I wonder why only five full synergists are on the base.

My best guess is because this planet has never seen an invasion. This entire solar system hasn’t seen war for a lifetime. The people do not rebel. Enemies do not attack. Until now.

they have become complacent.

The five full synergists on base are Facilites, the true rulers of the Vangians. Along with a collection of citizens, they watch the dungeon core, and facilitate various needs on the planet. The rest of the people on the base are slaves, not to be confused with servants.

Vangians don’t like the term “slave” though, and refer to the various conquered peoples as attendants.

I go through scenarios in my head, thinking about the killing I’m about to have to do. Five full synergists won’t be easy to murder.

I’ve killed lots of people, it’s really not that difficult.

I ignore that disturbing thought. This is the path I’ve chosen to escape servitude. I’m surprisingly perfectly fine with the thought of killing Vangians to save an imprisoned Dungeon.

The plan is simple. I am going to rely almost completely on my two dungeon friends to get me inside.

Zeteo will fly me there, Dungey will monitor all communications, and intercept anything regarding us. All I’ll have to do is walk on in, kill some Facilites, and walk out with Dungey.

Easy!

We will land using authorization codes provided by Dungey, claiming to be a security inspection.

It will be highly irregular and probably suspicious, but the direct text communication from our ship with proper identification codes should assuage most of it.

Orders are orders, and Vangians love to follow orders.

The facility holds a few dozen citizens, a few of them even have a core or two, and nearly a hundred conquered attendants.

The attendants are a variety of conquered races, implanted and bound to either the facility, or one of the citizens or Facilites.

The 5 full synergists on base are all members of the Facilite citizenry, not to be confused with normal citizens, like the pilot and cook.

Facilite citizens are the ruling class, further along the path of ascension. They are charged with ushering in the new age, and light the path everyone is to follow in order to achieve divinity. They will be the hardest to deal with.

Armored and ready to go, I stand in the cockpit as we rise into the air. I can’t fit in the cockpit chair, so I just watch Zeteo do his thing.

We swing around, towards the dungeons' prison, invisible to all but the naked eye, I hope.

Zeteo sends a series of messages, using codes provided by Dungey. The codes we are using will mark us as an inspection team from Height, the capital city of this region.

Vangians do not talk much, especially to someone of higher rank, so we don’t receive any verbal acknowledgement.

I imagine everyone on base is rushing around making sure everything is presentable for their surprise guests.

Zeteo has ordered all five Facilite synergists to prepare for my arrival, and that I would be checking on the core and making changes to security after the “murder” of Zeteo by the Val-Tey.

Zeteo, have Dungey send those other orders we talked about when I enter the room, and everyone’s attention is on me, I think loudly.

As soon as the ship lands and the ramp lowers I disembark. I walk purposefully towards the building holding Dungey.

One of the Facilites tries to greet me, staring at the massive sword in my hand, but I ignore him.

He is not used to being ignored, and I find a bit of pleasure in the act.

He is unarmed and unarmored, wearing a stylish suit in the fashion of the facilites. Much like a tuxedo, with two long and flowing tails that flap in the wind as we walk. It bears multiple Arete stripes, symbolizing excellence in service to the people. His shoes are immaculately polished, and they make a staccato rhythm as he takes two steps for every one of mine.

Three of his attendants hustle along after us, heads bowed.

I have to hope I’m not being too dismissive of a decorated member of the Facilite, and that he doesn’t notice that I’m completely alone. No attendants, and no soldiers, wearing a set of Harvester armor.

He has to be suspicious. He has his orders though, and Vangians follow orders. I keep my pace, not giving him any time to complain or think about the weirdness of this situation.

I can see the locations of each full synergist on my display, they are all in the room with Dungey already.

As I enter the room, Zeteo locks the door behind me, and sends off the orders that will facilitate part two of our rescue mission.

Three Facilites stand ahead of me. One of them is a Pneuma-Thermal-Bio synergist and he stands just behind the other two. They are both Bio-Geo-Thermal blends, like me. The synergist behind me is a Thermal-Cryo-Hydro blend.

Surprise, and violence of action. It’s amazing what those two can accomplish together.

One swing of my sword cuts two of the Facilites in front of me into pieces.

It’s so easy, I barely feel any resistance and they erupt in a shower of blood and viscera, coating the man behind them.

Ew.

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As the sword slices, both of the metal spheres in my satchel burst free, spiked now, and one imbeds itself into the skull of the decorated officer behind me.

He drops with an odd gurgling sound, dead.

The other sphere zips to the fourth facilite at the same time, behind the still falling bodies.

He dodges the projectile neatly, seeming to disappear his body moves so fast. The movement is so quick droplets of blood hang in the air where he was.

Zeteo doesn’t lose him though, and I can see his dot to my side. My gun rises to where I know he is, firing off a single shot before the gun explodes in my hand. Secondary explosions from the ammunition are absorbed by my armor. Pain blossoms in my ruined hand, and I cycle Bio Geia through it.

I ignore him for now, he’s too far away to stop me. The other Synergist is next to the core, ten meters ahead and I just need to grab it. The stone and metals of the room add to my strength with cries of protest as I hurtle forward through the now dripping room towards the dungeon core. I take strength from everything I can, except my sword and two spiked spheres, which I keep orbiting around myself.

My armor registers two impacts from the Pnuema synergist that evaded my attack and fucked up my hand.

