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Jace heard the helos overhead and glanced down at his Dark Matter symbol that glowed through his armor. Damnit, they must’ve seen me on a camera, he thought. “Ollie, we’ve got a problem.” Jace ducked into an alleyway and began sprinting at top speed along the back of the buildings.
Ollie flew out from Jace’s armored clothes and began scanning the skies above. “Oh no…”
Jace kept sprinting, “What?”
“I do not have access to their communication network, but they have a lot of larger helicopters up above us – and they are carrying enormous, armored suits.”
Mechs? What the hell? Why would they call those in? Okay. I’ve got options. “Ollie, find me the biggest factory I can get to fast.”
“Right! Pulling up the map.”
Jace glanced down and followed the path laid out, whump whump sound of dozens of helo’s overhead was a constant reminder that he was being followed.
“What is the plan?”
“Going to fight them inside the factory. Less room to move. Collateral damage.”
“Smart play.”
He got to the factory – an enormous building compared to the smaller facilities he had been clearing.
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[Quest: Stop operations at the Pheracorp Mega-Plant T4.]
[Time Limit: 4 hours.]
[Reward: Rare (Variable) Boon.]
[Sender: Dark Between Stars]
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There were several doors that were made for pedestrian access. Jace drew his sword and cut down the slit along the gap where the hinges would be, and then kicked the door in. He was on the factory floor amongst dozens of churning and whirring bits of machinery and conveyor belts. Next to him was a fire alarm. He reached over, pulled it, and went up towards the control room.
People began evacuating past him, and he waited for them to get by before he slid into the now-unlocked room and pushed the emergency shut down button. Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending], Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3), Wrath’s Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused]. The blade ignited with the purple and crimson nebula clouds, dotted with tiny micro-singularities that flared along the length of the weapon’s cutting edge. The shield that pulsed around him before hugging tightly to his body was a light purple hue.
More prominent than both of these were the crackling near-sparks of popping, miniature stars that exploded into a crimson hue as the Wrath’s Embrace amplified his physical, sensory, and cognitive traits along with how much harm he would inflict. He felt that kernel of hatred for these megacorp bastards explode into a raging inferno as he grit his teeth. The large, vehicle-sized doors that were probably meant to allow for the enormous factory units to be brought in and out opened up, and ten combat-mechs walked into the room.
He’d seen loader mechs before. Exoskeletal suits that were bigger than a person’s body. The pilot sat in the center area of the torso, and their legs and arms went partway into the mech’s arms and legs. The loader mechs were simple design – just clear, central compartments with little bulk except for the legs and arms.
These mechs were military-grade. The driver was fully encompassed by metal, and small cameras enabled them to see the outside world. Their power generator unit was well concealed inside the frame, and they had weapons. Firearms integrated into the forearms, and large, retractable blades. Ollie whispered from inside his hood, “They are the equivalent of Tier 3. Those mechs were upgraded by the Nebula Alliance’s technology. Be careful.”
Jace felt the slight trickle of uncertainty enter his brain, but it was overwhelmed by the surging hatred he felt towards these people. The same people that would have killed him or Chroma without a second thought if they felt like it. He’d seen, once before, a police mech step on a street folk and snap his legs, and they did not stop. They just kept going like nothing had happened.
I don’t need to be careful, Jace thought as he glanced down at his sparkling weapon, feeling the energy slowly draining from manifesting his Wrath’s Embrace. I’ve got the power to make them pay. Leaving the command center’s confines, he jumped down to the factory floor and sprinted towards the mechs.
They saw him coming and turned. He dodged out of their line of sight and got behind some of the machinery – running past the conveyor belts. To his confirmed satisfaction, they were hesitant to open fire and damage their own equipment. In between machines, he threw his sword – the tip went into the chest compartment and buried itself up to the hilt. The machine went limp as the pilot inside expired, and Jace used the (Returning) Augmentation of the weapon to summon it back to his hand.
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Command Victoria sat down in her chair at the console of her command center. Louis was standing behind her – a second just in case something happened to her on-shift – and she watched the alien motion his arm, and then saw the vitals monitor of one of the pilots flatline. She slammed her fist down on the edge of the desk and opened a direct channel. “Fuck the equipment! Open fire! Take that alien out!”
I’ll deal with the blowback later. We kill this alien, we get the corpse…I’ll be perfectly fine.
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Jace ran around the edge of the next piece of machinery and sent his sword flying once more. He scored another easy kill as the weapon pierced the metal as if it was little more than paper. He felt no remorse. No regret. These people deserved their fate. And they did not even see this fate coming their way, due to the invisible nature of Jace’s Skills.
