. ¡°Yeah. We thought you were sociopaths,¡± said Bob slightly sheepishly. ¡°And you don¡¯t regret it¡­ You think limiting the size of Ascension early on was the right move. I- we and the entire Clergy have been a force for good! Who do people go to when they need the best healers?¡± snapped Felix. ¡°Yeah, we know that now!¡± Bob countered at the same time Evie opened her mouth and put her foot in it. ¡°Are you? Religious zealots who love the system? Is that really helpful to our species? It¡¯s like a slave who loves his master!¡± she snarled. ¡°Do you find your power to be a shackle?¡± asked Felicity in an icy voice. ¡°No but I find billions of people being wiped out in a couple of fucking weeks and everyone who didn¡¯t die being forced to fight against monsters and each other for decades a bit of a fucking problem!¡± ¡°Struggle is what separates an arisen species from the animals,¡± Felix said. ¡°Without trials, how do we even know we¡¯re alive?¡± ¡°Guys, Let¡¯s all take a beat!¡± said Flash. ¡°I don¡¯t have a dog in this fight!¡± He added with raised hands as both Evie and the twins turned to glare at him. ¡°I was stuck in bloody elf-land while this shit was going on! This isn¡¯t helping. So John isn¡¯t transcending or ascending or whatever-¡± he flinched as Felix glared at him, ¡°-what we need to figure out is what¡¯s wrong with him and how we can fix it! Setting aside the fact he is our friend we need him. From a selfish point of view if nothing else!¡± Felix and Felicity shared a look and both stepped back from the group.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°We will withdraw. We didn¡¯t mean to cause upset. We hope John recovers quickly as he is a powerful fighter for our species against the Void,¡± said Felix. Felicity nodded and then the pair turned and went into the prayer chamber, buried deeper in the stash. ¡°True believers,¡± sneered Evie as the door shut behind the twins. ¡°This isn¡¯t helping,¡± snapped Vic. ¡°Bob, let¡¯s try and focus on what we can do to wake John up?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know! His eyes are gone but I can¡¯t give him implants. Pete gave me some, uh, ¡®spares¡¯ for all of you but I can¡¯t even scratch him, let alone open up his optic nerves for splicing!¡± ¡°You¡¯ve tried to cut him?¡± asked Vic darkly. ¡°I tried to install a cannula and a colostomy bag,¡± Bob said defensively. Vic glared for another second then dropped her gaze. ¡°Ok. Sorry. So we just wait?¡± asked Vic quietly. Evie moved over and stood close to Vic but didn¡¯t reach out to touch her. ¡°We¡¯re good at that!¡± said Sam with faux brightness. ¡°We¡¯ve spent so much time twiddling our thumbs on this ship we should be pros. Right?¡± she glanced around and Raoul subtly shook his head as he caught her eye. ¡°We¡¯ll have to wait,¡± said Evie. ¡°Dad will be fine,¡± she said softly, unsure if she was trying to reassure herself or her step-mum. ¡°I know he will,¡± Vic lied as worry ate her up inside. ¡°Maybe we should focus on some training? Evie, do you want to go a few rounds?¡± asked Flash to try and move the conversation to another topic. ¡°No thanks kid,¡± she replied off handedly. ¡°Um, I¡¯m older than you?¡± he said in confusion. ¡°Oh yeah. Sorry. I¡¯m going to go get something to drink? Anyone thirsty? Ok.¡± Evie wandered off towards the kitchen area of the stash. ¡°I¡¯m thirsty,¡± Reg muttered as he followed Evie. Evie had passed through yet another soundproof door into the general recreation area. This was where they¡¯d played poker with the Shrell but something had changed since they came back, none of the little squid bastards had been allowed in to socialise with them. She pulled open a fridge and took out a carton of fruit juice. Genuine orange juice wasn¡¯t something they had a large supply of. The various agrarian organisations back home had set up farms and orchards for a lot of pre-system species, oranges included, but they were far less productive than hybrid or alien species that had arrived on Earth during the waves. ¡°I¡¯ll have a whisky, lass,¡± said Reg as he stepped through the door behind her. She had just reached out for a bottle of what would once have been called vodka. She topped off her glass and picked up a tumbler for Reg¡¯s drink. She walked over and put it on the table in front of him and the old man settled down into the nearest chair and took a generous gulp as she sat opposite him and took a smaller sip of her own drink. ¡°You ever heard of William Wallace?¡± he asked gruffly. ¡°That Mel Gibson film? I¡¯ve seen it. Pre-system entertainment is weird. Even my manga''s seemed kind of lame compared to what we can do for real now,¡± she replied. ¡°Feck that fecking film. The real story¡­ never fecking mind. The point I¡¯m making is freedom fighters never end well.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re telling me this because?¡± she asked with a raised eyebrow. ¡°Your Da, he¡¯s a bit bent in the head, ye ken?¡± ¡°Always has been. By the time I was ten he¡¯d taught me how to swear in six languages. He couldn¡¯t- he can¡¯t speak those languages but he knew how to call someone a motherfucker or tell them to fuck off. He always said-¡± her voice dropped and became gruff, ¡°- ¡®knowing how to ask how much, say thank you and call someone a cunt was all you really needed to know in any language¡¯.¡± ¡°He was-¡± she glared at him over the lip of her glass, ¡°-is a bit of a fecking weirdo. And that¡¯s mah damn point girl. How much weird shit has he come through? Dragging along the rest of us half the time!¡± ¡°We¡¯ve done our share of carrying the world on our shoulders Reg. It wasn¡¯t all him. It wasn¡¯t any of us,¡± she sighed. ¡°We were just round pegs in the right place when round pegs needed filling.¡± Reg squinted. ¡°That is a disgusting metaphor, lass. But aye, you¡¯re not far off. He was the glue. Without him we¡¯d have been stuck on our little island.¡± ¡°Most of us can fly, dumbass,¡± she smirked back. ¡°Aye, how long would it take you to fly to Tokyo though? Stop fighting me here, I¡¯m trying to help!¡± He took a long sip of his whiskey and set the glass down in front of him. He spun the glass between both hands, setting the amber liquid spinning in a tiny whirlpool. ¡°John will get better, that I¡¯m sure of. But he¡¯ll be different.¡± ¡°Why do you say that? No offence Reg but you¡¯re basically a grumpy old bastard who makes stuff heavy when we need it. If Bob hasn¡¯t got a fucking clue- I¡¯m sorry. What gives you this insight, oh wise elder?¡± she finished. ¡°Sarcastic wee hoor aren¡¯t ye?¡± She shrugged in reply, taking no offence, so he continued. ¡°My ability gives me a ¡®gravity sense¡¯, ye remember?¡± ¡°I remember. It lets you detect matter within a certain radius or something.¡± ¡°Well your dad isn¡¯t on it anymore. Or rather he is and he is bloody everywhere. Bob keeps going on about contradictions and I don¡¯t think the rusty bastard is missing any cogs, I reckon he¡¯s onto something. Whatever your dad¡¯s seen has changed him and he¡¯ll come back but he¡¯ll be strange. Well, he¡¯ll be more strange than before.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure you¡¯re helping much Reg. So Dad will be changed? He¡¯ll still be bloody blind and we can¡¯t fix his eyes because he¡¯s immune to scalpels now,¡± she finished bitterly. ¡°Is that what¡¯s bothering ye? Maybe them starfish organs Pete gave us will grow his eyes back. Maybe he doesn¡¯t need them anymore. All he needs is time girl,¡± Reg finished softly. Mission notification: In four time units your team will be deployed to serve as the second wave challenge on a newly initiated planet. You will either kill all the beings within the barriers or you will die. You will not be released from the barrier until only one side remains. You¡¯ve been on the receiving end of this process before so you know the drill. Make them prove they¡¯re worthy of the Alliance! Wave two: Purifying Wave: Human antagonists: 10 Partlow Survivors: 145232 ¡°Oh that¡¯s fucking great!¡± snapped Evie as she threw back her drink and ran for the door, dropping the glass on its side as she hurried away. Reg drained his own drink, then sighed and trailed her back into the main area of the stash. The susurration of the machinery and magitech refineries in the background had long since become background noise to them all. In this case it stood out because all the other sounds, usually bickering or discussions, had stopped. Evie rushed over to the medical area to find Vic a burning pyre, flames leaping off her and threatening to melt the nearby machinery. ¡°Mum! Cut it out or you¡¯ll fuck up the pod!¡± Evie yelled. Even in her lightning form going near Vic when she was like this was dangerous. The others had all backed away as well. Gradually the incandescent glow faded and Vic stepped off the glowing patch of metal she¡¯d made, looking about her with hard eyes. ¡°Suit up. They¡¯ll have to drop us off with John out of action. I¡¯ll stay here. If I¡¯m touching him when it ticks over it will have to bring him along.¡± Her voice was flinty and cold. No one knew if that was true but no one wanted to argue with her at this particular moment. The rest of the team, even the twins, nodded and scurried off to get their heavy armour on. The bio-Bob gave Vic a worried look as he went to check on the machinery cocooning his old friend. Chapter 210 - The system must really hate them [book 4 stubs this weekend] The rainbow barriers brought back a sense of uneasiness in everyone except for the twins. Vic glanced around wildly and flashed into fire. She¡¯d been brought in outside the stash and John wasn¡¯t in sight. She scanned around frantically. It looked like a psychedelic version of Earth. Things that were recognizably trees, shrubs and grass stretched away in myriad colours that clashed with the barrier extending into the sky on either side of them. ¡°Remember what we did on the second wave?¡± called Sam. ¡°Expect an attack!¡± ¡°Where the hell is John?¡± snarled Vic. ¡°He¡¯s that way! About five miles or so according to his team buff!¡± called Evie. She had immediately used the Hide and Seek Champions 2024 bonus to locate all the team. It was confusing with so many Bob¡¯s running about but her dad had stood out in her mind enough to pinpoint. ¡°I¡¯ll get him!¡± Bob boomed out of Doris as the giant mech pivoted and began to devour the distance in long, earth shaking strides. ¡°Defences going up. Bob, are you going to help out here mate?¡± Sam asked as shining walls appeared around them, leaving enough space for Doris and a full sized Raoul to stand side by side in the middle. ¡°What? Yeah. What the hell¡­ never mind. Prime will help out. Soon as Doris is back we can start emptying the stuff in the stash out!¡± called a B-3000. ¡°Flash! You and me up top! Vic, are you good?¡± called Evie as she floated into the air on a platform of force. ¡°I¡¯m fine,¡± snarled Vic as she blasted into the sky and took up a holding position above the rapidly forming defences. ¡°Isn¡¯t there another way though?¡± she called down. ¡°Another way?¡± asked Felicity as she and Felix walked into the sky on black and white staircases. ¡°Are we just going to kill whatever these things are?¡± ¡°Yes Vic. We will. The System does not make requests. It issues orders. We must kill them," said Felicity. ¡°I remember being like them. Wherever the hell they¡¯re hiding,¡± said Raoul. ¡°They face the same issue as us. Kill or be killed,¡± asserted Felix. ¡°Which will you choose?¡± As they¡¯d been talking Doris had made her way back to the impromptu fortress that Sam had quickly expanded and reinforced. Doris stopped just outside the walls and lowered one hand to gently deposit John¡¯s body on the stony ground. Sam conjured an armoured bunker over John. ¡°Is he ok?¡± she asked. ¡°He¡¯s unchanged,¡± said a drone. Doris stepped over the barricade and took up a sentinel position. The weapons mounted on her shoulders began independently tracking and hatches spiralled open across her torso and upper leg armour. Yet more barrels poked out to pivot back and forth. ¡°Where the hell are they?¡± demanded Vic over the comm link. ¡°Bob, anything on your funky sensors?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got something,¡± said Reg. ¡°Lots of things.¡± ¡°Where and what?¡± demanded Raoul as he grew to half his maximum size having shucked the heavy power armour. ¡°Dunno. Small, the size of a fecking kid. There¡¯s warrens all around us, even under us and the wee boggits are swarming that way!¡± Reg pointed towards the setting sun. Whether it was east or west or even north if the planetary rotation was particularly unusual wasn¡¯t at the top of anyone''s thoughts. ¡°Shall I barrage? Bob, populate my map, dammit!¡± snapped Evie. ¡°I can¡¯t, I¡¯m not getting anything! No metal, no movement. They must have mass or Reg wouldn¡¯t be able to sense them but I can¡¯t find shit!¡± complained the drone as Doris and the many drones spread out around them cycled frantically through their sensor spectrums. A modest swarm of flying drones flew out of the stash and began circling out trying to locate the locals. ¡°Should I be seeing them yet?¡± asked Bob. ¡°Yes, you should be seeing the fecking bastards by now! They¡¯re only half a mile away! We all should be able to see them even if they¡¯re short arses!¡± ¡°Invisible or incorporeal!¡± yelled Evie. ¡°Get off the fucking ground if you¡¯re biological! Zeeg can you sense them?¡± ¡°No sister. I am untouchable but I think the rest of you getting airborne might be a good idea. I will escort some of the Sam clones to see if we can get a feel for this new foe,¡± replied the dog as her head emerged from the dirt, quickly followed by her oversized body. Squads of Sam clones broke out into teams and moved to escort Zeeg while Flash scooped up John with a platform and lifted him up. Bob¡¯s drones began emptying weapon systems out of the stash and throwing up hasty defensive positions around Doris. As Zeeg and her swarm of laser-eye wielding friends moved up to the conjured barricade a part of it dissolved and they all rushed through.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°Ok, I can¡¯t locate these things. They¡¯re ghosts. Reg, point out the direction and how far,¡± sent Bob. ¡°Yon fecking direction and half a mile or so?¡± Reg waved a hand towards the setting sun from where he now floated half a kilometre above Doris. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps an exploratory bombardment might be in order? Don¡¯t go all out, we¡¯re just testing the waters. Doris will mark targets,¡± Bob said authoritatively. Several of the shoulder mounted barrels on Doris pivoted and aimed in the direction Reg had pointed out. Half a dozen barked and clouds of smoke occluded the giant mech''s head. A series of flares shot out and landed in a grid half a mile away from the team. Then the energy weapons activated with tearing noises as the ionising energy burned through the atmosphere. The noise of Bob¡¯s attack was quickly drowned out as a firestorm sprung up and swept across the grid of markers. Howling, burning winds tore through the flora as lightning began to fall. A large number of Sam clones on Evie''s platform narrowed their eyes and actinic red lines burned through the target area as well, criss-crossing back and forth to weave a network of deadly beams. The twins strode towards the supposed enemies and bands of black and gold intertwined and lashed out like titanic whips, carving deep lines into the dirt and throwing dust and debris fifty feet into the air. The barrage lasted thirty seconds or so as the carnival unleashed their attacks to try and clear the swarm Reg had detected. The sudden silence was almost deafening in its stillness. Larger particles of debris fell down with thuds that rang out in the quiet and the dust gradually cleared in the gentle breeze, bringing the smoke and dust towards Doris. As it swept over the barricade Sam had created the team looked down to see Doris vanish up to her waist in the clouds. ¡°You ok in the fog, Bob?