The dense blades of wind are deflected and absorbed somewhat, but are still enough to push me to the side.

The core is set into a large onyx obelisk. Shimmering cables are connected to the core itself, and the pillar, connected to machines and manned workstations, all made from alloys that are resistant to limping.

They aren’t resistant to pure force though, and I shatter computers and crush one unlucky citizen who was just turning around.

I keep my feet under me, and swing my sword at the facilite currently stumbling away, eyes wide with fear. I misjudge the swing, and instead of cutting off his head, I slice into his jaw. Teeth and bits of bone fly off and plop into limp stone.

Move, forward now!

I do as instructed immediately, slamming into the man I just mutilated, his hands covering his ruined face as he tries to scream through the blood.

Explosions behind me wash flames over my armor. It will protect me for the moment, and I use that moment to shatter the pillar holding Dungey with a shoulder check.

I am able to grab Dungey with my free hand, mostly healed, and leap out of the flames that are now circling me and growing hotter than my suit can handle. They follow me hungrily, a cyclone of roaring white hot flames drowning out the screams of pain.

I charge at the Pneuma-thermal synergist trying to cook me, sending my two spheres to either side of him, almost clipping him as he darts away from me again. The roaring flames follow me. I notice the man missing a jaw is already burnt crispy.

My armor smolders, and cracks. I can feel the heat now, especially in my hand, already beginning to blister. Even with a thermal core giving me resistance to heat, I can only take temperature like this for so long. Lack of oxygen is a much bigger problem.

The man is ridiculously fast, and I’m not sure I can outrun his flames.

I don’t have to though.

Relying on my Geo senses, I release the strength I stole back into the stone all at once.

Got him!!

My timing is perfect, and I hear the synergist cry out as his feet are trapped in the now solid stone floor. The flames stutter. I'm already moving, escaping the fiery cyclone.

Another explosion, above this time, opens a hole in the ceiling, pelting me with falling stone which I ignore.

I see him limp away a couple steps, and then rocket Into the air on a pillar of wind.

With a thought, both spheres turn into spears and I chuck them with every bit of force I have at the fleeing synergist.

The dense spears of Geo disrupt the wind he is using to fly, and one hits him right in the ass. The other is knocked to the side, just missing as his flight turns to a fall.

I run, trying to get close enough to leap at him, but he catches himself, and keeps flying away, a two foot spike protruding from his buttocks.

They have guns!

I don’t stop running, ignoring the couple of shots some of the uninjured citizens fire at me from across the room. Grabbing some strength from the wall in front of me. I lower my shoulder to crash through without even slowing down. Limp and solid stone erupt around me.

He is fast!

The synergist is incredibly fast in the air, and I doubt we could catch him, even with the ship. His head start is too great.

Let’s go, Zeteo.

My mad dash out of the facility takes me to my ship, I have to jump onto the boarding ramp as Zeteo is already lifting off. More bullets ping harmlessly off the hull of the ship.

Dungey is so happy!!

Good, let's try to keep it that way. You have our flight path ready?

I do!

This next part will be tricky. We have to hope that chaos and our preparations are enough.

The fact that we have just disrupted an entire planet's communications should help though. While we can’t rely on Dungey to keep us invisible anymore, the destruction of the facility should do that just the same.

We take off low to the ground, as fast as the ship will go, heading in the opposite direction of the fleeing synergist. Our speed is enough to push me against a bulkhead, my blood struggling to pump regularly. I cycle my Giea, helping my body ignore the effects of the massive G-forces.

It doesn’t take long to reach our destination, on the other side of the planet, near the southern pole.

A hangar bay opens, welcoming us to a brand new Nephalim class starship, allowing Zeteo to land neatly within.

I like this ship! We have to change the name though. “Fist of the rising gods” sounds cool and all, but it’s a little pretentious.

You can name it what you want to Zeteo, let’s just get out of here.

Okay I think we should name it Freedom!

It’s a little on the nose, but I actually like that.

Thanks, Dungey likes it too!

Almost completely empty, our new starship, Freedom, is scheduled for its maiden voyage today, thanks to Zeteo and Dungey. The earlier orders we sent still in place even after the disruption of the planet's communications.

I disembark from the ship carrying an armload of beast cores. I leave Dungey aboard the jumper ship.

I run to the engine room, passing a couple confused citizens and more than a few attendants who jump out of my way. I deposit the cores in conduits that will power the engines. A few also go into backup conduits that can give extra power, or take over when the main cores are used up.

Planets and stars all over this galaxy produce Geia. Planets, like Vangia, produce so much Geia that much of it escapes the atmosphere, and as the planets hurtle through space, they leave trails of the energy in their wake.

These trails of Geia exist all throughout the galaxy, collected into streams by gravity through the cosmos, connecting many life-filled planets. These streams of Giea are what allow travel through the void at incredible speeds. We have already chosen our course, and Zeteo unhooks our new warship to travel along one of these streams.

We take off at an Incredible speed, entering a Geia stream leading to where we want to go. I feel just a tiny bit of movement as we accelerate far faster than the jumper ship could go. The inertia absorbed almost perfectly by special Geo alloys in the hull of our Nephalim class destroyer.

Hopefully our departure won’t be noticed in the chaos we have left behind us.

Oh that ship over there definitely notices us. Too bad we don’t have any weapons on board.