He saw them turn their gun barrels on him. Dark Matter Shield (Rank 2), he thought. The shield around his body shifted and became a full-body-sized tower shield originating from his right forearm. It was fully invisible to their sight, and he brought it to bear as their weapons riotously barked out. A flurry of hot lead spewed in his direction, impacted the shield, and dropped, inert, to the ground. This is too easy, he thought as he flung his sword around the edge of his shield and took out another one of the mechs.
He recalled the blade and moved forward, laughing with a wrathful joy at his power. They didn’t control life and death, he did. He would decide to died here. The corpos had no more control over him by their sheer, overwhelming power. It was his. He could see the mechs swapping ammunition types as the cylinders on the back of the forearms swapped out. He had no clue what type of ammunition they were going to fire – and he didn’t care. Sprinting forward under the hail of bullets bouncing off of his shield, he got right into the midst of them.
Thanks to his amplified damage and physical traits, he was easily able to carve into the mechanical carapaces, cutting through the center. And since he was in the middle of the cluster, they couldn’t fire as freely without risking hitting their own. He was able to just unleash all of his anger. Years of pent-up rage, finally coming unraveled and channeled through the new Skill at his disposal.
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Victoria was gripping her temples. No! This can’t…I can’t let this happen! The alien had just held up their forearm, and bullets had impacted some type of invisible force field and just dropped to the ground.
Louis tapped her soldier, “You’re costing us too many resources. A whole squadron of combat-mechs? They’re being wiped out.”
“Fuck off!” she pulled out her sliverscreen and tapped the icon she was not wanting to tap. A Streetrunner crew that she knew from her days working in lower levels of security. “Yeah, it’s me. I’ve got a job. It’s close. ASAP priority. Kill target. I’ll wire you the creds.” She set the sliverscreen down and plugged it into her work station.
“You can’t do that!” Louis shouted, “That’s entirely against protocol! I’ll write a report.”
“Screw you,” she replied. “I’m going to save company assets.” But just in case; time to cover my ass. She began creating a lengthy report with all of the video evidence and her actions. Maybe someone at the headquarters can get one of those Aspirants or Ascendants to deal with this thing.
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Jace had finished off the mechs with ease, taking in deep recovery breaths as he let Wrath’s Embrace fade and felt that burning hatred in his chest die down. There wasn’t any remorse for what he had done. These were people trying to kill him.
“The machinery needs to be disabled, still,” Ollie said. But his voice was not filled with confidence or enthusiasm. There was a monotone to it. A dispassionate tone.
Jace set to work cutting the machinery apart, “What’s going on? You’re not as cheery as before.”
Ollie shrugged, “You are doing what The Cosmic System deems necessary. What Xera says needs to happen. That is good enough justification to do what you are doing. But you are enjoying killing other people which has not been the case previously.”
Jace paused his hacking into the machinery, and grabbed Ollie by the scruff of the neck, pulling him out of his hood; not harshly, but he wanted to look into his eyes. I just have to make him understand. “You haven’t seen what these guys are capable of. They treated us like animals and trash. They don’t deserve mercy. No one is forcing them to do this!”
Ollie’s calm, blue eyes just looked into Jace’s, and he could see his reflection in the starry pools. Jace looked…crazed. Even though only his upper face was visible thanks to the hood and mask, he looked like one of the insane street folk who had their minds completely broken and acted like animals; when they were, as they were referred to, feral folk. Jace shook his head and hugged Ollie close to his chest, “Sorry,” he whispered.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
There wasn’t regret for his actions. Jace wanted these people to pay…but…glancing over to the armored husks, he felt a tiny sliver of remorse stab into him as he saw blood dripping out of where he had cut into the metal, forming a small pool on the floor. They…they were just doing their jobs. I might’ve just killed someone’s brother; he thought as Chroma flashed though his mind. That could be me if life turned out different.
That sliver of remorse almost ached in his chest, and he had to tear his vision away from the corpses interred inside the metal suits. “Ollie…Dust them…please.”
Ollie nodded and patted Jace’s cheek, having seen the silent war within going on inside of Jace’s head. “Okay,” he said, his tone lightening a bit. He flew out of Jace’s grip and to the edge of his tether range, waving his paws over the mechs as they turned into sparkling, blue and white dust that then flew into him.
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[Stardust Acquired: 1200.]
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Ollie flew back over and slipped into Jace’s hood once more, “You’re just now realizing what it means to kill these people, aren’t you?”
Jace nodded as that sliver dug deeper. But it encountered that burning hatred for all of the hardships he and the other street folk had suffered. The good, rich lives ripped from them by an uncaring capitalist hellscape on Earth. The two tugged at his soul; the burning rage of justified vengeance, and the icy remorse at the realization that for each person he killed, he was potentially ripping families apart.