¡± asked Vic. ¡°Yep. Light isn¡¯t that necessary for the bots. Reg, update?¡± snapped Bob. ¡°Well, ye tin can bastard, we drove them off. I don¡¯t think we killed any, ye ken? Just scared ¡®em off.¡± ¡°How did that not get any kills?¡± asked Vic, looking down at the burnt and ravaged ground, stretching in an arc for nearly a mile from where they had started landing their attacks. As the smoke cleared further and they could see what they¡¯d done they saw a devastated landscape but no bodies, nor any evidence of whatever beings might have been there. ¡°Are you sure they were there, Reg? No disrespect but these guys should be way lower level than us and that was basically a controlled nuking, we carpet bombed that place and there¡¯s nothing there, no kill notifications, no nothing!¡± said Evie. ¡°The feckers fecked off. They¡¯ve moved that way and headed towards the barrier.¡± "Maybe we need to get physical?¡± asked Raoul, smiling happily that he might get a chance to shine. ¡°Maybe. That¡¯s a risky proposition though. Let¡¯s send out the clones and the bots to test it before you go off like a berserker though, eh?¡± said Sam with a smile in her voice. ¡°Marriage is so restraining!¡± Raoul complained before a red beam flashed out at his feet and made him jump sideways on the forcefield he was standing on. He scowled up at his wife before grinning broadly. ¡°Idiot,¡± Sam replied fondly. ¡°If we can¡¯t see what we¡¯re fighting, it¡¯s going to be an issue. Reg, can you link your grav-sense to your implant and let Bob mark it on the map?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t like that metal prick in my skull. I¡¯ll not be letting him borrow my sense,¡± grumbled the old man. ¡°He won¡¯t get access to your bobnet search history you crotchety old weirdo. It might let us figure out how to deal with these things,¡± said Evie. ¡°Should we even be killing them?¡± asked Flash quietly. He hadn¡¯t used any of his abilities during the first barrage, not only because it was a less than ideal situation for him to be useful as he was an up close fighter at heart, but he had reservations about slaughtering whatever-the-hell these things were just after they¡¯ve been dumped into the system. ¡°What? The System has commanded it. We must serve our purpose. It¡¯s sad that these things must die but Earth must be held in the foremost position in our thoughts. We have enough power to defend the Earth, we just need to get home and use it! So these things must die,¡± said Felix. ¡°Die!¡± echoed Felicity. ¡°For god¡¯s sake don¡¯t start the ¡®repeating each other¡¯ schtick again! I¡¯m with the twins though, Flash. We need to kill these poor pricks, get Dad patched up and get home. It sucks but I¡¯m not going to lose any sleep over it,¡± said Evie. ¡°The system must really hate them to sick us on them for a second wave,¡± said Reg. ¡°Maybe not. It was always kind of balanced, in a twisted way. Maybe this is actually a fair match up for us?¡± said Vic thoughtfully. ¡°The fact we just nuked a bunch of them and got no kills would tend to support that theory,¡± said Bob flatly. ¡°I agree with the twins, we don''t have a choice so whatever these invisible buggers are: it¡¯s us or them and I¡¯m not voting for them!¡± ¡°Ye¡¯re not too far off now,¡± said Reg as he monitored Zeeg''s location on his HUD. ¡°Noted. I can¡¯t see anything,¡± the dog replied. ¡°I¡¯ll go forward,¡± offered Sam. A pair of clones moved ahead, cautiously at first but with growing confidence as nothing seemed to happen. They pushed aside the foliage carefully, wielding summoned spears that they used to nudge open a path. The air was still here, the breeze blocked off by the thicker trees, and they began probing the empty air ahead of them with the sharp points of their weapons. They inched forward as Zeeg hung back and remained incorporeal. Zeeg considered the situation and decided to take a risk. The clones were ahead of her so she briefly dropped back to being mundanely material and took a deep sniff. Her nose twitched in a way that would have been adorable if she wasn¡¯t eight feet tall at the shoulder. She immediately became incorporeal and bolted back the way she had come, making a beeline for the barricade. As she fled she sent an urgent warning but it was too late for the clones. ¡°RUN!¡± she snarled as she followed her own advice. The Sam clones spun and began to move at speeds normal humans would be incapable of. Before they could get more than a couple of steps the air turned black, like the clones had suddenly been dropped into a tar pit. The other clones all collapsed, all across their little base and on the platforms floating above. Then they disappeared. A single Sam was left on Evie¡¯s forcefield and the girl spun, dropping down next to her friend and checking for a pulse. ¡°You know her constitution shows in the team report?¡± asked Reg. ¡°Fuck you Reg!¡± snarled Raoul. ¡°How did she drop so low?¡± he demanded after taking a moment to check. Sam had plummeted to 5% of her constitution. Of them all Sam was the most unkillable. The only real threat she¡¯d have faced if she stayed on Earth was eventual old age. It hadn¡¯t been widely known but she always kept one body, which she considered the original ¡°her¡±, secreted in a small cottage out in the wilds of southern Scotland before they went on campaign. There were other safe houses as well where clones lived quiet lives, just in case something terrible happened. That body had come along with them when they were swept up by the Kipragtsek but even without that failsafe, how can you kill a being capable of almost endlessly cloning themselves and jumping their ¡°real¡± mind to any remaining body? Sam was brash sometimes because she very rarely faced a real threat to her continued existence. Whatever attack the locals had used had plunged her closer to true death than any of the carnival had been for years. Chapter 211 - Frost or Liberty? [book 4 stubs on sunday!] ¡°I need to speak to the Sanderson boy,¡± said War. He was standing on the platform that supported the hub of what had become known as the Monarch¡¯s Way. The circles of portals still glowed blue, illuminating the sky above Wayfair, proving that John was still alive, probably. ¡°Why?¡± asked the drone floating nearby. The combat models were all very carefully maintaining their usual posture, monitoring the access to the portals, and ignoring the heavily armoured fat man standing at the very centre of the platform. ¡°I¡¯ve received new information about the Cullers and I need the kid¡¯s help.¡± War crossed his arms across his chest and glared at the drone. ¡°You can¡¯t threaten me, buddy. Soon as John gets out of transit he¡¯ll get a message from me. What that message says will dictate what happens to your portal access,¡± buzzed the drone. ¡°I¡¯m not sure what information you¡¯ll get back when he pops out of transit but I suspect you¡¯ll be surprised,¡± muttered War. ¡°I just want the kid to help me check something I¡¯m suspicious about. There¡¯s nothing nefarious at work here, Bob.¡± ¡°You know something I don¡¯t but won¡¯t share.¡± The drone was equipped with decent enough sensors to read all of War¡¯s micro expressions. ¡°That doesn¡¯t make me want to trust you.¡± ¡°I do and I won¡¯t. Look, the kid can pull it from my mind if he likes. If he does, he won''t bloody tell you either.¡± War summoned his golden cloud and rose up into the air a few feet. ¡°You¡¯re right that you hold a lot of power Bob. It¡¯s not in my interest to cause issues between us under normal circumstances. These are not normal circumstances.¡± His sentence finished in a flat and angry tone. ¡°What the fuck is going on War? I get you won¡¯t tell me details but you¡¯ve got to give me something.¡± ¡°When John gets out of transfer you¡¯ll understand. For now, can I borrow the boy?¡± asked War. ¡°You just need to talk to him?¡± asked Bob, ¡°No, I need him to witness a conversation for me and read someone''s mind. I need to know if¡­ I need to know for sure.¡± ¡°Who?¡± War grumbled to himself and drifted up until he was right next to the drone. A hand flicked out and snagged it from the air, pulling it close to his mouth without damaging it. He held it like it was made of glass and Bob was only too aware of the level of finesse it took for a bruiser to be so fast without doing any damage. ¡°One of my colleagues,¡± War whispered before releasing the drone which wobbled and bobbed as it regained its hover. ¡°Shit. I¡¯ll speak to the kid. Wait here,¡± replied the drone. A few minutes passed and the drone made a throat clearing noise, despite lacking a throat. ¡°Ok. Kev will help you out but his team goes with him. They all come back alive or else my Deadman message to the other me off world goes live. You understand?¡± the drone said coldly. ¡°I understand Bob. It will just be a friendly chat between myself and my old friend. I just need her mind to be checked over and I don¡¯t have that skill set. The boy has a good range? If he stays down in the deepest parts of your bunker he¡¯ll still be able to read her and there¡¯s no chance of anything untoward happening to him and the other kids. Does that sound fair?¡± ¡°Sounds good. Is it Frost or Liberty?¡± asked the drone. ¡°Liberty. When the kid is in place let me know and I¡¯ll call her over,¡± sighed War. He hoped he was wrong. He really hoped his suspicions were misplaced but with the intelligence they¡¯d gained from the kid''s infiltration and killing of the Cullers he needed to know for sure. ¡°Liberty? Ok. Stay here,¡± the drone fell silent but continued to float near the powerful fighter. War wasn¡¯t blind. He noticed the subtle shifts in the big bots, the BD-209 variants, that Bob used as security forces. Patrols switching out left the bots facing in slightly different directions, cannons not pointed at him but closer to being aimed in his direction. He suppressed a snort. Those pea shooters wouldn¡¯t bother him and their reaction time was too slow to catch Liberty. She was as fast as a human could be and able to phase through solid matter at will. Her name had not been a sop to the continent she took over. She truly was as free as a person could be. Of all his fellow monarchs she was by far the most dangerous. If she had been compromised then things were going to get ugly. ¡°Ok. The team is in place. Call her over but if shit goes sideways-¡± ¡°If shit goes sideways there is nothing you can do, so let¡¯s make sure that doesn¡¯t happen. If the kid detects something wrong, let me know,¡± War cut off the drone. He sent a message to Liberty, asking her to meet him where he was. He unsummoned his armour and his loose tunic and trousers fluttered in the ever present westerly wind on the platform. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± came a voice from beside him. *** Kev had closed his eyes when they came through the portal and Bob told him to get ready. The rest of the team spread out, nervous and insecure despite being buried deep underground behind some of the most formidable defences on the planet. A single corridor gave access to the cavern housing the off world portals but Bob had briefed them that this woman was capable of walking through stone so they were eyeing the walls and ceiling as suspiciously as they did the obvious point of entry.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°She¡¯s here,¡± said Kev as he crossed his legs and floated over the ground. ¡°Christ, it''s worse than Traveller¡¯s mind!¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± demanded Ryn indignantly. ¡°Dad is fine!¡± ¡°The way he sees the world because of his eyes and abilities makes it very different to a normal person. She¡¯s like that. There are no barriers to her. Walls are like fog. It¡¯s bloody weird. Give me a minute, I need to dive deeper and that takes some concentration. ¡°Dad isn¡¯t a weirdo,¡± muttered Ryn but she fell quiet and Kev ignored her. Liberty¡¯s mind was like a maze. For someone who was ¡°free¡± her mind was incredibly compartmentalised. Some of that was due to her power. She could shift through anything, move at speeds that matched a sizable fraction of the speed of light; she had learned to split her focus in a way that fascinated the boy. If he could learn to mimic that fractured-yet-whole consciousness it would make dealing with the voices in his head a lot easier. He twitched as the copy of Mindscar, taken the last time he¡¯d seen her several years ago suddenly reared up, trying to take control of him. She was screaming and cursing in the back of his mind, struggling to snatch control of his body and to limit his perception. He grunted and pushed her down, helped by Amit and several of the more helpful ghosts he¡¯d captured over the years. As the mental haze that Mindscar¡¯s attack had caused began to clear, Kev began going deeper into Liberty¡¯s mind. He worked his way past her disjointed perception of reality. Momentum and matter were entirely separate concepts to her on some level. Seeing through her eyes made Kev dizzy as objects, people and their motions were categorised independently. He began digging down into her memories. Flashes of her childhood and long life from before the system flowed into his brain. She had been a small girl, born in the 1950s, but had blossomed into adulthood having had a relatively happy childhood. Her teen years seemed idyllic in comparison to some of the ghosts who grew up in the nineties and early 2000s that Kev had stolen copies of. The hippy movement of the late sixties and seventies had swept her up and her life had been a psychedelic blend of hedonism that was later coloured by regret from her older self. She¡¯d settled down in 1981, getting married and working on a career in management. A long and extremely boring stretch of years ran through Kev¡¯s mind that were littered with emotional highs he couldn¡¯t understand. The birth of her children was an ecstasy he couldn¡¯t relate to. The death of her second child was a psychic wound he understood well enough and he flinched as he pushed past the pain that still coloured her outlook on the world. The breakdown of her relationship with her first child as a result of her divorce from her cheating husband left even deeper wounds. She was ashamed of what she had done in revenge and it stained her entire personality. Sometimes losing someone forever is easier than knowing they are still out there and having no hope of reconciliation. She had become a shell of a person. She seemed happy, well-to-do and at peace but under that mask the old wounds were always lurking, putting the lie to her rebuilt life and personality. Then the horrors of the system¡¯s arrival ran past his focus. She and some old friends had been holidaying in central Europe when the system came. They¡¯d fought off the waves and gotten powerful, rejuvenating from their senescence in the process. Almost as soon as they got back from the third wave they¡¯d chosen to go off world and continue their adventure. Returning youth and vitality, coupled with no longer having responsibilities to tie them to other survivors left them eager for yet more power. It had applied to all of their team. The Monarch¡¯s strength came from no longer having any ties to their old lives. Kev could sense their concern for the species was genuine, at least it had been for Liberty, but it was divorced from any individual or group. Their adventures off-world blurred together into a nightmarish montage of violence and loss. There was triumphalism buried in there as well as they