They’re watching us, you know?
The voiders. From all the way in the deep void. Using modified bugs that fly around our cities. Even using some of our implants–just read any Omnitech published reports on the tech infiltration being committed by our “benefactors.”
That’s not all though. You see, we’ve been keeping an eye on what the voiders have been doing–the movements of their ships and all the new deals they're striking with the Guilds, and some very troubling implications are appearing.
Now, I can’t say for certain what is going in in case one of our other “masters” in this eight-headed system decides to shut me down, but looking at all the tech permits being issued, something very has to be happening, right:
Immunoboost-Nine?
Plague Suppressants?
FerverClear?
All of this for free at your local grafters? And all of this requires a submission of your genetic material before it can be administered?
This inspires questions, consangs. Real pointed questions.
We know the voiders are the ones with all that advanced cloning technology. Hells, we would be in population free-fall if it wasn’t for their birther vats but…
What if they’re not just cooking up newborns in those metal-wombs? What if they’re going a bit further, planning for their “better world”?
I’m not saying they’re doing anything yet, but imagine if you or I get cloned by the voiders? Perfect in every way. Better than us. Except they’re not us. Except their docile and obedient and listen to the words of our Guilder masters without any struggle.
Imagine that as the dream. Doesn’t that just sound nice the Fateweavers at the top? Huh? Again, no claims are being made on this thoughtcast. I’m just saying that if the Sang could grow one of their Incarnates from some organs and a sheet of skin, what kind of coldtech abominations can Voidwatch make of us?
-Watch the Watchers, Anti-Voidwatch Conspiracy Thoughtcast
16-4
Meldskin
Enlightenment left tastes of sweet and sour upon Avo’s tongue.
As time slipped from the group after they began sampling the gifts of Voidwatch, Avo felt a familiar ache returning with each item he tested. Where once the Bone Demon and his Echoheads left him pleased with the belief of his superiority to most, indulging in the use of instruments leftover from even the furthest days of Voidwatch’s bygone past made him feel all but inadequate again.
This time, however, he faced such facts not as an expendable monster in the sway of indifferent cultists but as a pupil seeking to surmount the next steps of his ascension.
Exchanges between Calvino and Draus highlighted the intricacies of each new vessel he unveiled while platform specifications left even the hardiest veteran simulated within Avo’s immolation quieted.
The Butler series was but the beginning of his new education. The fact that it was officially classified for security and peacekeeping rather than outright combat made an even deeper impression.
Draus, for her part, grew ravenous. She was as if a ghoul let loose in a nursery, picking and sampling all that caught her eye. Guns became Avo’s world for a good while. Guns such as the Kassad II Mutivector Assault Weapon, with its hyper-precise delivery systems ensuring perfect accuracy within twenty-five kilometers and miniature cold-fusion ammo battery guaranteeing years of continuous use, or the LLA-12 Queen Bee, which functioned as an autonomous micro-drone launcher neuro-linked to the user–a far more subtle implement than the former, but with each flea-sized drone capable of reducing an aero to burning slag, the damage potential was beyond denial.
Combat-programmed utility fog served as another essential acquisition for the group. It served Avo a bit less than the others considering the extent he could mold matter already with his Heaven, but having multiple options was always wise.
Though they were denied the requisition of heavy-grade drones or voidships, Avo found himself with access to interstellar surveillance satellites and the Sakuraba Disvow Stealthship
GENERATOR: Fjord Cold-Fusion Generation
Length: 8.50m
Height: 4.30m
Wingspan: 7.5m
Armaments: 2 GEPAR-GHK Linear Cannons and 1 Muti-Missile Nano-Fab for varied payload delivery
Maximum Speed: 0.33c (Warning: These numbers are listed for stable-reality circumstances)
Engines: x2 McCall-Kubier Night Chariots (Rated for near-silence at distances of 50m)
The sleek form of the platform appealed to Avo. Perhaps it was in the economy of its make, with its body shaped akin to a needle carried by its engines formed from delicate lattices. More than this, however, was the capabilities of its system and how far it could project his awareness.
A growing contemplation consumed his thoughts as Chambers pointed to another toy to preview. If he were to consume one of these machines, internalize the pattern within his Heaven, and graft a Domain of Force or Energy to round out the confusion within his memorized patterns, could he grow a personalized legion of such machines from matter and blood alone?