Ollie must’ve sensed the turmoil going on in Jace’s chest, as he tapped Jace’s cheek. “We do what we must for The Cosmic System. You are enacting Xera’s will, taking down these megacorporations.” He had a soft, sympathetic frown on his little face, and his whiskers amplified the sad expression to an almost comedic degree. “Just keep that in mind. Remember, good and evil are decided by those with power. You can do what is needed, but I do not think it is healthy to revel in killing.”
Right, Jace thought as that icy sliver was slowly melted away as the justification of his actions re-instilled itself. I take down the megacorps, I give every one of the street folk a way to improve their lives. I just need to treat this like a courier gig. It’s something I need to do. Not enjoy.
Flicking his sword once, all doubt washed from his mind at the knowledge that he was fulfilling the greater good, he continued chopping at the equipment. Five minutes passed, the sound of helos still overhead as he delved deep into the factory facility and wrecked every piece of infrastructure he could get his hands on.
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[Quest Completed: Stop operations at the Pheracorp Mega-Plant T4.]
[Time Limit: 4 hours.]
[Reward: Rare (Variable) Boon.]
[Sender: Dark Between Stars]
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Jace could feel the tug of tiredness on his mind, “I need to find a safe place to bunker down. Somewhere without cameras,” he muttered to his Wayfinder.
“Right, I will check with Quinn and see if she can locate some place where you can get an hour in the tent.”
Movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Jace wheeled to his left and saw the tip of a barrel just barely poking out from behind a wall leading back towards the factory entrance where the mechs had come in. Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3), he thought as he ducked behind one of the scrapped pieces of machinery he’d dismantled.
The riotous bang of a heavy caliber round cracked through the air, and thanks to his enhanced senses, he could see – just barely – the contrail left by the bullet. It was a huge caliber round that tore through another block of machinery and even through the wall behind it. Jace heard the clang of a shell being ejected, and the slide, click of a bolt being slid to load a new round.
He heard a clicking noise to his left, and turning he barely stepped back as a figure who was shrouded in some type of cloaking device that rendered them invisible swung a weapon at him. He was able to parry the blow and countered with a savage riposte that the person was able to parry, the brief two points of contact causing the cloaking to flicker as he caught sight of the black-suited individual.
Fine. You want some? Come get some! Wrath’s Embrace (Rank 10) [Focused]. The crackling red energy exploded from around him, and he saw the world seemingly slow as his already-enhanced physical, cognitive, and sensory traits were multiplied by six times their baseline. The person in front of him must have had enough combat experience that they ‘sensed’ something was off, as they took a step back as the aura exploded and crackled with crimson nebula – invisible to sight, but apparently carrying some amount of detectable mass.
Jace saw the flash of the muzzle from the corner of his eye and leaned forward just enough for the bullet to go sailing past his back. “Bring it!” he shouted as he closed with the cloaked figure, feeling his energy draining. Slashing vertically with two hands on the long hilt of his new sword, he carved down through the person’s invisible weapon: seeing the snapped blade clatter on the ground. He stepped in and followed up with a cross-slash from a low guard and carved into their torso.
The crimson and purple nebula clouds stuck to the invisible form and began to spread. “Behind you!” Ollie shouted.
Jace spun around just in time to catch an explosive round to the chest. He felt the enormous crack and boom of a shockwave as he was sent sprawling into the person he had just injured. He felt incredibly tired as the Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3) took all of the blow. Time for some daily Skills. Hope’s Edge and Starfire Stride.
His legs ignited with red flames that turned deep purple after a second and would leave a trail of burning cosmic fury for 10 seconds anywhere he walked – or kicked. As he rolled off and then kicked backward off the wounded, invisible figure, he saw the fire begin to spread. And he heard her scream.
“Fucker has firefoot implants!”
Jace’s sword – still invisible to his foes – ignited with silver and gold dust, just like the skies above the Nethal species’ home world. 10 seconds. Anyone I hurt with this gives me energy. The one in front of him who was trying to roll to the side, he chopped down at. Catching their arm and lopping it off, the person screamed and Jace felt the rush of adrenaline course through him as all sense of tiredness vanished. He let out a laugh. This is what I needed to sustain in combat!
He saw another flash out of the corner of his eye and dropped into the splits as the bullet sailed overhead. As he slid back to his feet, he slashed at the prone figure along their spine, eliciting another cry of anguish as they were not only bleeding from the [Rending] Augmentation, but also on fire, and being torn apart by micro-singularities. They passed out after a moment as the accumulated injuries must have been too much for their mind to process.
Jace wheeled and saw three figures who were either reloading or in the process of swapping weapons. The one with the enormous rifle he had seen and dodged a round from earlier must have repositioned at extreme speed, as they were across the room. They were the person who hit him with the round that blew him backward. To his left, another one of the stealthed figures approached, and he could only see them thanks to the odd distortion of light around their form.