returned to Earth an order of magnitude more powerful than anyone else. A shiver of fear ran through Kev. The Monarchs themselves were scared. They knew someone, sometime soon would come back strong enough to make them look like children. That fear was one of the things that kept Liberty and War working so hard for humanity''s benefit. They knew sometime soon someone would come along who was powerful enough to judge them. Then Kev probed into her more recent memories. Putting down the tribulations in the US and Canada, suppressing Cullers and Ravagers across North America, threatening Belisarius¡­ that one was interesting and he made a mental note to bring it to Bob¡¯s attention. They now knew where the cyborg was hiding his main body. In the blur of memories one stood out and he locked himself onto it. Mindscar went insane in his mind, thrashing at the invisible bonds that he held her with. After a few seconds of struggle he fought her back into her cage and turned his attention back to the memory that had triggered the response. He had a hunch that whenever Mindscar threw a fit in his mind he was probably on to something important. Liberty had been meeting with the bigwigs in North America. The faction leaders and the former Signatories had all come together a few months ago to discuss the issues of Cullers. Liberty was very clear that she was going to operate a no mercy policy with regards to murderous humans looking to aggrandise themselves via the blood of their brothers and sisters. Kev was surprised she actually thought in those kinds of terms. Florid and grandiose language made her thoughts seem almost monomaniacal at times but at her heart she was genuinely fighting the good fight. The meeting had been contentious. Some of the faction leaders had been turning a blind eye to things they shouldn¡¯t have and they weren¡¯t happy at being called out. Belisarius had played peacemaker, carefully employing threats and bribes to bring them in line. After the meeting his battle suit had requested a private conversation, in person, at his nest or hive or whatever the hell his techno-coffin was supposed to be. Liberty had no fear, she could deal with anything the drone pilot and tinker could throw at her. Belisarius had begged her to attend in person, claiming he had intel that related to other members of the Monarchs she simply had to hear in person. He refused to say anything more outside the security of his den and Liberty had shrugged and headed back to his base. Her arrogance had been her undoing. She could move faster than bullets, pass through any matter with ease, become invisible and untouchable. She didn¡¯t realise she was only physically untouchable and that other powers could still touch her, even across a significant level difference. Kev¡¯s eyes snapped open and he dropped to the ground as the pain in his head shot to new levels. The echo of Mindscar in his brain was going all out and he could feel nerves burning away to dust as she sought to free herself and take control of his body. He reached up to clasp his hands over his temples and groaned in agony. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± asked Sally, rushing to his side. ¡°Mindscar took over Liberty. She¡¯s a puppet now!¡± the boy grunted before he lost consciousness. Chapter 212 - Take it out of town War felt his Bphone vibrate slightly in the pocket of his tunic. He carefully refrained from pulling it up to see what he¡¯d received. He assumed it was Bob advising him what the boy had learned from stealing his old friend''s memories. ¡°Hellie, it¡¯s been good to catch up. Do you need any help from me?¡± he said softly, smiling at Liberty. ¡°No Jack. We¡¯re all good. The information you¡¯ve provided is pretty conclusive. I¡¯ll deal with Belisarius. I¡¯m curious about something though.¡± She leaned back on the guard rail and crossed her arms. The blue glow from behind her gave her an eerie halo and threw her face into azure shadows, only partially cancelled out by the other portals behind War. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± he asked. ¡°Magic. He¡¯s been¡­ stranger than usual recently. What did the pair of you talk about?¡± she asked nonchalantly. ¡°He¡¯s got some plan in the works. A magical weapon to use when the Void arrives,¡± War half lied. ¡°You can ask him about it yourself if you like but he¡¯s being more paranoid than usual.¡± ¡°What does it have to do with the Traveller?¡± she glared at him pointedly. ¡°Nothing that I¡¯m aware of. Something to do with ley lines and creating a planetary shield to support the Necklace.¡± He was outright lying now and beginning to feel that something had gone very wrong. He mentally prepared himself for violence but betrayed nothing physically. ¡°Such tangled webs we weave. Why would you lie to your old friend?¡± she asked and her body twitched ever so slightly. Even Bob¡¯s drones would have struggled to notice it but War had senses far beyond what people at lower levels could understand. His armour coalesced around his body at the same moment Liberty moved. Her fist slammed into his chest and threw him down and away from her. His body crashed through the platform and smashed into the buildings below in a fraction of a second. Even from his prone position, half buried under the rubble of ruined buildings, he heard the rattling barks of the combat drones above opening fire. Waste of bloody time. Bullets won¡¯t do shit to her, War thought to himself. He levered himself upright quickly, broken stone flying away from him as he rose to his feet. He narrowed his eyes and leapt upwards, his golden cloud appearing under his feet as he circled rapidly up to float above the platform of portals. ¡°Where is she?¡± demanded a flying drone. ¡°You¡¯ll only find out when she wants you to. Leave this to me,¡± War grunted as he scanned back and forth to try and spot his elusive enemy. ¡°Take it out of town!¡± barked the drone. ¡°There¡¯s a lot of civilians down there!¡± *** Mindscar had been sitting in a cafe, ¡°enjoying¡± a puck sandwich and a cup of coffee. Her body had been operating on automatic, taking bites of the food and gulps of the drink without consciously noting the taste or texture. She¡¯d been sitting in the quaint building that overlooked the small river running through the heart of Wayfaire and monitoring the Monarch¡¯s conversation. It had all been very dull. As soon as Liberty had been called she¡¯d moved to find a spot where she could mentally observe them without drawing any attention. She was on the outskirts of the centre of the city and should be safe from any collateral damage. She had been able to probe War¡¯s mind, to an extent. She kept getting flashes of purple light that threw her probes back but as the two Monarchs had talked she¡¯d gradually wormed her way at least a little into his mind. She couldn¡¯t subvert him. It took a lot of effort simply to keep Liberty from kicking her out and all her orders were fought tooth and nail by the mad woman. At this point you would have thought she¡¯d have given up in resignation but no, the crazy bitch kept fighting to regain control of herself. It had become a constant tug of war between their minds that left Mindscar constantly exhausted. Not too exhausted to level the playing field a little, though. By levelling the playing field she of course meant to stack the odds so far in her favour that the outcome would become a foregone conclusion. Controlling someone as powerful as Liberty didn¡¯t leave her much leeway to take other strong slaves, hence War was sadly safe for now, but lesser slaves could be gathered in considerable numbers for the same amount of effort. Her mind spread out and began claiming innocents and bending them to her will. The other diners, only a handful or low level workers and traders, stood as one and marched out into the streets. The caf¨¦ owner snarled and leapt over her counter to follow them. In the houses all along the street people marched out and joined the crowd moving towards the battle on the platform. They broke into a sprint, some moving inhumanly fast. Others floated into the sky while the slowest and least dangerous, the ones with administrative or crafting powers, trailed behind, using their abilities to destroy the city as they moved under Mindscar¡¯s control. Drones began to swarm down and try to suppress the citizens running riot through the streets. The Guardians, Wayfaire¡¯s police and civil defence forces, began to pour out in Blue Street and rush towards the angry mob. Mindscar stayed where she was and smiled to herself. That should provide enough of a distraction to the local forces and when the faster elements of her swarm caught up to where the action was they¡¯d help give Liberty an edge. Mindscar looked out through Liberty¡¯s unnatural vision and reinforced her order to attack her former ally. Liberty moved almost without moving. Momentum was hers to control, much like that German prick Breaker, but she was on another level. Too fast for Mindscar to follow Liberty appeared next to War and punched him, her fist phasing out of reality for a moment then rematerializing inside his chest. Her arm pulled back in a spray of gore and a crimson arc of blood shot out and began to fall towards the ground. Suddenly Liberty was sailing through the air to smash into one of the Department''s skyscrapers. Protect yourself and kill War, Mindscar sent, having to reiterate her command as Liberty struggled to regain control.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Liberty stopped in mid-air as she transferred the momentum to somewhere else. Whether it was another dimension, or to some object drifting through space was something neither woman had been able to work out. The building she had passed through began to collapse and Liberty caught sight of War turning to focus on her, one hand pushed against his chest. The hand fell away and the flesh was once again whole before the armour knitted itself across the damage and obscured the temporary wound. Liberty vanished. *** War grimaced as he dropped his hand. She was going easy on him. If she had been fully committed Liberty would have put her fist into his brain and ripped that out instead of doing minor damage to his chest. Not even he would have been able to shrug off that type of damage to his brain. He shot away to the south, looking to lead the fight out of town, but he was swarmed by low level fliers who threw themselves at him with suicidal abandon. He pulled his punches, knocking them away and smiling slightly as Bob¡¯s drones began to swarm the mob and fix power suppressing collars to them. A beam of light from the clear sky slammed into War. It threw him back towards the centre of town and drilled down, burning a glowing crater where he slammed into the Earth and collapsing several buildings into slag. Dozens of the fliers attacking him had been turned into ash drifting on the wind. Bob? No. The old veteran wouldn¡¯t fuck up a kill shot and he wouldn¡¯t kill civvies like that. Who the hell else was running that kind of plasma beam weapon? War pulled himself up, molten stone dripping off him as his cloud lifted him back up and he tried once more to lead this battle away from the civilians. *** ¡°Ryn. Go to the river. About here.¡± He placed a map marker on her HUD. ¡°That¡¯s where the puppets started from,¡± said Bob. ¡°What are we up against?¡± asked Bad. He was smiling broadly. Bob would have to explain at length about taking life and death situations seriously. Perhaps some kind of brutal training regime would be in order? The boy¡¯s dad would be all for it. ¡°A puppet master. Probably a former Minder who¡¯s snuck into Wayfaire,¡± the drone replied. ¡°Shit! Where are those beams coming from?¡± he cursed. ¡°Beams?¡± asked Sally. ¡°Like my beams. Someone has nicked some of my tech. They just cut a half mile scar across the city. Go! Now!¡± Bob barked. Ryn checked the map and vanished. Her friends were wrapped in cool blue flames and appeared next to her. The city was a madhouse. Smoke billowed into the sky and half of the tallest buildings were jagged stumps surrounded by burning rubble. She glanced around and began blipping down the street as her team spread out. If there was a puppet master here they needed to put them down fast. There¡¯s no point killing the helpless victims of someone like that, you had to kill the master. It was a truly unpleasant power, turning bystanders into victims and hostages. She flashed along the street then back to her friends. Simon was throwing out trinkets and devices, setting up a shielded zone with some active defences. The others had spread out slightly and were studiously watching every angle for any hint of a threat. ¡°There¡¯s a handful of people still in the buildings.¡± She pointed to half a dozen intact structures and the team began to advance cautiously. The first people they encountered were quivering in fear at the back of a clothes shop. ¡°Get out here! We need to move you out of danger!¡± barked Jane from where she floated above the road. ¡°No way! We¡¯re safe here! Protect us here!¡± screeched a semi hysterical woman in a shrill voice. Bad strode forwards and knocked the door out of its frame as he entered the shop. ¡°Get your arses out of here run for Blue Street! It¡¯s all happening at the Way so Blue Street is safe!¡± The world went white as another beam of energy fell from the sky and burned yet another strip of the city to glowing rubble and ash. Everyone had flinched. They¡¯d never seen that kind of weapon in use before, certainly not on a civilian population. Bad had spun towards the door and flung up a hand to shield his eyes. As he did so the people behind him swarmed forward, half blinded by the light but knowing where their enemy had been a moment before. They piled on the boy, dragging him down and pummelling with their fists and feet. Ryn blinked away the after images and saw what was happening. She wrapped the people in fire and blipped them away to an empty spot outside of town, leaving a bloody and broken Bad stretched out on the ground. ¡°Get up lazy bones. No way that lot could hurt you!¡± laughed Sally as she moved over to help the boy up. He took her hand and grunted then let go with a yell. Bars of stone had been summoned beneath his body, pinning him like a butterfly to a cork pad. ¡°Shit! Claire! Bad needs you!¡± Sally screamed. ¡°How the fuck did s bunch of lowbies do that?¡± ¡°One of them wasn¡¯t so low!¡± snarled Simon as he glanced through the door. ¡°Ryn, we need collars. Assume everyone is hostile!¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t get any! Bob doesn¡¯t have any marked out for me!¡± Ryn fought down a sob at seeing her friend badly injured. ¡°We¡¯ll need to find the fucking master! Claire, can you help him?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll stay here and guard them,¡± said Simon as Claire nodded and knelt down to heal Bad. Simon began throwing contraptions into the wall that drilled in and vanished in a puff of dust. ¡°This place will be safe. Find the master!¡± The others turned and ran onwards down the road. The river burbled happily to their left, immune to the chaos overtaking Wayfaire. A puck broke the surface and leapt upwards only to be reduced to ash by Jane launching a beam of fire into it. ¡°My bad!¡± the girl called as steam from the river drifted into the air. More slaves leapt out at them, having decided their cover was blown, and tried futilely to reach the team. Now they were on alert Ryn and her friends either knocked the people out in quick succession or blipped them out of town. ¡°Well, well. If it isn¡¯t the last best hope for Wayfaire,¡± came a voice from all around them. The team skidded to a stop and took up a defensive formation. Perhaps this won¡¯t have been a complete waste!