The warning claxons went off as the whole facility grinded to a halt. Workers began shouting and in the overlapping tumult of voices, Jace drew his new sword which he had not had the opportunity to use yet and was eager to try out. Descending to the factory floor and dodging the workers who were trying to fix the problem, he pulled back and unleashed a chopping cut at one of the belts that fed machine component parts into the next device.
The ease with which the blade went through surprised him and almost caught him off balance. “That…it shouldn’t be that easy to cut-”
“Like I said when you acquired it, cutting power of this blade could damage Starheart Steel – Tier 9 world metal from technology focused civilizations. This metal? Like a knife through butter.”
Jace grinned and took another few chops – carving apart machinery as, to the mundane observers, their devices were simply cut into pieces seemingly spontaneously. Inch-wide gaps appearing in solid, machined steel leaving behind clean slices that coursed with static from the damaged interior pieces.
Someone pressed an alarm, and the klaxons were joined by a beeping noise. Jace felt ecstasy racing through him as adrenaline pumped in his veins. With a face affixed in a smile, he carved through the lines of machinery, chopping them to bits and pieces. Reveling at the chance to just absolutely wreck a megacorp’s property. Something that he had never dreamed of doing when he was just part of the permanent underclass of street folk.
This…this was a true release for him. Finally, finally, he was making these people pay. Pay for harvesting his fellow street folk for spare organs, only escaping that fate on his own by diving into the polluted rivers where the corpos didn’t want to go. Pay for killing Verve who was just stealing medicine to survive a nasty viral infection. Pay for letting gangs run on the streets and taking his sister. The only person who ever truly gave a damn about him. This was revenge, and it felt so good.
Jace laughed madly as he continued to chop into the machinery, brimming with confidence at his ability to finally wreak havoc. Completely without guilt. He wasn’t hurting any people; and if they came at him with a gun or Shockstick? Then it would be self-defense. Fully justified. The workers here just trying to earn a living? He knew they were off-limits; just people in a system trying to survive. But the ones who were enforcers for the corps? He had no qualms about harming them.
“Jace…calm down,” Ollie said as he put a paw on Jace’s face. “You’ve wrecked it enough. Time to get out.”
Jace looked down and saw Ollie’s eyes, filled with an understanding but also wisdom of millennia. “Right, sorry, got a bit carried away.” It was only then that he noticed how tired he was. I’ve had Dark Matter Cloak up for too long.
He went to the nearby emergency exit that was propped open as the people inside evacuated. Jace could hear the rotors of a helo flying in. It was bright green with blue stripes. Pheracorp. His eyes were able to zoom in and read the words on the side, ‘emergency response unit’. The vehicle had two rotors on either side that were contained inside metal shells. The sides were open and several, heavily armed and armored people in similar colors were attaching ropes to descend.
Firing off the grapnel arm, Jace pulled himself up to a nearby building and then ran along the rooftops, jumping from one to the next until he had cleared a good twenty buildings. Sliding down one of them into the alley, he deactivated his Cloak and took in deep breaths, resting his hands on his knees.
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[Quest Completed: Stop operations at the Pheracorp Manufacturing Plant B7.]
[Time Limit: 4 hours.]
[Reward: Uncommon (Variable) Boon.]
[Sender: Dark Between Stars]
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“Alright,” he said as he sucked in air. “Where next?”
Ollie pulled up the map and pointed at the various dots nearby. “There are four different manufacturing plants nearby. B8, B9, and B10. I’ll push the Quests through as you get closer. All the same reward from the two factions that Xera got to donate to you and Priam’s efforts.”
After recovering his energy Jace nodded, “Right. Let’s go. Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3).” He vanished from sight and took off towards the next objective.
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Sector Commander Victoria stood at ease in the command post for Pheracorp’s rapid response unit in Campinas. A child of two security officers, she was born and raised to the position. And this was her first night of being fully in control of the region…for the night shift. And, not alone, as she had a secondary person of the same rank, her academy rival, Louis, nearby.
“Commander, we have a fourth report of a catastrophic failure of machinery,” one of the attendants monitoring the various incident reports throughout the sector shouted.
“Nature of the incident?” Victoria asked. Please don’t be weird cut-up equipment again.
“Video feed is coming in.” The attendant took over the main monitor on the far wall and broadcast his screen to the larger one. Victoria watched as, just like the last three, the emergency stop button was pressed by something unseen, and then about five seconds later, the machinery was carved into by an unseen force.
