Once more I started making the media rounds, providing explanations and excuses. Convincing the public that the old delf houses were my problem and not Nu-Earth’s problem. That this cult was little more than a minor terrorist organization.
The only way that was going to be convincing is if I went and did something about them immediately after the bombing. Once again I increased Shoshanna’s security and left Nu-Earth. This time I headed for Midnight as my poll numbers began to decline.
Terna and Justin had arranged the visit for me, so I traveled in style on a House of None VIP shuttle. It was comfortable and well stocked, even though the journey would only take a handful of hours. Most of that I spent waiting in line for the Jupiter gate, watching Axle’s statement on the bombing.
“This is what I was trying to warn you all about,” he told Hris C’aze on SNN. The Nah’gh woman was doing her level best to look serious and solemn while in a revealing, low cut blouse. “None of you remember what life was like under Warlord Dawes’ rule. The constant threats, the existential dread and lost loved ones. He, the man himself, brings this death and destruction onto everyone around him.”
I sighed and shook my head. He wasn’t wrong.
“Your campaign released a statement earlier in support of the Dawes campaign, condemning the bombing and wishing everyone well,” the buxom snake-woman said, tapping at a blank paper in front of her on the desk. “So these new statements are completely from you, personally?”
“Yes, of course I feel for those who have been slain,” Axle grumbled. “As I feel for any of my affiliates’ many people. We all face a terrible danger at the hands of Tyson Dawes, if he is elected to power.”
“So your office will be accepting the results of the election? I understand there has been some murmuring from inside the Prescott Tower about that,” Hris said.
“It’s my election, I wouldn’t have held it all these years if I didn’t believe in it. If I am voted out of the CEO’s office, I will accept the affiliate’s decision and step aside. I think tonight more people can understand why that would spell disaster for the multiverse though,” Axle said, ending the interview and causing another dip in my polls.
We weren’t quite in free-fall, but the delf cult was sensational news, and it was not helping my campaign’s public image. I needed to project strength, fast. With that in mind, I took Justin Lee’s call as it came through the shuttle’s comm system.
“Devastating interview, friend. And on top of the bombing, insult to injury,” he said.
“It’s okay, we just have to clean this mess up,” I told him. “We shut down the cult, hard and fast, and that’ll fix our campaign problems. It’s also the only thing I really want to do. They’re threatening people I care about, and I only have one response to that.”
Justin Lee nodded slowly. “I remember well. How can I help?”
“I’ll need everything you have on the Cult of Eternal Darkness, as well as access to your military apparatus,” I said.
He frowned. “Ah, that last bit may be a problem,” Justin replied. “I don’t actually control the planet’s military apparatus. At least, not directly. There is an affiliate board I answer to, and while most of them are on our side in this matter ideologically . . . there is a problem.”
I raised an eyebrow and waited.
“One of the board members has long been suspected to be a cult member. Old great house blood, from the time before the House of None took over. He always has an excuse to oppose anti-cult affiliate action, usually financial in nature. Most of his lies are thin, but enough to stand up in public,” Justin explained. “Without a unanimous vote, I cannot mobilize the planetary defense units for any act other than their normal duties.”
I nodded. “Time to find evidence of cult involvement then,” I said without smiling. “Quickly.”
Justin nodded back and cut the communication. He would follow my suggestions before they had to become orders, but I had to be careful about that around any of his affiliate members. I couldn’t publicly undercut an ally as important as Midnight or alienate any of their populace. The planet was unable to cast votes in the election, but they got involved financially.
When I had left Shoshanna, she had been in a bunker deep under the gulf of Mexico. The underwater city of Elysium had secure bunkers that were impossible to access without BuyMort access, and she moved into one temporarily. Her affiliate rented the space through a security broker, to avoid records and tracing. She was able to talk to her friends and family, but her only company was going to be security guards until I could return.
I felt a twinge of guilt, it was starting to remind me of constantly shuffling Molls around the multiverse, trying to keep her out of harm’s way. Now Shoshanna stood in her place, a target at my side.
The only thing I could do about it was to remove the enemies making life dangerous for her. My only vexation with the situation was the fact that I had to prevent public chaos while doing so. I couldn’t just find and tear the delf cult apart. I had to be seen taking them down, but it had to be done in a civilized manner. Something that wouldn't scare off potential voters when they saw it on their evening news programs.
My journey to Midnight was meant to be a quick, quiet trip. I waited in line like anyone else, portalled through to the lonely solar system Eternal Night, and looked out the window as my pilot used the system’s ice giant to slingshot us toward Midnight itself.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Out the window by my side, a brown dwarf star glimmered in the distance, its dim light shining against Midnight’s metallic composition. The planet was a tiny glimmer beside the purple star that grew larger as we approached.
The view was beautiful, and I glanced at it from time to time while I familiarized myself with all the intelligence Justin Lee was able to provide me on the cult. The House of None’s records were extensive, reaching back the entire century I had been missing. The usual financial trails were all there, as well as security response action reports and eye-witness accounts. My favorite part of the intel package was the rumor mill, though.
It was divided into two sections, natural rumors that sprang up on Midnight in the course of its people interacting with the Cult of Eternal Darkness, and those thought to be spread by the cult itself. The rumor mill contained hundreds of thousands of files, several hundred news reports, and dozens of videos. More than one of the video files were full-length motion pictures, with view reports from the years they first emerged in House of None popular culture.