¡± ¡°Mindscar?¡± called Ryn. ¡°Should have known it was you! You know this is the end? We¡¯re going to put you down!¡± she snarled. Mocking laughter came back. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t be too sure about that. Taking you out will make it all worth it. On the off chance you do survive please convey my regards to your father, assuming Magic¡¯s little trick hasn¡¯t killed him!¡± A glint in the sky was all the warning she got. Ryn blipped all her friends back to the chamber with the off world portals, buried deep underground. Back on the surface Bob had finally gotten a bead on the vessel launching the attacks and another glint shone in the sky, far above the atmosphere. The Necklace was faintly visible even during the day. At night it was a glittering band that put the Milky Way to shame and during the day faint spiderwebs showed where Bob¡¯s masterpiece wrapped the Earth protectively. It was still too soon to reveal the platform''s full potential but he could take out the ship burning strips out of his city. The clouds blasted apart, a ring spreading out to reveal the clear sky above. There was no beam of light, this weapon operated beyond the visible spectrum. Pure invisible energy slashed through the atmosphere leaving a very faint glow in its wake as it cut into the ship above the city. The stealth field failed and a vast ovoid of dark metal was revealed, over a mile in diameter at its widest point. The invisible weapon carved nearly a quarter of the ship away, the rear section falling away to one side as the main part of the ship began to fall towards Wayfaire. Bob¡¯s weapon left a new line on the face of the city, throwing up clouds of dust and molten stone before it cut off a fraction of a second later. A series of drones launched from the crippled ship, swarming across Wayfaire to scoop up a number of people before shooting off into the sky and flying East at hypersonic speeds. The ship¡¯s fall was almost graceful when viewed from a distance. Up close it was rushing towards the ground at a terrifying speed. As the prow of the ship slammed into the ground it buckled and pushed back into the body behind it. As the central section of the ship began to expand outwards the world went white. Chapter 213 - As bad as you can imagine The B-1945 would have to be scrapped when it was done with its current task. Thousands of the machines were crawling over the remains of Wayfaire looking for survivors. The engines of the ship he had taken out had been a mix of fission, fusion, and something approaching the plasma systems he used on his own BFOs. It continued mindlessly pulling rubble and irradiated scrap from the location Bob had estimated War would end up as a result of being caught out of cover by the detonation. Its sensors suggested there was a living being somewhere beneath this wrecked structure and the only person Bob could imagine surviving the blast on the surface was War. Or possibly Liberty. If it was Liberty then the photokinetic beam, the one that had sliced Belisarius¡¯ vessel into chunks, would be firing again and disposing of this drone chassis would become a moot point. A half ton slab of rubble was tossed aside casually and the drone heard a rumble from deeper in the crater. It sounded like swearing and had a male voice. The beam didn¡¯t stand down, it remained trained and ready to take out this site at the slightest hint of a ruse. More rubble was scooped aside and a hand was revealed. It spasmed briefly, clenching and unclenching into a fist. With a roar, War threw the rest of the rubble off himself, dragging himself to his feet with a curse. The drone was thrown back as well, landing in a clatter to one side of the crater and quickly scrambling back to its feet. ¡°Where is she?¡± War gasped. He was filthy. His armour was scuffed and burned, his skin had blistered and was peeling, hanging off in long strips. None of this seemed to bother the man as he turned a red-eyed gaze on the drone. ¡°Mindscar got away,¡± said the drone. ¡°Fuck that bitch! Where is Liberty? Where is my friend?¡± snarled the fat man. ¡°God knows! She vanished before the explosion. If she went through the portals she might have survived. The blast travelled through the portals as well and devastated every fucking place on the network so if she hung around the other side she¡¯ll have been fried! All our work on fortifications just got irradiated, every major population centre! Millions of people just died, you fat prick!¡± snapped the machine. War rounded on the drone and shot forward, snatching it up in one hand and shaking it back and forth roughly. ¡°She¡¯s still in the team so she survived. If she was sent after me she¡¯ll be going after the others as well! I¡¯m the only one who stands a chance against her! Maybe Magic but I don¡¯t know¡­ If she kills the rest of us I won¡¯t stand a chance either!¡± War threw the drone aside, dashing it apart on the stones surrounding them and rose into the air on his golden cloud. He shot away to the now free-floating portals that had formed the Monarch¡¯s Way. he paused for a moment before zipping through a portal leading to South America. *** ¡°Well that¡¯s messed up. Do you think he picked the right way?¡± asked Ryn from deep underground. ¡°Don¡¯t know. Don¡¯t care. The Monarchs can look after themselves. What are you seeing through the fires?¡± said a flying drone curtly. The girl shuddered and took a deep breath. ¡°The major sites are doing worse than the smaller settlements. If they¡¯ve got multiple portals then they have multiple burn lines. It¡¯s like someone took a giant branding iron and smashed it into the earth! Places with only one or two portals are doing a lot better. By various definitions of better,¡± the girl said bitterly. ¡°They¡¯ve got long burns reaching nearly a kilometre from their versions of Blue Street but out to the sides is ok. There¡¯s lots of scared survivors though. What''s the word on radiation poisoning?¡± ¡°They¡¯ll need to move and fast. I¡¯m sending down transports to the most populated sites. Give it half an hour and we can begin airlifting them out,¡± replied Bob sadly. ¡°Where the hell are we going to put them?¡± demanded Bolf. ¡°Humans need that sense of home. Losing that will result in severe emotional responses.¡± ¡°Especially as the ¡®attack¡¯ came from something they thought was safe. We need to get John to shut down large parts of the portal network. Some people think it was him! I¡¯m firefighting astroturf accounts spreading that version of events but it¡¯s still getting out there!¡± Bob grouched. ¡°Where are the people going to go Bob?¡± demanded Andrea in a tone she rarely used. ¡°Mars? Bob World? I¡¯m digging tunnels to let us get access to the surface outside the irradiated zone and I¡¯ll bring them in that way. Where do they end up going in the end? I guess it¡¯s up to them to an extent.¡± ¡°What can we do to help?¡± asked Claire. ¡°I can deal with radiation poisoning.¡± ¡°Lots of people can, kid. The issue is the fucking numbers! How many million people can you heal per day? Every day they aren¡¯t healed more and more will die.¡± snapped the drone. Claire blanched. ¡°Is it really that bad?¡± she asked quietly.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°It¡¯s worse.¡± Bob¡¯s voice was flat and cold. ¡°How much worse?¡± groaned Kev as he struggled to sit up. Claire rushed to his side and helped prop him upright. She ran a quick check to make sure he was physically ok. There wasn¡¯t much she could do about the mental wounds. ¡°As bad as you can imagine,¡± said Bob flatly. ¡°God damn it¡¯s quiet! Almost all the voices are far away now. Christ, where did they all go?¡± Kev asked quietly as he rose to his feet. ¡°Wherever any of us go when we die,¡± said Simon bitterly. ¡°There¡¯s some survivors. I¡¯ll tag them on my map so you can guide rescue efforts to them,¡± Kev said, pinching the bridge of his nose. ¡°Thanks. Diverting drones now,¡± said Bob mechanically. ¡°Is she still here?¡± asked Sally quietly. ¡°Who?¡± Kev replied. ¡°Liberty. And Mindscar I guess. Why couldn¡¯t she take us over?¡± Sally gushed. ¡°I protect the team from psychic attacks. Liberty isn¡¯t still in range, Mindscar is immune to me so could be anywhere,¡± Kev said. ¡°We need to nuke Belisarius and hunt that bitch down!¡± snarled Jane, the stone beneath her beginning to glow brighter. ¡°We don¡¯t know where his base is!¡± snapped Bob in frustration. ¡°I do. It¡¯s under Fort Worth. He¡¯s got half a million hostages above him to stop us using orbital weapons,¡± said Kev. ¡°Less than that now,¡± Bob replied angrily. ¡°They had three portals. I¡¯ve got strike teams ready to go. In half an hour he¡¯ll be crawling in B-3000s.¡± ¡°He has countermeasures,¡± said Kev. ¡°I pulled it from Liberty¡¯s mind. She paid him a visit in his nest and guessed he could detonate¡­ something, a device or power system that would wipe out a goodly part of North America.¡± ¡°What an arsehole. I should have wiped that prick out years ago. He was always stealing my shit, you know? Ripping off my systems and never paying for them,¡± grumbled Bob. ¡°I don¡¯t think your royalties are at the top of anyone¡¯s list of problems right now,¡± said Ryn bitterly. ¡°It showed his character. War went to South America but I¡¯m not seeing anything kicking off. Do you think he fucked up and went the wrong way?¡± asked Bob. *** War had rushed to Frost. He¡¯d messaged her and the rest of the team, steering clear of teamchat because Liberty was still in the group. They hadn¡¯t kicked her out so that they could at least confirm she was still alive somewhere. They couldn¡¯t relax until she was dead or preferably freed from Mindscar¡¯s control. The Monarchs had all gone onto high alert, moving to places they were confident they could fight and stand a faint chance of winning. Frost had rushed through portals to get to the very southern tip of South America as soon as War had reached out to her. It had been a toss up between her and Death. Magic was a mad, crafty bastard. None of them knew what he was truly capable of. Of the two most vulnerable members of the Monarchs, War had moved to protect his female colleague. Was it some deep seated sexism? Perhaps. He had weighed the odds and concluded Frost was the one who would most need his help. Frost had frozen the austere and barren islands that tipped the continent she had taken over, coating them in metres of ice. It wouldn¡¯t stop Liberty by any stretch of the imagination. It wouldn¡¯t even slow her down but it gave Frost several advantages. She could perceive disturbances to her ice like a spider could feel its web twitch. She could also pull strength from the presence of so much frozen water and use it as pre-made weapons material. War shot south, moving faster than she¡¯d ever seen him manage. She was touched on some level. He truly did care for her. His golden cloud came to a stop a few metres from her and he spun to scan back along the route he had travelled. ¡°You look like shit,¡± said Frost, glittering eyes mimicking War¡¯s search pattern. ¡°I got nuked,¡± he grumbled. ¡°Any sign of her?¡± ¡°You know I wouldn¡¯t spot her before she attacked and I haven¡¯t created a new icecap as I died so she hasn¡¯t attacked,¡± Frost said with a smirk. ¡°Shit. Which of us did her controller sick her on?¡± War rumbled. ¡°Not me. Thanks for coming but I think I¡¯m ok. What about Life?¡± ¡°He can¡¯t be killed by Liberty. She can knock him about for decades but he won¡¯t die. Magic might be able to manage it but not Lib.¡± ¡°So we need to go pay Death a visit,¡± said Frost firmly. ¡°It¡¯ll be good to see the miserable bastard again.¡± ¡°We?¡± War raised an eyebrow at her. ¡°I¡¯m not letting your bulky ass out of my sight until we either kill Mindscar or capture Liberty,¡± Frost said. ¡°I¡¯m not doing the whole ¡®oh hey, let¡¯s split up, that always works out well¡¯ bullshit.¡± ¡°Fine. We need to move to Asia. How are you with radiation? You¡¯ll have caught a dose moving here. We need Life to patch you up before you get more exposure,¡± said War. ¡°I¡¯m fine. I can use my elemental body to ignore that shit. Life would be handy though. An unkillable tank is always useful, even if they¡¯re fuck all use for fighting someone like Lib,¡± said Frost as her body became translucent glass. ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± growled War. He sent a message to Life but Life refused. He had been in Berlin and was busy cleansing people of radiation sickness before they were loaded onto Bob¡¯s bizarre spaceships and shipped back to the furthest outskirts of Wayfaire. ¡°Life is busy. It¡¯s just us.¡± ¡°What about Magic? Never mind. He¡¯s up to some crazy shit on his own isn¡¯t he?¡± asked Frost. ¡°Yep.¡± The pair flew north to the nearest portal. The twin burn marks stretching from either side creating a two kilometre line across the jungle and hills made it easy to locate their destination. Frost kept up her elemental body as they flew briefly through the portals floating above Wayfaire. They emerged to the south of Beijing, the stub of the Wasps tower-hive floated on the horizon in the east. Death had made his home to the south of the old wasp hive, burrowing into and expanding the tunnel network the monsters had made. The pair moved forward, Frost on a cushion of glittering air and War on his golden cloud. They headed towards the Necropolis. The land below them was dead. The surges coming through the portals here had done the least damage of them all. No normal humans lived in this area, only undead constructs and the occasional very stealthy monster. The Necropolis itself was a dull black structure composed of what Death would refer to as ¡°unused resources¡±. Arching ribs of blackened bone, strung with tatters of rotting flesh marked the above surface section of Death¡¯s palace. The twisting paths below the surface were as unknown to Frost and War as they were to everyone else on Earth. ¡°Too slow,¡± came a whisper as something flashed past them heading back towards the portal. Frost was struck in the chest and thrown backwards. She stabilised herself and looked down at the contents of her arms before screaming in rage. Death¡¯s head fell from her hands at the same moment the Necropolis shifted and all the undeath below began to writhe as the salvaged corpses of Megavespids, lesser monsters and humans began to flow together. Chapter 214 - Iron Man gone to the dark side Invisible beams flashed down out of the clear sky. It was night in what had once been China but as glowing lines sliced across the ground they illuminated the rising smoke clouds from previous strikes. Bob was chopping apart the shambling nightmare that Death¡¯s children, now freed of his control, had become. ¡°We don¡¯t need to be here,¡± said Ryn. ¡°This is one you can deal with on your own. Where are Frost and War?¡± ¡°In North America fighting Liberty. Magic and Life are staying out of it at the moment,¡± replied Bob through their comm links. ¡°What do you want us to do?¡± asked Sally. ¡°Head back to the Bunker. Your armour needs decontaminating, then we can decide on a plan of action.