“Stealth technology?” Victoria asked herself under her breath. “No. Not to this advanced level to avoid all of our sensors. What could be causing it?”
Louis grunted, “Thought you’d dropped the talking to yourself shtick.”
“Fuck you,” Victoria barked back. She looked to the underlings, “Bring up the reports for any incoming vehicles outside of our normal operations. From all of the cameras. Run them through the filter for Pheracorp vehicle tags.” The underling in front of her did so, his hands moving deftly along a keyboard whilst his head was hidden from the nose-down by a helmet allowing for a more direct interface with their systems.
The same person nodded, “There is a group of Aspirants – three total – who were given clearance to set up at one of the old safehouses in central command territory. They made a stop at one of the maintenance stations. No video records from the far-North entry-point since they’re working on updating the outer perimeter.”
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Video records, now,” she ordered.
The same screen with the video evidence of the machines being destroyed showed an older model APC that looked scuffed to all hell and completely scrapped together from spare parts had stopped, and the driver had exited to inspect the vehicle’s wear and tear. Nothing out of the ordinary there, Victoria thought as she looked at the Cosmic Power symbol on the woman’s hand. Huh, Star Cosmic Power. Interesting choice. She adjusted her glasses, choosing to keep them despite not needing the prescription with her new eyes. Purely cosmetic at this point.
“Seems like things are going to shit on your watch,” Louis taunted. The bright, green-eyed and swarthy skinned man chuckled. “You should let a man take over and run the show.”
“Fuck you,” Victoria barked at him once more. She turned back to the command center as a whole. “I want every factory to seal entrances. Every spare helo and reserve squadron needs to be mobilized. Twenty block spread, on station, rotating crews every hour. We’ll figure out who is doing this and force them into the open.”
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Jace exited the last of four manufacturing plants for that night. Less than an hour, and he had crippled operations in what equaled only 1% of the sector’s possible material output. “We need to stop going for these smaller plants,” Jace said as he grappled away to a building and jumped across several rooftops to get some distance.
“There are some larger ones, and those would have a larger impact – but you should do localized hits. Next, we should go a few miles away and hit another group of four to five, and then we can jump to another area. Find a place to hole up and camp for an hour using the (Restful) Wildercloth tent, and then keep going. I estimate that you could clear out approximately 18% of their total capability in one night.”
Jace nodded as he took in deep breaths, “A busy night then?”
“Yup.”
Jace cracked his neck, “I’ve got a lot of Stardust saved up, right?”
“Correct. 4,500. Enough for 3 levels.”
“Wrath’s Embrace only has 1 more Rank, then I’d need something else, right?”
“Yup.”
“Let’s just spend 1,500 and get 1 level to max that out.” The damage amplification is going to be useful if I come across a higher Tier Aspirant or…more likely…an Ascendant for the Nebula Alliance. He felt a chill go through him at the thought of fighting someone higher Tier than him. Granted, the first time that happened, he got the jump on the Aspirant and killed them. But the second time? He lost an arm.
“Here comes the Stardust!” Ollie threw the powdery, light-blue cosmic dust into Jace’s face, and he felt warmth fill him up.
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Name: Jace Seren (Aspirant, Tier 3)
Power [Class Level]: Dark Matter [Swordmage
Skill Name (Rank) [Evolutions]: Universal Translation, Environmental Adaptation, Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending], Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3) [Reflecting], Swordmage Stance (Rank 3) [Astral Annihilator], Dark Matter Dart [Exploding] (Rank 4), Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3) [Group], Dark Energy Mine (Rank 3) [Distant], Cosmic Infusion (Rank 10) [Innervating], Dark Energy Beam (Rank 12) [Limited Range], Dark Matter Mending (Rank 4) [Vampiric], Energy Cost Reduction (Rank 10), Wrath's Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused], Starfire Stride (1/day), Arbiter's Anathema (3/day), Shadow Nebula Smokescreen (1/day), Hope's Edge (1/day), Archmage Geomancy (1/day), Archmage Hydromancy (1/day), Archmage Pyromancy (1/day)
Stardust: 3,000
Equipment: (Returning) Nethaldrim, (Medium / Snowguard / Burnguard) Aegisleather, Ghostlight Grapnel Arm, (Thrice Judged) Anathema Arm, (Overclocked / Lightfoot) Dragonclaw Devastation Legs, (Terrifying) All-Seeing Dragon's Eyes, Mind's Eye Amulet, Thellor's Everguard, (Heavy) Venture Pack, survival meals (x56), enhanced canteen, optimized medical kit, flint bar, flashlight, Omnitech prosthetic repair module (x3 charges), (Restful) Wildercloth tent, Devilsram wool bedroll, 28,000 creds, 38x throwing knife, x2 micro-EMP charge, traditional lockpick set, e-pick
Boons: x4 Uncommon (Variable)
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Wrath’s Embrace (Rank 10) – As Rank 9, but in addition the user's attacks will be x6 as damaging.