Through the technical readouts, and the cultural references, I began to get a vague sense of what it must have been like to live on Midnight with the Cult of Eternal Darkness a relevant part of the planet’s history for the past century. Many of the public opinions on it were offset by the financial reports. People gave the cult far more capability than it had ever actually displayed, including more than one plot to take over governance from the House of None.
Most of those rumors were attributed to the cult itself, likely nothing more than an attempt to inflate their public presence. They were the planet’s primary bogeyman, but the cult clearly had aspirations to spread that reputation to other parts of the multiverse. Primarily where delves lived and worked, but anyplace that had favorable public opinion ratings of me, and my legend.
Cultural counterprogramming.
The majority of the cult’s public crimes were surrounding my name, or image. One of note involved a Midnight-based film company that attempted to create a drama series about the transition from the great delf houses to the House of None leadership. Many of its depictions were unfavorable to the former great houses, and within a month of publication the film company’s primary offices were bombed. The type of bombing and explosive were identical to those used against Save the Cubes.
Shortly after, the set shooting material for the on-going series was stormed by angry assailants wiedling long knives. Many of the actors and set-workers were killed before security could respond, and the production was shut down.
At the same time as they engaged in calculated public violence, the cult seemed to direct financial resources toward influencing culture on Midnight. They directed funds to several pro-great house organizations, most notably those that ran news and entertainment programs. For the first two dozen years after the great houses fell, the majority of the content the cult funded was anti-House of None.
Talk shows, news programs, and various informational resources that the people of Midnight relied upon to keep abreast of their planet’s status within BuyMort were poisoned by the cult. They told anyone who would listen that the House of None was at fault for anything bad that happened, and tried their best to give great house remnants credit for every bit of positive news.
This was combined with a number of ‘long knife’ attacks that led to the House of None remaining quiet about their own achievements for decades. Any publication of positive changes or deals made that benefited the planet had the risk of a cult attack.
But the delves fought back. Members of the House of None’s publicity associates began using heavy security around press releases, and personal combat training for each of their staff. Within three decades, a warrior culture had arisen within the House of None, who mercilessly fought back against any cult or great house interference and strove to show the people of Midnight the truth.
At that point in the planet’s history, the cult began to wane in influence. They mounted fewer and fewer successful attacks while the war-like stance of the House of None publication wings grew to encompass more of their affiliate, and then society. Fighting back against the cult became fashionable, and refuting its lies a cultural norm.
During the Cult of Eternal Darkness’s decline, their leadership crumbled. Most of the old great house members that comprised their upper ranks were killed, or vanished from public record. Its population shrank to record lows at the same time its operations stalled almost entirely. The cult became a name, sitting in darkness and silence, waiting.
Which is the state they were in when I stumbled back into the multiverse. An almost forgotten entity, a formerly active terrorist organization that hadn’t attacked anyone or advertised their presence for decades. That time in their history was almost entirely void of action reports or publicity reels, but its financials were as active as a freshly kicked hornet’s nest.
They invested, they funded associate startups, and they loaned morties. The entire cult, quieted by defeat, invested in itself and focused on building a reserve of financial capability. While reading the cult’s final years of financial statements and records, I began to develop the sense of a mind behind them. A singular intelligence guiding the organization. Keeping its profile low while building its mortie reserves. A business-minded delf, or small group of them.
My flight broke atmosphere with a rumbling shudder, and I looked up from the dense reading material. Out my window, once the flames of reentry cleared, I saw Midnight for the first time in a century. The world’s jagged metal mountains rose in tight waves sprinkled with light. Cities and industrial centers dotted the deep ravines between peaks, twinkling at me as my craft came in to land.
Our landing pad jutted from the side of the ravine, partway toward its bottom. I could see the heavy water rushing by below us until the rounded pad filled my vision. Stubby legs rumbled from the bottom of the craft and it hovered in just over the tarmac, just about to land.
A brilliant light caught my eye from higher up the ravine, moving rapidly toward us.
Turrets protecting the landing pad sprang into motion, pivoting and firing at the incoming bright speck. One of them hit it with shining bullets of its own, and an explosion rocked the canyon above us.
“Get off the ship!” I yelled, running toward the entrance myself. “Get out!”
Before I could make the door, three more dots of light descended on us from the tips of the mountaintop. The platform’s defensive turrets only stopped two.
My shuttle erupted, throwing me back as flame and shredded metal filled the air. I closed my eyes reflexively, and when I opened them again I was thrown free of the rubble. My suit hung from me in smoking tatters, and the burning wreck of my shuttle slumped on the landing pad ahead. The starfish suit and crystalline colonies had protected me from any real harm, but I realized the point of the attack when I saw the gathered bystanders staring at the wreck. Cameras recorded the attack, and before I could be collected by Justin Lee’s security teams, they recorded me in my disheveled state.
By murdering a pilot and steward, the cult had shined a spotlight on my arrival. They had set the public’s expectations, and dramatized the event. They ensured the media cycle would continue. The Cult of Eternal Darkness had made sure that my failure, and inability to stop their attacks would be forefront in the minds of everyone on Nu-Earth.