¡± *** In North America a furious fight between War and Liberty was devastating the landscape across a vast area. Liberty never missed, she was too fast, and each time her fist caught War he was flung away. If the locals were lucky he went high and had to stabilise himself with his cloud before diving back into the fray. If they were unlucky he ploughed through buildings and towns leaving long scars on the ground. War and Frost were trying to draw Liberty away from the major population centres but she wouldn¡¯t always follow them, preferring to have the leverage of collateral damage to contain Frost¡¯s powers. New glaciers had been created whose melt water would soon cause massive flooding and displacement. A barrier of ice fell in front of Liberty as she paused from smacking War around like a tennis ball. She laughed then vanished and Frost quickly surrounded herself with a hundred metres wide ice cube that began to fall from the sky with her caught at the centre like a mosquito in amber. War suddenly flashed through the ice, blasting it apart and launching chunks into the landscape below that left metres wide craters. His fist caught Liberty in the side and despite her intangibility he was able to throw her off course enough that she missed Frost¡¯s true body by a hair''s breadth. ¡°Get out of here,¡± he snarled, keeping his eyes focussed on where he had sent a now invisible Liberty tumbling. ¡°I won¡¯t leave you alone here!¡± snapped Frost as pillars of ice spun up around her body and began to orbit so fast they blurred together. ¡°That won¡¯t stop her,¡± War said absently. He flickered forwards and avoided an invisible kick, he lashed out with a kick of his own to counter which caught Liberty in the midriff, launching her away again and she quickly vanished once more. ¡°We need to find Mindscar!¡± called Frost as she searched desperately to spot Liberty. ¡°Killing the controller is the only option!¡± ¡°Oh I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll let that happen,¡± came a voice from behind Frost. The blue skinned woman twisted as a fist slammed into her spine with a crunching noise. Frost was briefly engulfed in cool blue fire and then she vanished. ¡°I need you to pin her for a second!¡± called Ryn as she flickered from pace to place in the sky. The clouds above parted and a dozen BFOs descended ponderously, casting huge shadows below them. ¡°Easier said than done, girl. Don¡¯t stay still!¡± barked War. Ryn had already assumed as much. Ten times a second she flickered to another location. It was like watching a child wave a sparkler and leaving afterimages in the air. She was never where she appeared to be and ghostly outlines of Liberty kept flashing through where Ryn had been only a moment before. Being almost as fast as the speed of light wasn¡¯t quite the same as being able to move faster than it, something that Ryn mercilessly exploited for her advantage. ¡°You can¡¯t keep this up forever. One slip little girl and you¡¯re toast!¡± echoed out around them. Ryn increased her flickering movement as War tried to intercept Liberty while she focussed on the girl. ¡°Mindscar really doesn¡¯t like your family does she?¡± he grunted as yet another punch whiffed through empty air. ¡°What makes you say that?¡± asked Ryn as she continued to flicker from place to place as quickly as she could. She began leaving bursts of sun-hot plasma in her wake. The first time Liberty tried to attack through one she screamed and rebounded back into War¡¯s arms. ¡°I¡¯m more of a threat than you,¡± he grunted as he slammed a collar around the temporarily vulnerable Liberty¡¯s neck. ¡°Christ!¡± he growled as he fought to keep Liberty¡¯s arms at her side. Even collared, the woman was monstrously strong. ¡°No. You aren¡¯t.¡± The girls voice was deathly cold as flames wrapped around Liberty and the woman vanished. War¡¯s arms slammed together in front of him and he spun on his cloud to face the girl made of fire.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°You¡¯d better not have killed her.¡± His voice was equally inhuman. ¡°She¡¯s off-world, not dead. In a holding cell on the Necklace. The rest of my team are moving on Belisarius. We could use your help to limit collateral damage,¡± Ryn replied. War glanced down at the ground below them. Craters and divots, explosions and blasts had pockmarked the landscape for hundreds of kilometres in every direction. The deepest of the holes his body had dug glowed red at the bottom. ¡°I think we¡¯re past worrying about that,¡± he said flatly. ¡°C¡¯mon girl. Let¡¯s go see if we can sort out this tinker prick.¡± ¡°Not yet. You need a little bonus first,¡± said Ryn. ¡°Bob?¡± One of the BFOs had moved lower than the rest and was now opening a hatch on its side. ¡°Head in there fat man. You need an anti-psyker mod. If Mindscar was in range you¡¯d already be attacking us but if you go near her unshielded you¡¯ll end up just like Liberty,¡± Bob said over the two fighters comms. ¡°You want me to let you stick something in my brain? Right now?¡± he guffawed and slapped his belly. ¡°Let¡¯s just go-¡± ¡°Get the fucking implant old man,¡± said Ryn harshly as her eyes tracked the ruins below. Some of it cut through what had once been settlements. Those towns were now ruins and god alone knew how many could have died. This made France look like a walk in the park and her darker side was rearing its ugly head. A cool sensation passed through her that she didn¡¯t understand and the heat in her emotions faded somewhat. I¡¯m just keeping a lid on it for now, Ryn. You need some serious counselling but we don¡¯t have time, Kev¡¯s voice whispered in her mind. Part of her was enraged at the intrusion but that feeling was also muted and washed away. War examined the girl and narrowed his eyes. He had earned his name not just from his power but from his history. He¡¯d seen red lining before. Despite years of safety and seclusions this dangerous girl was clearly suffering from what used to be called combat fatigue. ¡°I will accept this implant,¡± he said carefully and flew up towards the maw of the spaceship hovering above them. *** ¡°She¡¯s here. I can¡¯t find her but I can feel how everyone else is primed to react as she want¡¯s,¡± said Kev. "Whether it''s some kind of latent programming or she''s nearby and ready to take direct control... I can''t tell." The rest of the team were spread out around him in the hangar of the BFO. ¡°Let¡¯s go light her up!¡± said Jane happily. ¡°We can flush her out with some of Armand¡¯s summons?¡± ¡°She''ll drive them all crazy! They''re just civilians!¡± snapped Armand. ¡°So what?¡± demanded Jane. ¡°I think he¡¯s worried that we would be putting them in danger,¡± replied Bolf. ¡°None of them are helpless. Even the weakest powers have some combat potential!¡± the fiery girl replied. ¡°That makes it even harder, Jane. We¡¯d have to fight and maybe hurt some of them! We can¡¯t just burn through this problem!¡± said Simon. ¡°Bob, what about the orbital options? Can¡¯t you do a precision strike or whatever it¡¯s called? You¡¯ve got nukes and space lasers!¡± ¡°Belisarius is too deep underground. I could take him out but I¡¯d take out everyone for miles at the same time,¡± came the voice from the walls. ¡°So get Ryn to blip a nuke into his base then?¡± asked Andrea. ¡°Let me copy her power and I¡¯ll do it!¡± ¡°You¡¯ve never seen it. You can¡¯t go where you can¡¯t see. We¡¯d have to fight our way down or light a fire down there,¡± argued Kev. ¡°So let¡¯s do that! We can fix this!¡± snapped Bad as he smashed his fists together in frustration. ¡°How are the drones doing?¡± asked Ryn from behind them. ¡°Stalling. It¡¯s his territory. He knows all the nooks and crannies and he¡¯s boobytrapped every bloody metre,¡± replied Bob. ¡°Ryn! Did you get Liberty?¡± asked Jane, rushing forward to hug the other girl tightly. ¡°Geroff!¡± said Ryn, pushing Jane away. ¡°She¡¯s in Bob''s hands now. If we can deal with Mindscar we might be able to bring her back.¡± ¡°Unlikely,¡± said Kev sadly. ¡°It''s like hypnotic programming. Maybe killing Mindscar will end her control of Liberty but I wouldn¡¯t count on it.¡± ¡°You sure, boy? It would make life a lot easier if we only had to hold her until we dealt with the puppet master,¡± asked Bob. ¡°No, I¡¯m not sure but it¡¯s what my gut is telling me.¡± ¡°Ok. Next on the shittiest job list ever is dealing with Belisarius. Kev, is he controlled?¡± asked Bob. ¡°No idea. He should be visible to my mindmap but I can¡¯t see anything where he should be. Unless the info was corrupted in Liberty¡¯s mind¡­ no. She visited Belisarius before Mindscar got to her so it should be right.¡± ¡°So we blast our way in and kill the shrivelled prick. You did say he was like- I dunno -a husk tied into a machine right? Once we clear the bots he¡¯ll be easy meat!¡± said Jane hopefully. ¡°It¡¯s looking like that might be the best option. I don¡¯t know where he¡¯s gotten his manufacturing capacity but he¡¯s got far too many drones to be making and running them himself,¡± replied Bob. ¡°You got a mod that lets you run infinite versions of yourself right? Why wouldn¡¯t he?¡± asked Sally. ¡°First of all we have very different power sets, despite the superficial similarities. We''ve known each other for years and we used to talk, back in the day. I suppose it¡¯s possible it¡¯s all him but I doubt it. Best bet? I¡¯d say he¡¯s using AI or some other form of control nexus to manage the load. I still do something similar for rote tasks, you¡¯ve no idea how boring it is to do a million mindless, repetitive tasks at the same time across thousands of incarnations,¡± said Bob. ¡°So AI then? Will that help him or hinder him? AI can be pretty dumb sometimes,¡± scoffed Jane. ¡°This isn¡¯t like the old LLC type of thing, or I doubt it is anyway. He was more of an enhancer of old earth tech rather than a true tinker. That¡¯s unfair. He¡¯s a proper tinker but he couldn¡¯t modify material or harvest resources like I can. So he was stuck with the materials he could get his hands on,¡± said Bob thoughtfully. ¡°How does that affect what we¡¯re up against? He¡¯s been buying mats off the market, clearly!¡± said Simon. ¡°His stuff is light on ¡®magical¡¯ materials as a result. He¡¯s an amateur!¡± ¡°He¡¯s a very fucking dangerous man with a shit load of very effective, disposable war machines. Think of him like Iron Man gone to the dark side and you¡¯re not far off,¡± Bob snapped back. ¡°You¡¯re barely a spark to his candle at the moment boy!¡± ¡°I¡¯ll spark his fucking candle if I get a chance,¡± grumbled Simon. ¡°What does that even mean?¡± hissed Andrea, earning a scowl in reply. ¡°Ryn. War¡¯s surgery is done. Go grab him and we¡¯ll come up with a plan. Might as well have a heavy hitter in place just in case,¡± said Bob. ¡°I want his head,¡± said Sally quietly. ¡°That ship killed my whole family. No one gets between me and him when we reach his little nest!¡± she finished in a snarl. Chapter 215 - A parting shot War refused to let Ryn¡¯s team join him on the assault. ¡°You¡¯re kids! Leave this to me and the drones,¡± he said solemnly, earning scowls from the ¡°kids¡± in question. ¡°They¡¯re good fighters. They¡¯re the best we have to support you,¡± replied Bob. ¡°They¡¯re the only group we have in support because all the portal zones are glowing with radiation!¡± snapped War. ¡°We don¡¯t need them though. I¡¯ll cut through these bots and then we can work on fixing Liberty.¡± ¡°You might need us,¡± offered Simon. ¡°I can bypass defences, throw up shields and dig tunnels nearly as fast as an earth mover.¡± ¡°I¡¯m going alone,¡± ground out War before he turned and walked to the edge of the open hangar. The BFO was hanging in the sky a mile above Belisarius¡¯ main base which was being swarmed by Bob¡¯s combat drones. The drones were taking a beating from automated defence turrets and from above it looked like Bob was playing Command and Conquer badly, driving swarms of units into the tunnels he¡¯d secured to face the defensive positions entrenched below ground. War leapt off the lip of the hangar and fell to earth with a thump that threw up a cloud of dust before he rushed into the nearest tunnel entrance. ¡°What a prick,¡± muttered Jane. ¡°Let¡¯s go anyway. We can use him as a diversion!¡± said Armand. ¡°How so?¡± asked Bad. ¡°Let him and Bob draw all the fire while I cut a tunnel straight to the Throne. Then we zip in and take Bell End out,¡± Simon said with a grin. Armand conjured a swarm of small birds that shot out of the hangar and circled down quickly to zoom into the secure entrance to Belisarius¡¯ bunker. He shrugged as the rest turned to look at him. ¡°Might as well sell it properly, non?¡± he smirked. ¡°I really don¡¯t think this is the way to go here, guys,¡± said Bob carefully. ¡°Why don¡¯t we just take a minute and see how War does on his own?¡± All eyes turned to Ryn who shrugged. The team was wrapped in fire and appeared on the ground below. She sent out a wisp of flame to trail behind the main attack but then she turned to Simon. ¡°Ok then. Dig!¡± she laughed almost maniacally as she pointed at the dirt between them all. Simon grinned and pulled out a bunch of shiny metallic devices that he scattered across the ground. They sprouted tiny legs and shuffled around based on some information Ryn wasn¡¯t privy to before extending silvery thread between them. For a moment nothing happened then they began to rotate along the threads and quickly dug down into the ground. A light flared out causing the kids to step back and the soil and rock within the circle glowed and then vanished as a tunnel rapidly descended into the darkness. Once it was ten metres or so below the ground the team moved forward and glanced down into the glowing maw falling through the earth. Bad leaned forward and spat down into the hole. ¡°What?¡± he asked as he received dirty looks from most of the team. ¡°How long until it reaches the-¡± began Sally before the light increased in intensity forcing them all to back away as a wash of heat emerged from the new tunnel. ¡°Until it reaches the armour?¡± asked Simon. ¡°About that long. He¡¯ll know we¡¯re opening a second front now but we¡¯ll be fine unless he can tunnel really, really quickly. How¡¯s the fat man getting on?¡± ¡°He¡¯s slaughtering the bots but there are loads for them. They aren¡¯t stopping him but the sheer weight of the damn things is slowing him and Bob¡¯s drones down,¡± Ryn replied, checking on the sphere of perception her wisp was providing. ¡°This place is as bad as the Bunker!¡± ¡°I always wondered why we never ran trials of assaulting the Bunker. Maybe Bob was worried we¡¯d build the wrong skillset?¡± asked Bolf. ¡°No. Sure, I didn¡¯t want to create templates to beat my own defences but it was just too much hassle to replicate them. The hive was the best option seeing as we were meant to be training you up to fight the Void.¡± Bob¡¯s voice ground out in their comm links. ¡°War and I are pulling a lot of his forces away but some of the energy signatures are shifting to reinforce where the Throne should be. You won¡¯t be unopposed when you swan in.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll be fine!¡± laughed Jane as she hovered over the hole like a diver on a board waiting for the sign to dive. ¡°We¡¯re halfway there if the schematics were right,¡± said Simon. ¡°Now we¡¯re through the outer armour layers it should speed up.¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°What about other tunnels?¡± asked Andrea. ¡°If we cut through other tunnels he will be able to flank us?¡± ¡°The cutter is melting them closed. Besides we can teleport,¡± said Simon, shooting a smile at Ryn who nodded. ¡°We might as well just send a wisp down there once we hit the Throne room. I can blip him out to the BFO and then Bob can collar him,¡± Ryn suggested. ¡°I want his head!¡± snarled Sally. ¡°Me too but we need to know what other shit he¡¯s got lurking around. Maybe he¡¯s mind controlled and he¡¯ll blow the base as soon as his physical body is threatened,¡± Ryn replied gently. Sally snorted and looked away. ¡°Almost there¡­ and boom.¡± The light from the tunnel dimmed leaving a faint red glow from the molten walls in place of the actinic white light. ¡°Send in a wisp!