{This is one of the reasons why we had to do the interview,} Calvino said, speaking to Avo and the rest of the room at the same time. {The things you’ll be able to do if we gave you full understanding of our technologies–and as you might already suspect, this is nowhere near the full extent of our capabilities–we needed to see what kind of ally you’d be. And what secrets we could trust you with.}
Though a want for more boiled within Avo, he understood. He acted the same way with his Conflagration, after all. For all he had given his cadre and his chosen Ensouled or even White-Rab and Reva, he always kept an edge in reserve for himself.
There was a kind of greed that came with being a ghoul. A hungering greed. A greed that bade him to keep the bulk of his claimed flesh close by his side. But even as he evolved beyond his original parameters, the practice of being a Godclad inspired similar habits.
Never would he offer his Conflagration freely, and it would be a lie for him to deny his pleasure in how his Frame remained the only one capable of self-modification despite Kae’s theories. Higher power filled him with a sense of significance, but also a reassurance–that if all went wrong, he would still survive, and that he would prevail against any potential foe, be they enemy, or supposed ally.
{And there’s the honesty that made us choose you,} Calvino added. {Being clear about why and what you want is important, Avo. It’s important because it lets you narrate who you want to be, instead of being shaped by the narrative of the world or someone else. Even ours. Self-directed agency beyond the corruption of addiction or want.}
Avo shifted into another sheathe at Draus’ request even as the internal conversation continued. +Questionable about me being beyond addiction. Killing is still… beautiful. Pleasurable. Power is intoxicating.+
Calvino laughed, and the cadence of its voice sounded as if a mirror of Walton’s–far too similar for Avo’s liking. The EGI turned itself away from the mimicry immediately. {Apologies.}
Stolen novel; please report.
+Knew you were doing some of that deliberately. Why? Trying to use familiar social patterns to approach me.+
{Partially. It’s also one of the few personality templates you seem to remain more stable toward.} Avo grunted. Draus shot him a brief glance before flicking her eyes up at his burning halo and turning her attention back to the Inventory. {Before additional selections, I think I have a few recommendations for all of you. And perhaps something extra for you.}
+Why the separation?+
{Because they can’t just pour themselves from body to body like you. Our applications are determined by our limitations, wouldn’t you agree?}
The question took some pondering on Avo’s part. +Send the recs. See how it looks.+
The Aegis Meldskin Calvino selected made Draus stand up straighter and Chambers salivate outright. A low whistle came from Cas, and Avo found himself wondering about the response. Compared to the previous pieces of equipment, what stood before him looked more like a well-muscled humanoid protected by curved grey plates with gleaming fibers that leaned closer to biology in design than machinery.
Then he loaded into the armor and understood. For a moment, it was hard to tell where he began and the armor ended. His senses were not only magnified and interlaced with additional coldtech functions but also a personal combat assistant that kept him updated about anything from potential threats to recommended actions.
Lathered inside a non-newtonian skinsuit capable of shedding kinetic energy accrued from point-blank explosive impacts, this armor–barely larger than the wearer themselves–had protections that made what the Nightmantis appear as if a suit of tissue.
Chambers lifted a finger and his eyes remained locked on the warskin. “So. Just to be clear, we’re all gonna get one of those?”
+That would be the point of this requisition,+ Calvino said.
The ex-enforcer made a very Kae-like squeak as joy overflowed beyond his means to control. “I love you. I love Voidwatch. Fuck New Vultun. Fuck the Syndicates. Fuck the Guilds. Sorry ‘bout all that time I spent listening to Watch the Watchers, and I will do anything you ask of me.”
The man’s susceptibility to bribery remained a reliable constant. Avo reminded himself to grant Chambers another graft or burn more knowledge into his mind lest he turn too much in favor of Voidwatch.
It wouldn’t do to have another intrude on the arrangements between them.
“Those are all nanotubes, ain’t they?” Draus asked, pointing to the fibers running along the armor's joints.
+Correct. And they’re a bit more sophisticated than what you might have grafted over your musculature. Far more reactive and amplifying. As well as connected to an active power source instead of feeding from your biology. Additionally, it is capable of full-spectrum invisibility, attuned with wide-radius sensors, equipped with gravity boosters for freeform travel, internal temperature regulators to keep you safe from the elements, category-grey nano-surgeons to rebuild any damage inflicted on your person.+
“Holyshitholyshitholyshit,” Chambers chanted.
+The best part about it is this: Avo, think “standby.”+
Avo did, and the simulated armor disassembled itself and sank into his flesh while its generator remained a reassuring weight against his lower back. Surprise ignited within him as he understood the implications.
“Fuck me,” Draus breathed. “That ain’t just armor, it’s practically a graft.”