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Jace sighed as he felt the warmth suffuse his torso before fading. “Right. So, we’re moving a few miles away?”
“Yeah. The safest way to move around undetected without tapping into your energy reserves is going to be to just act like street folk and walk.”
Jace nodded and made sure his hood and mask were pulled up. He also tugged the cloak tightly enough that it covered the hilt of his weapon. He turned to the alley and headed onto the main road, trudging along in the darkness of the night, the moon barely visible in the smoggy haze overhead. No stars glittered through the gritty air, and thanks to the enhanced senses of Cosmic Infusion, he could taste the foul, metallic flakes that were once a minor annoyance.
Thinking back to Velenar Prime, the magitech world with crisp, clean, wonderful air…he felt that kernel of hatred burning once more. People who came before us, these megacorps, the governments – they took all of that from us. Chroma never experienced clean air or clear skies. She will when I bring her back. That was the end goal he pursued. To achieve Tier 10 to bring her back to life. 7 years and 6 months left, he thought. Then time’s up and I can’t bring her back.
The walk was quiet and Jace passed a few other street folk during his journey to the other part of the city Ollie had marked out for him. He saw the brown, Civilian symbol on their hands, and he frowned as he glanced down at his hand in his pocket. The Cosmic Power symbol burned with a light that he could not hide, no matter how he covered it up. Only his Dark Matter Cloak could conceal it. That’s going to cause a problem.
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“Commander Victoria!” one of the attendants shouted. “We have something odd going on in the lower-West quadrant.”
“Do we have visual?”
“Confirmed. Helo is nearby. But street cameras picked up this.” The man broadcast his screen to the main one, and Victoria saw what appeared to be just another street person – the scum that she’d always looked down on as inferiors because, well, they were to a corpo child like her – who was cloaked and walked with a bit of a shuffling gait.
But the clothes stood out as unique. They were…rustic. Not normal street folk attire. But the item that drew her gaze was the dim, glowing purple Cosmic Power symbol on their left hand. What…is that? It’s not Star or Nebula. Maybe that’s what Black Hole looks like? “Send to the Overseer. He can do a System query through his fancy cosmopanel.”
“Yes, commander.”
Victoria tried to study every feature of the person. She picked up the odd distinction that their gait was too overt. They were faking a limp. The body was too bulky for one of the malnourished rats that she tried to keep isolated in the gutters in her street patrol and lower-command days.
Louis frowned, “An Aspirant?”
“Or an Ascendant,” Victoria stated. “And one with a symbol I’ve never seen.”
“Commander! The Overseer has no results from his cosmopanel search!”
This must be our little saboteur. We can’t risk them slipping away. “Tell the helo team to stand by. This is our man. I want them all to monitor, but to not engage.” She turned to one of the sergeants who was standing by, “Get the mech squad ready and on-site ASAP. Coordinate with the helo teams. You’ve gotta hit fast, hit hard, and do not give them the chance to get away. Collateral casualties are acceptable.”
As she was speaking, the man glanced up at one of the cameras, and she could only see his eyes. Purple, reptilian, predatory eyes. She felt fear coursing through her and felt the instinct to run. To flee immediately and just get out of there. No other feature of his was discernable thanks to the hood and mask. When he turned away from the camera, she felt her mental faculties return to her, but a cold sweat was covering her body.
Glancing over at Louis, she saw he, too, was pale and had clammy skin. What the hell is it? It’s not even human! Turning to the sergeant, she grabbed his communication pin and keyed it to the all-hands frequency. “We’ve got an alien sabotaging the district! I need emergency personnel ASAP!”