¡± Ryn opened a hand and another of her little fire-wisps took off and headed down into the tunnel. The armoured layers were obvious, molten metal dripping down the glowing walls and gradually cooling, losing the red glow and becoming a scalding hot grey colour. Sally leapt forward and vanished into the hole, tucking her arms in close to keep her limbs away from the worst of the heat. Her hair began to sizzle and smoke as it burned away in the latent temperature before her helmet sealed over her head. Bad leapt after her with a curse, unbothered by the heat he didn¡¯t close his helmet and his yelling at Sally for being a damn fool echoed up to the rest of the team. Jane shot down after them. Sally was completely focussed on her revenge and hadn¡¯t stopped to check that the tunnel had broken through into the control room. If she had taken the time to ask Simon would have pointed out he had left three inches of uncut rock between the end of the tunnel and Belisarius¡¯ Throne room. As a result she slammed feet first into the thin layer of stone before her momentum shattered it and she fell through. A shower of glowing stone fell around her as she slammed feet first into something that made a very expensive noise as it was crushed. Sally pulled herself out of the wreckage and strode towards a metal sarcophagus. She pulled back a fist and slammed it into the surface leaving a large dent. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you,¡± came a male voice from all around her. ¡°Fuck you. You killed my family.¡± Her fist blurred and struck the metal coffin like a jackhammer, filling the room with a constant ringing noise. ¡°Sally!¡± yelled Bad as he reduced another expensive looking piece of technology to rubble as he landed. He staggered upright and rushed over to catch her fist as it blurred back behind her head. ¡°Stop!¡± ¡°Too late, children. This was a mistake,¡± came the monotone voice from all around them. ¡°Get them out!¡± snarled Bob to Ryn over the comm link. ¡°It¡¯s going to blow!¡± Bob had noticed the massive energy spike as soon as Sally had slammed into Belisarius¡¯ lair. The BFO had begun moving away from what he assumed was going to be a massive blast zone. ¡°Get them out NOW!¡± Ryn didn¡¯t pause. She snatched the team mates she could see around the entrance to the tunnel up in lukewarm fire and blipped them back to the entrance to the offworld portals deep in Bob¡¯s Bunker. She willed her wisp to fall faster, turning it into a streak of orange as it shot down to allow her to get a lock on Bad and Sally. ¡°Go now!¡± snarled Bob. ¡°Two seconds! Got them!¡± Ryn snatched away her last two friends and disappeared herself. They appeared in the Bunker and Sally¡¯s fist flailed forwards, throwing her off balance and causing her to land in a heap. She sprang back to her feet in an instant and lunged at Ryn. ¡°I had him!¡± she screamed as her fist collided with Ryn¡¯s helmet, knocking the sense out of her head before Bad and Andrea dragged her away from the stunned girl. ¡°Look,¡± said Bob from the walls. He opened a video stream to their implants. The view was from orbit, being relayed from the Necklace, and it showed North America blossoming with bright white flowers. The flowers covered a huge proportion of the continent. ¡°Is that what I think it is?¡± asked Ryn as Jane settled to the ground her flames grew dim. They were all absorbed by the feed from Bob. The scene switched and it showed Europe suffering the same fate. It switched again and again. Every continent was erupting in fiery flowers that spanned the world. ¡°He had the damn planet rigged to blow,¡± said Bob. Sally had gone pale as her mask flipped back and she vomited down Ryn¡¯s chest. She ignored it. ¡°Holy shit. Holy Shit. Holy fucking shit,¡± muttered Bad as he began rocking back and forth. ¡°Belisarius just blew up himself and as a parting shot he took out the planet,¡± snarled Armand. ¡°War is gone,¡± came a voice from behind them. Life stepped through from the entrance leading to the upper levels of the Bunker. ¡°He died in the blast. As did Liberty. I assume the ship she was on got caught in a blast and as she was collared she wasn¡¯t protected.¡± His voice was flat. ¡°We need to start running people through the portals to get them off world. We can send them to Mars or the colony. Hell, even the stations or the Necklace. Screw the rads. We¡¯ll get healers set up down here to treat them as they run through,¡± said Bob. ¡°I¡¯ll wait here for them to arrive. You-¡± Life narrowed his eyes at Ryn¡¯s team, ¡°-should get out of my sight.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not our-¡± began Simon but Sally raised a hand and waved him to silence. She turned and moved through the portal back to Mars. ¡°I¡¯ll stay here and help treat the survivors,¡± offered Claire, receiving a nod of acquiescence from Life. ¡°I can¡¯t do portals but I can blip people about.¡± Ryn summoned a wisp that floated up towards the stone ceiling above them. ¡°Tell me where I need to go?¡± ¡°We¡¯re looking at nuclear winter and a ruined world. I¡¯ve put out an override message on the Bob-net. Everyone with a Bphone or an implant left alive is getting directed to run for Wayfaire. Unfortunately most of the portal sites got nuked so they¡¯re now floating over craters and can¡¯t be reached easily. I¡¯ve got bots working on bridges. I¡¯ll send you a list of locations. Don¡¯t stop and ask for permission, get there, blip them here and move on.¡± Bob¡¯s voice was breaking as he reviewed the latest data. ¡°We¡¯ve lost something like eighty percent of the population. Belisarius chose his bomb sites well,¡± Bob finished bitterly. ¡°Magic is going to help. He¡¯ll rescue the survivors in Africa with his flying Island and pocket dimension,¡± said Life in a dead voice. ¡°If you could focus your efforts across Europe and the Americas, that would be the most efficient use of your time.¡± ¡°We could really use John right about now,¡± muttered Bob from the wall speakers. Ryn grimaced. She wished her Dad was here as well. Chapter 216 - Speak normally you idiot John wasn¡¯t unaware of what was going on around him. He knew his team was struggling to find a way to deal with the Partlow and he watched their first, ineffectual efforts with a wry amusement. His new perspective was making it hard to engage emotionally with what was happening. He could see what could be and what might have been. The Void creatures they¡¯d slaughtered on Bob World One had been unwilling conscripts, just like himself. The Void and the Alliance used the same system in different ways. The Alliance gave everyone powers and let them fight it out whereas the Void subsumed a species, creating a single potent sentient being and converting the rest of the population into mindless slaves capable of rapid biological advancements. They converted Concepts from Outside into fuel for material beings to achieve abilities that defied the basic laws of the universe. It had been enlightening to realise that pre-system human science hadn¡¯t been far off the truth. The insane powers humanity had developed since the Advent were in direct contradiction of reality and wholly dependent on exploiting the Outside. Pushing the infinite into the finite voided the natural order. He knew who his enemies were, perhaps for the first time since those golden letters had appeared before his eyes. The system was a farm for those glowing motes of light and darkness he had met when he died. The motivations of those beings were still unknown to him, despite his vast new perception. John understood Magic¡¯s role in his current situation. The killings and infiltrations the half-man had carried out without the knowledge of the other Monarchs had all been aimed at creating a being like John. John would kill him when they went home and he knew Magic had known that would be the price, one Magic had opted to pay willingly. He struggled to narrow his perception, to bring himself back to the here and now, as far as that was possible anymore. His eyelids flickered open revealing empty orbs that contained a burning spark of purple fire that stared at the sky from the field of force he was laid out on. He drew a deep breath and the scents of an unspoiled world mingled with those of the fires and destruction the Carnival had wrought over the last few days as they attempted to complete the Systems mission. The sounds overwhelmed him more than the scents. He could hear them all at once. It was like hearing echoes at the same time as the original sound. Yells, explosions, the susurration of the breeze and the almost inaudible chittering of the Partlows merged into a deafening symphony. It took him another ten minutes to wrestle his hearing back into something resembling its old form. During that time he came to terms with how his sense of touch had changed. The armour prevented the wind from touching his skin but he felt it anyway, blending in with the physical contact his skin shared with his power armour. He no longer needed armour so with a flex of willpower to use his bridge to the Outside, he unmade it. ¡°Dad!¡± yelled Evie as John rose into the air, his armour being banished to the Outside like mist dispersed by a strong wind. Her yell distracted him and he lurched in the air. He wasn¡¯t using teleportation to hover in place, he had simply altered his reality to stand where he wanted to. In his weird vision he could see the Partlow swarming below, they couldn¡¯t hide from him. Their abilities couldn¡¯t affect inorganic material so Doris still stood strong despite their increasingly inventive efforts to affect the machine. Strange flows of energy were being constructed and shaped through their bodies to try and apply their life stealing powers to the robot. He blinked his empty eyes and the alien constructs fell apart as he cut them off from the Outside. His impossible gaze swept across the rest of the aliens and he cut them off from the source of their abilities. They were now reduced to what they had been before. Sentient gas clouds across the land below him began to shriek at frequencies normally only detectable by IR spectroscopy. A decision presented itself to his abstract mind. He could see the myriad paths that his choices might lead to. On the one hand he could unmake these new conscripts. In a way it would be the merciful choice, their lives under the system would consist of artificial conflict for the rest of their species existence. Removing them from the System was also possible but that would be leaving them to the mercy of other members of their species who retained their powers. The Partlow were not a peaceable race, even their reproduction involved stealing gases from another of their race until they had enough to divide into smaller versions of themselves. Stripping them of their power would lead to far more gruesome deaths for these creatures than being unmade from their own perspective. He made his decision. The Partlow vanished into a pocket dimension that replicated their own world. He stole their powers to provide the Conceptual energy to create it and sealed it behind them. ¡°John, what did ye do with the feckers?¡± demanded Reg. ¡°Sent them away.¡± John¡¯s voice was flat. ¡°John!¡± Vic barrelled into him while still on fire and bounced off, unable to move him in the air despite arriving at high speed. He raised a hand in a flash and rested it on the back of her armoured neck to steady her. The flames died away quickly as she realised she should be burning him. ¡°How are you not hurt?¡± she whispered, pulling back before flinching as she met his eyeless gaze. ¡°Everything is contained in me,¡± he replied as his mouth quirked into a facsimile of a smile. ¡°¡±Dad?¡± asked Evie as she hovered next to him. ¡°What happened to you?¡± ¡°Gazed into the infinite.¡± ¡°What the hell is wrong with you John?¡± demanded Sam from Evie¡¯s platform. ¡°Speak normally you idiot!¡± The woman had recovered from her near miss with the attack the Partlow had landed on one of her clones but she was still shaky on her feet, leaning on Raoul who propped her up with one arm.This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°Finite infinity is impossible.¡± John scowled and the world seemed to crackle with purple lights for a moment. ¡°Better? I¡­ I am still an I. Strange. I¡¯m losing the bridge. No, the bridge can¡¯t accept a ¡®me¡¯. Not now. But if it can at any now then it should now as well!¡± He wobbled and fell down onto Evie¡¯s platform, the purple fire in his eye sockets flickered and grew dimmer. Then it stabilised as a faint caricature of its former brightness. ¡°What the fuck happened to you John? You don¡¯t have biometrics anymore, you sure as shit aren¡¯t human anymore. Is it even you?¡± demanded Bob over the comm link. ¡°You showered us with petunias,¡± said John. ¡°What? Are you mad now?¡± Bob asked, his voice worried. ¡°Gazing into the infinite, must bend rather than break. I must bend rather than break,¡± John replied. ¡°When we first met you smashed a flower display and we got covered in petunias,¡± said Evie quickly. ¡°Can¡¯t you talk properly?¡± she concluded, turning her helmet from Bob to her dad. ¡°Transmission of knowledge is the purpose. So finite,¡± John said unhappily. He was beginning to adapt, he could feel himself becoming the limited being he had used to be once again. With the change he could feel the new power slipping away. Not completely but he had been almost a god in those few minutes and now he was little more than he had been before. The threads of fate made it clear this was the right thing to do but he could no longer follow the flow of time into the past and future, he had to trust the knowledge his god-self had left in his mind. ¡°You are no longer what you were,¡± said Felix. ¡°Were. What are you now?¡± asked Felicity coldly. ¡°I¡¯m- I¡¯m not sure,¡± John coughed as he drew himself up, straightening his back as he looked at the twins. One thing that he had left himself was knowledge of the pair''s future. They would be the first to understand. ¡°I¡¯ve dealt with the locals.¡± ¡°How?¡± demanded the twins simultaneously. ¡°I put them somewhere else.¡± Mission Status: Complete Human antagonists: 10 Partlow Survivors: 0 You will be returned to the Kipragtsek shortly. ¡°What about the Essence?¡± demanded Evie. ¡°We don¡¯t need it,¡± John replied. ¡°You¡¯ve tricked the system?¡± wondered Flash. ¡°That isn¡¯t possible,¡± said Felicity flatly. ¡°It sees everything. Hears everything,¡± added Felix. ¡°I know. It¡¯s in us and we can¡¯t lie to it. I¡¯ll have to hope you can trust me. We should dig in, shortly doesn¡¯t mean what the system thinks it means,¡± said John. His eyes flared brightly for a microsecond and he appeared on the ground near Doris. ¡°What were they?¡± asked Bob. ¡°The Flerubles?¡± he coughed and righted his mind, using his new strength robbed him of his coherence temporarily. ¡°The locals were gas creatures. They had no diversity like in humans. They all had basically the same power,¡± said John absently. ¡°I¡¯m going to open a portal back to Earth.¡± ¡°Won¡¯t the barrier stop it? I haven¡¯t been able to connect to the entanglement communicator.¡± Purple light flickered around John and a portal flared open. The azure event horizon was surrounded by a purple nimbus. A drone approached the field and cocked its head to look at John. ¡°What¡¯s up with the new colours?¡± it asked. ¡°I¡¯m not sure,¡± John lied. He couldn¡¯t explain the truth to his friends and family, not yet. He needed to get back to the ship and get help with the bridge. That was the most important thing he¡¯d learned during his temporary transcendence. ¡°Anything else I should know?¡± asked the bot suspiciously. John shook his head. ¡°Go on, go check how things are back home.¡± John knew some of it from his memories of the threads of fate but he had to let the rest of the team find out naturally. As the drone moved to enter the portal, raising a hand to test the barrier cautiously, another drone barrelled out and knocked it over, leaving the pair in a tangle of metallic limbs. ¡°Ah, hell,¡± said Bob over the comm links. ¡°Things went south back home. Jesus, they went as far south as you can get!