Last he saw someone leveling some type of tube at him. Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3), he thought as he vanished from sight and ran to the sniper.
“Where’d he go!” the one with the tube device shouted.
“Nothing on sensors!” the sniper replied as they fired a grapnel line from their wrist up to the ceiling and flung themselves across the room – repositioning without being any the wiser that Jace was right there along with them. With a smooth, single swipe – he lopped off their head, and felt the rush of energy far outpace any expenditure’s he had made thus far.
“Kelly flatlined!” the other invisible person shouted.
Yeah, that’s right. Can’t fight what you can’t see. Jace ran over to the one with the tube. They turned at the last second, though, and ducked out of the way of his sword swing. What? How?
They fired the tube point-blank at Jace – and he didn’t have a chance to dodge. Instantly he was covered from head to foot in a sticky, adhesive foam just like the grenade that the icy Aspirant had used on top of that resort almost two months ago. And, just like that grenade’s contents – the foam instantly caught fire and exploded, spreading a pyroclastic flow around Jace that coated the person. But as the flames came from his Dark Matter Cloak – impacted form…the fire was invisible.
They screamed and scrambled backward, and Jace stepped up to quickly put them out of their misery. Ollie tugged his hair, “I analyzed that one during the fight. Combat computers in their brain. It calculated the probability based on your combat style of where you would strike.”
“So, they’ve got a counter to me now,” Jace muttered as he went towards the invisible one who was retreating. He caught them with ease and cut off one of their legs. The person fell forward with a scream – a man, judging by the sound. He dropped the Cloak and the Starfire Stride, flipping them over. As he reached up and ripped off the mask, he came face-to-face with the stuff of nightmares.
Wires, tubes, and other mechanical components were interwoven into the person’s face, skull, neck, and chest. A gory spectacle of machinery blended with flesh. Where their mouth would be, instead there was what looked like a solid speaker of some sort. The eyes were prosthetics as well, as they whirred in their skull. Jace pulled them up by the neck, “Who are you and who sent you?”
“Fuck you!” the voice came through the box. “A Streetrunner never gives up their Fixer if they want to keep their rep.”
“Good to know,” Jace replied as he mercilessly shoved his sword through their chest and twisted. The person expired, and he stood up. “Dust them, Ollie,” he ordered as he walked within the 10-foot tether range for his Wayfinder to interact with them.
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[Stardust Acquired: 400.]
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Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3), Jace thought as he let all his other Skills lapse. Running out the back, emergency exit door, he could see the helos all holding place over the facility. And just like that, I’m out. He fired his grapple line at the top of a nearby building, pulled himself up, and began his rooftop escape.
Ollie tapped his chin to prompt him to look down slightly at the now-hovering blue map. “Quinn found you a place without cameras to set up camp for an hour.”
Jace nodded and kept the Cloak on, feeling his energy drain little by little until he arrived at what appeared to be a factory undergoing maintenance on the far Eastern side of Campinas. Ducking inside, he whispered to Ollie, “She sure there’s no cameras?”
“Positive. There is a single camera that only she can access, to warn you if someone approaches. But this building has a basement you could barricade.”
I don’t like the idea of trapping myself, he thought. Pulling out his set of lockpicks, he had one hell of a tricky time with the lock due to him being out of practice. He was exhausted and on the verge of passing out from sustaining the Cloak by the time he got the lock picked properly, slipped inside, and re-locked the door.
The factory was just like the four small factories he had already sabotaged. He went to the stairs and went up. “Why not go to the basement?” Ollie asked.
Jace got to the small landing where the stairs doubled back to the roof and began setting up his (Restful) Wildercloth tent. “Because I’d be trapped down there if they found me. At least here, I could get out via the roof, or through the factory.” After getting the tent set up, he went inside, sealed it up, and shut his eyes. “Make sure Quinn keeps an eye on the place.”
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“Just lie back and we’ll take care of this new implant for you,” The Pheracorp doctor said softly.
Quinn nodded as she laid down on the slab and was fixed in place. Greg was seated nearby, as was Priam. Both were still disguised in their clothing with their real armor covered, and Priam had a deep hood up to hide his features. They were both there to make sure Pheracorp didn’t try any funny business.
And Greg was on her sliverscreen, watching the camera set to view Jace’s tent in the small, abandoned factory she had found before the appointment. Both other Aspirants with her understood her desire to get her brain fixed, and so they went with her as she spent 15,000 creds for the new bionic brain implant, and bionic eyes. Not cybernetics like she really wanted; but she would take anything over this horrible pain of a headache.
She felt the straps buckle down and the person in the mask towered over her prone form. “I’m going to have to apply anesthesia. It’s general, but it will only be for a few moments since you already have the cranium access port.”
Quinn nodded and felt the slight prick of a needle breaching her skin. The world went black.