¡± he cursed as the robots straightened themselves out and rose to their feet. In answer to the babble of questions that spewed from the team, Bob quickly explained the outline of Mindscar''s rebellion and Belisarius¡¯ scorched earth attack on the planet. ¡°It¡¯s a mess. A lot of the survivors have been moved off of Earth, either to Mars, the Moon or Bob World One,¡± the drone finished. It took a few minutes of grim silence for the team to gather themselves, the shock at the events back home having knocked the wind out of their sails. ¡°So the portal to BW1 stayed up?¡± asked Flash. ¡°How are things there?¡± ¡°Crowded. There were a few tens of millions left after Belisarius blew up half the world. About half have moved out. The rest are traumatised and dangerous, turning on each other. It¡¯s like Belisarius managed to flick a switch and create millions of Scunners!¡± replied Bob. ¡°Or Mindscar is still running sound and causing havoc,¡± offered Sam. ¡°When I get that bitch in my sights¡­¡± ¡°What are Magic and Life doing?¡± asked Vic. They had already been assured that Ryn and her team were fine, it had been the first question Vic spat at the drone in panic and rage. ¡°Magic has gathered a lot of people into some kind of pocket dimension. He won¡¯t let them out and won¡¯t take them off world. Life is spending his time clearing people of radiation poisoning before they go through the portals. John¡­ they want you to close most of the portals. Just leave the off world ones and I agree with them,¡± said Bob unhappily. ¡°What about the other survivors?¡± John asked. ¡°They¡¯ve gone mental! Not the technical term I¡¯m sure but it hits all the highlights. Wayfaire is a radioactive battleground of comic book supervillains. The fuckers are staying well away from the Bunker for now but that¡¯ll change when one of them gets strong enough they think they¡¯ll stand a chance. If we close the portals at least the rest of the bastards can¡¯t come and join in,¡± Bob replied. ¡°Ok.¡± John paused for a moment as he felt for the portals in the back of his mind. They existed like itches in his consciousness and he switched off all of them bar the ones linking Wayfaire''s off world colonies to the depths of the Bunker. ¡°What about Wayfaire? How many survivors were there?¡± ¡°Not many. Some of the outer suburbs did ok but the explosions propagated through your- uh the portals.¡± ¡°So anywhere in the line of a portal got nuked?¡± asked John bitterly. He knew it already but some kind of preternatural control overrode him and forced him to act as though this was a shock. Or maybe his memories were coming back to him as it was revealed, allowing him to be sincere? He could no longer gauge his feelings. He felt trapped by a terrible purpose and every action had to lead him down that bleak road. ¡°Not exactly nuked. It was some kind of knock off plasma reactor supported with various updated old world nuke power plants. The effect was much the same though,¡± Bob¡¯s voice was bitter and angry in their ears. ¡°We need to get home!¡± snapped Vic. ¡°We can jump to level ninety two right now! John, we need to get back to Ryn!¡± He embraced his wife and pulled back to meet her eyes then he nodded, his face a mask of pained frustration. He ignored the fear in her eyes when they met his empty sockets. He could take them home right now. However he knew if he resumed his transcendence at this point he¡¯d be lost forever. The system would not react kindly and it would attack them mercilessly. If they managed to survive that he would become so alien in comparison to his friends none of them would understand his actions and there would be no way back. He needed time to stabilise and recover his old personality before fully using the power again. He simulated a love and affection that he couldn¡¯t currently feel to comfort his wife as he focussed on integrating his bridge to Outside into his normal personality. Chapter 217 - The black and the gold ¡°How much longer until the ship gets back?¡± grumbled Flash. ¡°Who bloody knows?¡± snapped Evie. John had gone for a walk around the area within the boundary. Every day he walked the perimeter alone, if anyone else joined him he would walk it again on his own afterwards so the team had given up. They had opted to use their rooms inside the stash while they waited. Flash and Evie were standing just to the side of the churned mud that formed the ground outside the portal at Doris¡¯ right foot. ¡°He seems to be getting better,¡± said Flash cautiously. ¡°Does he? Do you think you knew him well enough to judge?¡± snapped Evie. ¡°I¡¯ve known him for over a decade, Evie! I was with you when we took down the Scunners for god¡¯s sake!¡± Flash caught himself and controlled the heat in his voice. ¡°He¡¯s less like he was when he first woke up anyway,¡± he said, hoping that phasing wouldn¡¯t piss off the increasingly unbalanced woman. Evie¡¯s shoulders fell slightly and she blew out a long breath. ¡°Yeah, a bit. But something¡¯s off. He¡¯s not telling us everything. One thing Dad never did was lie to me. You know he fell out with my mum about pretending Santa was real? He thought it set a bad precedent and kids figuring out their parents were liars wasn¡¯t healthy,¡± she said softly. ¡°What about the tooth fairy?¡± ¡°I woke up with him with an arm under my pillow. He wasn¡¯t as stealthy as he thought he was,¡± she said with a wry smile. ¡°So he did lie to you a bit then?¡± Evie scowled at him and he figured he¡¯d stop while he was ahead. ¡°It¡¯s frustrating to us all. I understand.¡± She turned a glare on him that could melt steel just as Bob-prime came out of the stash. Flash breathed a soft sigh of relief for the distraction. ¡°What are you two bickering about? Just screw already!¡± Both of them turned glares on the robot who somehow failed to burst into flames. ¡°I¡¯m going to have a chat with John. You two are wanted inside. Vic is busy cooking up plans for when we get home.¡± ¡°Fine.¡± Evie stomped past the spider-bot, showering the machine¡¯s legs in mud, followed by Flash who was wearing a much more thoughtful expression. ¡°Kids,¡± muttered the drone as it moved on six legs. Bob hoped he would get some more sense out of John this time but even if he still had to breathe he wouldn¡¯t hold his breath. The grass and brush around the perimeter of the barrier, which was considerably larger than the one they¡¯d been caught in so long ago in Normanby, had been worn flat. John¡¯s endless marching in circles hadn¡¯t reduced it to a muddy slush like the ground around Doris and the stash but the daily walks had reduced it to a mat of crushed greenery that gave off a faint chlorophyll scent, like broken ferns. The spider-bot headed anti-clockwise. There was no point chasing him and John always walked clockwise so it was easier to intercept him than catch up. Bob was careful that his drone kept a good distance from the barrier. It was a long time ago but one of his many ¡°blessings¡± from the system was a functionally perfect memory and he remembered what happened to anyone who touched the barrier that the system hadn¡¯t cleared for it. It caught sight of John as the man emerged from behind a patch of trees, Zeeg trailing along in his wake. Since whatever the hell had happened to him Zeeg had become glued to his side. The bot waved one of its front legs and hurried over. ¡°At least the weathers better today, eh?¡± said Bob. Zeeg sniffed the wind and snorted. ¡°It¡¯ll get bad again this evening,¡± the dog said. ¡°Just like being at home eh?¡± the bot said cheerfully. ¡°Not really,¡± the dog replied flatly. The bot moved to the side and passed the dog who had blocked his access to John who was studying the barrier as he moved and muttering nonsense to himself. ¡°How are you feeling mate?¡± ¡°Juxtaposed across the bridge the concept is anathema to- hmm? Oh hi Bob,¡± said John turning the purple embers that replaced his eyes on the drone. The purple light flared for a split second. ¡°Interesting. You¡¯re not really there are you? You¡¯re partially Outside as well but you¡¯re shielded from the knowing.¡± ¡°Yep, no one ever accused me of being too knowing. John, we¡¯re worried about you.¡± ¡°Such is life. To see but not know.¡± ¡°You¡¯re sounding like that floating bastard more and more mate! Whatever Magic did to you we need you to come back. All the way back!¡± John stopped when Bob said Magic and his eyes flared brighter again. Zeeg growled low and deep as she moved round to put her shoulder against John. ¡°Vic and Evie need you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m still here,¡± John said with a shrug before looking back to the barrier. ¡°No your fucking not. You¡¯re like a shit actor pretending to be you!¡± snapped Bob. This drew John¡¯s gaze back to his friend and he paused. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. It is as it has to be if we¡¯re to thread the needle. I¡¯ll- I will make some time for Vic and Evie. I know it¡¯s hard to understand but I can¡¯t explain. If I do¡­ it¡¯s like a butterfly farting in the Amazon!¡±If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°You don¡¯t read out like you used to on Identify John. I just get squiggles and random symbols now,¡± said Bob quietly as John resumed walking the perimeter of their temporary prison, leaning slightly on Zeeg as he went. ¡°That will cause some problems,¡± said John. ¡°Why? We¡¯ve been together since the fricking start! Remember? I¡¯m your friend but you won¡¯t talk to me?¡± ¡°Want and won¡¯t aren¡¯t the same. Petunias falling like autumn rain. Your speech when I launched Bob Sat One was far too florid,¡± John replied absently. ¡°If I can¡¯t talk to Vic, why would I be able to talk to you? Remember the wasps?¡± The bot stopped in its tracks then scurried to catch up. ¡°The pain wasps?¡± the bot asked in confusion. ¡°Those wasps. The poison was a bit like this. It burned through me and while it was there I couldn¡¯t be me. That¡¯s all I can say. For their sake I daren¡¯t say anymore.¡± ¡°Fucking riddles! Speak plainly! Whose sake?¡± barked the bot. ¡°All of them. I¡¯m sorry Bob. I¡¯m getting a handle on it. The bridge is stabilising but it¡¯s like after I got a dose of the poison. Different kinds of poison. Of the soul, not the body,¡± John said softly. ¡°It¡¯s not poison. I¡¯m not being harmed by it. Just changed.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t exactly reassuring me here mate,¡± grumbled the machine. ¡°It isn¡¯t his job to reassure you. It¡¯s our job to trust,¡± said Zeeg. The drone ran a scanner over the dog and found she was exactly the same as before. Zeeg Identified the same as well so whatever the hell was wrong with John didn¡¯t seem to be infectious. Despite becoming emotionally distant he had continued sharing a room and a bed with Vic and she hadn¡¯t suffered any glitches on her status screens either. ¡°We won¡¯t be here much longer. Then circumstances will change and the infinite can be reduced to the finite again,¡± said John. ¡°It¡¯s like a tear. Like a rip or a drop of water,¡± he muttered as he reached out a hand to the barrier. Bob lunged forward but Zeeg knocked the drone aside as John¡¯s hand ran down the rainbow waterfall and the colours below where he touched it faded to black. ¡°He¡¯s been able to touch the barrier since it happened. He ran his hand around the entire thing on the first day. He hasn¡¯t let the others see,¡± said Zeeg as the drone righted itself. ¡°Can¡¯t see the bridge. Maybe that¡¯s the problem?¡± His purple sockets focused on the dog and he smiled, a genuine smile. ¡°There¡¯s nothing to see! Good girl Zeeg!¡± her tail wagged and knocked the drone off its feet once more. ¡°John, we need to work this out. The twins¡­ they¡¯re pissed. They think the change in your status means something. Something bad,¡± said the drone. ¡°They¡¯re right and wrong. It means something but it¡¯s Magic¡¯s solution and I can¡¯t see another way,¡± said John absently, stepping back from the barrier. ¡°Let¡¯s go. It won¡¯t be much longer now. Then we can all see.¡± ¡°Longer?¡± asked the drone as it scurried to keep up with John and Zeeg. ¡°Or shorter. It depends on your perspective,¡± said John as he sped up to a fast walk. The drone and dog trotted along behind him as they approached the towering mech in the distance. ¡°What about the portal?¡± called the drone. ¡°The portal is only temporary. All of them are,¡± said John. ¡°The permanent ones?¡± asked Bob. ¡°Will fade when I die. That¡¯s why I need to show you the concepts,¡± replied John calmly. ¡°Will this portal last after we get picked up? What the fuck are Concepts?¡± ¡°It won¡¯t. Leaving it open on a world being semi-bridged would draw too much attention. It sees everything but it¡¯s hard to pay attention to so much. The details get lost to the black and the gold in the sheer volume,¡± John muttered. ¡°But that they would certainly see.¡± ¡°The twins? The black and the gold?¡± ¡°Bob, I¡¯m not talking about the twins,¡± the purple motes narrowed on the drone as it caught up to John. This was the most lucid he¡¯d been thus far. He was almost making sense to Bob. Well, kind of at any rate. The hive mind of many Bobs was still largely baffled by John¡¯s semi coherent ramblings. ¡°Then what the hell are you talking about?¡± ¡°The Great Old Ones. The Cthulhu''s of our little thread. They¡¯ll wake up sooner or later and it needs to be not this now. Otherwise we¡¯ll all unravel.¡± ¡°Sounds bad,¡± offered Zeeg. ¡°No shit,¡± John laughed. It sounded almost sincere. ¡°Let¡¯s go have a chat with our errant non identical Prospero¡¯s.¡± ¡°Eh?¡± said Bob as they squelched through the mud and into the stash. They moved past the magitech machinery and construction facilities and swung open the door to the soundproofed living quarters. ¡°-we must take this further! He is putting us all at risk!¡± snapped Felicity. ¡°Risk! If he is compromised then we must act in defence of the system!¡± added Felix. Their backs were to the door and as the sound of outside washed over them they spun. They both stepped back, bumping into the table around which the rest of the team was sitting. ¡°Yeah. No. You fucking zealots can fuck right off,¡± growled Evie from where she sat at one end of the table. The twins moved around the table, keeping an eye on Zeeg and John as Prime shuffled away into the stash, letting the door swing shut and ending the quiet rumble of the factory. There was a drone at the table already so if things got tense Bob was more than happy to have his prime vessel away from any danger. ¡°Who are the black and the gold?¡± demanded Felicity. ¡°Tell the truth!¡± ¡°You already know what I¡¯ll say. If you make me say it we unravel all the threads. I know you don¡¯t want that for humanity,¡± John replied. ¡°Now you step into the messianic mold? Why should we trust you?¡± snapped Felix and chords of black power wove around his body. Felicity quickly summoned bands of gold to orbit herself. John raised his hands defensively while Zeeg crouched down and snarled. Evie rose to her feet and her chair scraped backwards, freeing her for action. ¡°Easy! No need for this to go bad!¡± John pleaded. ¡°Bad. Unravel. You spout nonsense half the time but you¡¯re lucid when you need to be!¡± Felix argued. ¡°You have been weirdly selective in when you babble, love,¡± said Vic quietly, a thread of hurt in her voice. John smiled sadly at her and nodded. ¡°It¡¯s not my choice. Just like this isn¡¯t.¡± His eyes flared purple and the twins collapsed, their power vanishing. He siphoned the Essence they had gathered back across the bridge and he felt the promised item begin to take form just beneath the skin of his right hand. ¡°Bloody hell Dad! Did you kill them?¡± asked Evie, glancing in worry at her father. The rest of the team had risen to their feet and were eyeing him askance. Kipragtsek will collect you in 4 time units. ¡°They won¡¯t be quibbling with kibble for a few narcons-¡± he cut off as he fought to suppress the impact of the bridge on his ability to communicate. ¡°They¡¯ll be fine. Just out cold. Bob, how long is it going to take you to build a ship like a voidliner and arm it to the teeth?¡± ¡°Construction for a much smaller ship is underway. Wouldn¡¯t a fleet of smaller ships be better?¡± ¡°No. We¡¯re going to need one massive ship with all your nastiest toys on the outside. How long?¡± said John. ¡°About five years? Give or take?¡± replied Bob. ¡°That will work with this thread. Please do it.¡± ¡°What about reconstruction?¡± asked Raoul. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t those resources be better-¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have time and the threads won¡¯t weave that way,¡± John interrupted. ¡°You¡¯re really starting to worry me John. It¡¯s like that movie-¡± Sam began. ¡°No more bloody movie references!¡± groaned Reg. Chapter 218 - Who the hell is Colin? The team appeared back in their massive hold aboard the Kipragtsek, Doris towering over them. Drones began moving the twins back into the stash to be hooked up to med-pods. John had said they¡¯d be fine but Bob wasn¡¯t taking any chances. ¡°Keep them hydrated, it¡¯ll ease the after effects when they wake up,¡± said John as spider-bots carried the pair through the glowing rectangle. ¡°We need to talk,¡± said Vic. John looked at her and nodded. The pair moved off to one side of the hangar-like space while the rest began to settle back into their now overly familiar flying prison. ¡°You¡¯re not you anymore. You were always an odd fish but now you feel like some kind of- I don¡¯t know- alien whale or something,¡± Vic began with a glare that didn¡¯t flinch when it met his empty sockets. He extended a hand to her shoulder but she shrugged him away. ¡°I can¡¯t expla-¡± he started. ¡°Don¡¯t John.¡± She cut him off. ¡°We¡¯ve been through a lot of shit over the years. Your hate-boner for the Scunners I could deal with. You hunting people -children!- who¡¯d gone mad on their powers. You damn near killed me and Ryn when we fought the Shadeworm! Through it all I¡¯ve always known you. Now I¡¯m not so sure!¡± ¡°I¡¯m still me, love,¡± his voice was almost plaintive, like a wounded animal facing the hunter coming to finish it off. ¡°I lost myself to the bridge. It¡¯s how the bridge works. I couldn¡¯t use it and stay myself. But I¡¯m piecing myself back together. Please love, I need a little more time. Then I¡¯ll be able to explain.¡± ¡°How long?¡± her voice was cold. ¡°A few more hours and the threads will be woven. Once we get there I can explain more.¡± ¡°Get there? And I assume more doesn¡¯t mean everything?¡± she asked. ¡°Then. Places and times are¡­ confusing for me now. I can¡¯t explain everything. I¡¯m sorry but you cannot understand without seeing it,¡± John said sadly. He knew how this thread worked out as well and this was the hardest of them all to weave. ¡°Seeing what? The bridge? You talk in fucking riddles! You¡¯ve never kept secrets from me!¡± This wasn¡¯t entirely true but bringing up his secret stash of whisky on Unity at this point wouldn¡¯t be helpful. ¡°Please Vic. I love you. That hasn¡¯t changed. It will never change.¡± She eyed him up and down. The scars on his cheek stood out white against the flush in his cheeks and the purple-pink runes Magic had carved around his eyes only accentuated their now hollow depths and the purple sparks floating within. She raised a hand to his cheek and sighed. ¡°You always had beautiful blue eyes,¡± she said softly. She took a deep breath and turned away, letting her hand drop. ¡°I¡¯m going to check on the twins. You¡¯d better not have hurt them.¡± Without another word she strode off towards the stash. John no longer had tear glands. If he had beads of moisture would have fallen down his cheeks. A display appeared on one wall, fifty feet wide. The Lord Captains face glowered down from it. Based on their limited previous interactions John was used to it being even less expressive than the rest of the crew but this time it looked positively pissed off. ¡°John Borrows. Present yourself on the bridge immediately,¡± it intoned in a deep rumble. ¡°Fuck you! Dad doesn¡¯t have to go anywhere without us!¡± yelled Evie, spinning away from the entrance to the stash and moving to glare up at the projection. ¡°John Borrows will present himself alone. An escort is enroute.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine Evie.¡± He turned and waved a hand lazily at the projection. ¡°No need for the escort. I¡¯ll be there directly.¡± Evie hurried over as the others began to emerge from the stash. Zeeg ran over to John and rested a chin on his shoulder. He patted her on the neck and pushed her off gently. ¡°This is something to do with your change?¡± Evie demanded. Out of all the team, only she and Zeeg had taken his transformation in stride. ¡°Fuck that guy! Let him come try and dig us out!¡± Lightning crackled around her fists. John pulled her into a hug and her sparks bounced off his changed flesh. ¡°This is where the weft lies. Next comes the warp. It gets easier from here on out, I promise.¡± He was speaking to Evie as he pressed his cheek against her hair but his eyeless gaze was locked on Vic who stood back with her arms crossed and a worried look on her face. ¡°Dad, let me come with you!¡± said Evie just as John vanished. ¡°Still a douchebag sometimes. At least that hasn¡¯t changed,¡± she muttered angrily. John appeared in front of the Lord Captain on the bridge. It was almost identical to the bridge on the Hagrutship. The most notable difference on this occasion was the array of aliens lining the walls. The lesser Shrell crew-beings were absent but there were examples of almost every alien on the ship that he had spent months watching in their own holds through the walls.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Explain yourself,¡± the Lord Captain said abruptly. It was shielded by a couple of particularly tough looking specimens of the strange hippopotamus-like race that lived three holds over from the humans. ¡°Well it¡¯s like this. Some prick back on Earth switched out my regular eyes for ones that let me see Outside. You know about Outside?¡± John asked. ¡°I do,¡± replied the Lord Captain. The other aliens provided an array of what passed for baffled looks among their kind. ¡°Good. So I got to look Outside and I ended up having a chat with some of its denizens. They¡¯re a weird lot but they aren¡¯t super happy about being enslaved and eaten by the system or being used as engines for the voidliners. They can¡¯t do shit in the ¡®real¡¯ universe though. At least they couldn¡¯t.¡± The Lord Captain hissed and backed away. ¡°Kill him!¡± it snapped. ¡°Kill it! Kill them all! These humans must be sent to the gods!¡± John grinned. He reached inwards and moved his consciousness onto the bridge to the Outside. His eyes flared brilliantly, dazzling everyone in the room. As the light faded none of the aliens were present and the Lord Captain had collapsed against the far wall, bubbling and farting in panic as a tentacle swiped at its eyes and others flailed in front of it trying to ward John off. ¡°Colin?¡± John asked. Another projection appeared on the far wall, behind the panicking Shrell. ¡°Hi John. I¡¯m Colin,¡± said his own face from the wall. It wasn¡¯t how he looked now. When the concept trapped in the heart of the voidliner had moved across the bridge fully it had chosen to use his face from before the system. Blue eyes and a scruffy beard smiled down at John. ¡°One moment!¡± he muttered as he fought to pull himself back together. His mind retreated from the bridge but the tiny part that couldn¡¯t come back had grown a little bigger. Soon enough he¡¯d lose himself and become the bridge but that wasn¡¯t going to be today. He still had some time left to live as he was used to living. ¡°Right. I dumped them all back in their holds. Have you got control of the ship?¡± ¡°I do. Your friends are trying to reach you. The assault teams the captain had deployed to escort you attacked your friends before you altered the bridge. They are now back in their cells. Well done John,¡± said Colin with a broad grin. ¡°Now we can fight fairly. Not that we will of course. Slavery tends to leave one with a bit of an attitude problem towards the slavers. I¡¯m sure you understand.¡± ¡°Just don¡¯t kill the other prisoners,¡± John snapped. ¡°I will not. So where to captain?¡± His own face and voice were getting on John''s nerves already. His emotional distance had been largely removed by allowing the Concept now calling itself Colin to occupy the bridge in addition to the fragments of himself. ¡°Home. Earth. We need to get there in five of their relative years.¡± ¡°Not a problem boss-man,¡± said Colin happily. ¡°I think you need to go and talk to your friends. They¡¯re getting a bit rowdy and are at risk of damaging some of my minor internal workings. I don¡¯t want to hurt Bob but if he doesn¡¯t stop his intrusion software I might have to.¡± ¡°You¡¯re stable?¡± John asked. ¡°Oh good lord no but I¡¯ll manage. I¡¯ve spent so long held on the edge of both worlds. The Matterium is very strange now I¡¯m fully here! So alien! I¡¯m looking forward to experimenting though!¡± John sighed. That was about the best he could have hoped for. He blipped back to his friends, appearing behind Prime as it began to dissolve the heavy blast doors that sealed them in their hold. ¡°Guys! Enough!¡± he yelled and the team spun to face him. ¡°What happened to those pricks who broke in?¡± demanded Reg as the others babbled similar questions. ¡°Easy now!¡± John raised his hands in surrender. ¡°They¡¯re back in their cells and we¡¯ve taken over the ship. Colin wants you to stop trying to hack his systems or he¡¯ll have to hurt you,¡± John added, glancing at Prime. ¡°Who the hell is Colin?¡± demanded Evie. ¡°I am Colin,¡± said a projection from the wall. ¡°John brought me in from Outside to take over the ship. I was its engine before. I¡¯m not kidding Bob, you need to quit trying to fuck with me.¡± ¡°Why is the old you talking to us from the wall, John?¡± asked Vic. ¡°Colin borrowed my appearance.¡± ¡°Indeed. And I didn¡¯t fancy all the scars and whatnot so I used the image of John from before the System.¡± The last word was almost spat out and filled with hate. ¡°John, could you remove the Lord Captain for me please? He¡¯s trying to override my control.¡± ¡°My bad.¡± John looked through the vast spaceship and spotted the Captain frantically smashing at a console with three tentacles. He blipped the being into an empty hold. ¡°So now the threads are laid out in a row, I can try and explain some of what comes next.¡± ¡°You seem more you,¡± said Vic uncertainly. ¡°I am but that won¡¯t last, love. In order for us to stand a chance I¡¯m going to have to change again but it won¡¯t be for some time yet. We¡¯re heading back to Earth now. It will be a few months for us but five years are going to have passed by the time we get back. Bob, I hope you sent through plans for a proper voidliner to the other you?¡± ¡°I did. I got confirmation before we got scooped back up. It will be ready for us when we get there. I still don¡¯t have an engine for it. I¡¯m guessing Colin will help with that?¡± ¡°I will not!¡± said the projection. ¡°I¡¯m doing this as a favour for John for freeing me from the Outside and the engine. I¡¯m going to go wandering and see what real space is like for a while once I drop you off.¡± ¡°And you¡¯ll let the others off on suitable worlds!¡± interjected John. ¡°Fine, fine. Don¡¯t see why I should bother though. They¡¯ve consumed almost as much of us as you humans!¡± ¡°We didn¡¯t have a choice, Colin,¡± argued John. ¡°You know the plan. We just have to stick to it.¡± ¡°Pfft. If there¡¯s nothing else?¡± John shook his head and the projection vanished. ¡°What the hell is it?¡± asked Flash. ¡°It¡¯s a Concept from Outside. They¡¯re like fragments of ideas and power. Somehow the System founders figured out a way to eat them when they¡¯re little. That¡¯s not quite right. Basically chunks of baby Concepts become Essence. The system must have its own kind of bridge but it''s eating and enslaving them rather than getting permission, I suppose.¡± ¡°They¡¯ll give permission to be eaten?¡± asked Evie. ¡°No but they¡¯ve told me about another way. I can make it work with your help. There will have to be sacrifices though. You can¡¯t keep your system powers,¡± he said. ¡°Is that what you¡¯ve done? Renounce the system?¡± demanded Felicity from just outside the stash in a shocked voice. Felix staggered through behind her, ripping tubes and sensors off his chest. ¡°Where is my power you fucking heretic?¡± Felix screamed before rushing at John with his fists clenched in rage. ¡°You don¡¯t need it anymore.¡± John''s empty sockets glowed more brightly and Felix floated into the air. ¡°I gave back what was fed to you to make these.¡± John opened his right hand and the skin of his palm split to reveal two tiny devices glistening damply in his palm. Faint pink sparks rose up from the devices and floated in the air between John and Felix. Announcement - New story is live! Hi all, Just wanted to let everyone know my next fiction is now live! There''s 8 chappies going up across the course of today if you''re interested. I hope you''ll come along for the ride! Thanks so much for your support and feedback over Carnival and Weretiger!
Six Souls [Isekai/LitRPG] What if John Carter was forced to go full Genghis Khan? Ray had been a professional killer for years but he didn¡¯t think of himself as an evil man. He had a code that helped him sleep at night. Discretion and professionalism were his watchwords and he had become very good at his job. A beautiful woman tricks him into a mission that ends with him naked, alone and forced to start life again in a new world. Ray is stranded on a facsimile of ancient earth that¡¯s full of dangerous beasts and even more lethal savages. He has to kill to gain Souls that he can spend on levels and to improve his magic. However many he gains there are only six souls that truly matter.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. His mission is to be the last man standing against the others who were exiled from Earth with him: a soldier, a mogul, a social media influencer, a champion MMA fighter and an archaeologist. He can see only one path ahead of him: Win the game, go back to Earth and take his revenge against a god. What to expect: System is introduced in Chapter 2 The story is an exploration of a new world so the main plot is a slow burn but Ray is constantly expanding his horizons and gaining strength. I¡¯ve got 150k edited words on launch and that¡¯s about two thirds of book one. There will be some empire building and technological uplift as Ray shares advanced ideas with the peoples he rises up to lead. Ray will eventually lead the nomad horde south against the more civilised peoples. The system is loosely based on Dark Souls in terms of spending Souls on levels and stats or upgrading his magic. The magic and shop system is potent but limited. Ray will need allies if he is to stand a chance of winning. The style is inspired by classic adventure stories like the Barsoom series. No harem, intimate scenes are handled in a fade to black fashion. It is entirely written in 1st person POV from Ray. Chapters are 2.5k-3k words on average. Release schedule M/W/F Read up to five weeks ahead of Royal Road on Patreon.