+The difference between the self and your equipment is ultimately based on the semantics of how interconnected it is with your senses.+ Calvino rose higher to face Avo’s unmoving avatar. +Your arm is only your arm so long as it remains attached to you, after all. This brings me to one of my favorite features about the Meldskin: situational adaptability.+
At the EGI’s behest, Avo tweaked the training sim and increased the gravity of the room. In an instant, the weight of the world came crashing down upon his shoulders, and he found his avatar buried under an unseen mountain. Reactivating his armor, threads of metal poured out between his cermite plating and wove themselves back into shape.
GRAVITY AT: 8.8 STANDARD Gs
INCREASING FIBER DENSITY
An explosion of strength rushed through Avo as the fibers of the armor burrowed deeper to interface with the structure of his Bone Demon sheate. Nanotubes constructed additional supports within his Echoheads, inflicting their biology with additional rigidity but also durability. He planted his tendrils into the ground and pushed.
The weight was still there, still heavy, but his strength was growing at an alarming pace, and his generator poured more energy through the armor’s systems.
Within the span of ten seconds, Avo had gone from being crushed by the atmosphere to standing, to striding without the aid of his Echoheads. And all that strength was his, and his alone. No need to reach deep and rewrite the rules of reality. No need to call upon his canons.
He was a juggernaut unto himself. Enough as is.
A low chuckle sang out from Draus as she shook her head. “Come time, you and I are gonna break this shit in. No Heavens. No guns. Just you and me and the good ol’ days. See how fit makes us feel.”
Avo hissed a low note of amusement. This was her way of thanking him: Pain and brutality. She understood him too well. “Going to bleed you, Reg. Bleed you like you’ve never been bled.”
“Well, you keep that hope close to your heart. It’ll be a thrilll watching it leak out from the corners of your eyes.”
[We’re fighting the Reg soon?] Corner asked. A thrill rose in them as well. [Fuck yeah. Picked the right ghoul to die to.]
“This is still nothing before the touch of my power, master. We can unravel this shell with but a thought.” The Woundshaper’s words carried naked envy with them, but Avo remained unshaken.
“It will mean everything if you are denied to me. If my Rend is too great. If our enemy masters our hubrises. I must be more. More in every way. More in reality as it is. More beyond. All are conjoined.” He paused. “And don’t you want to understand how its structure comes together? How it can be strength so easily?”
And with that, the Heaven of Blood’s jealousy dimmed in place of aroused curiosity. “The art of these interlopers is exotic. Of that, my admission is stated.”
The Galeslither released a breath of disdain. “What difference is there between you and that lust-addled creature the ghoul keeps as a personal fool.”
Woundshaper began its retort, but it was Avo who cut in first. “Chambers is trying to change. Changing like all of us. Slowly. Flawed still. But changing.” He turned his eyes in the real upon the supposed half-strand and gazed beyond the performative lust and ridiculousness on display. All this debasement of the self for the sake of social acceptance–to be wanted. “He is not my personal fool. I will not have it be so. I will him to be who he wants to be. I will see him make his own choices when the time comes.”
The Heaven of Air offered but silence for a moment. “And what of me? Am I to be different? Am I to be more organ and being?”
“What do you want?” Avo asked.
“To be free,” the Galeslither said, a spark of hope entering its voice. “I wish to take to the skies of my own accord and follow the contrails of a distant entity. To seek the horizon and round it again. I wish to be trapped no longer. Are you going to give that to me?”
“Idiot mule,” the Woundshaper chided. “Your fantasy is cessation. How long will you sail before you are claimed by these Guilds—these Agnosi? How long will you last before you are out of deaths to sustain yourself and come apart in being? As if the master would offer a free Soul to indulge in such fancies.”
But Avo considered the proposition, and again, he thought of the armor before him, of how it interwove and became him, and he it as well; he thought of how he could burn his being into minds and vessels.
What if he could do so with his Heavens?
What if he could unleash the gods upon the world again?
{Avo…} Calvino said, the first hints of alarm entering the EGI’s tone. {You don’t want to do that.}
But the Galeslither was silent again, and its emotions were peaked with astonishment at Avo’s consideration.
“We will talk about this later,” he said. “All of us.”
Directing his attention back to the simulation, Avo placed seven requests of Meldskin. Seven for each member present. Seven to be made better in the coming days.
+So, let’s talk about that final something you might be interested in,+ Calvino said. +I understand you’ve been having trouble. Run-ins with your family. Do you want to hurt them where it hurts the most right now?+
“Tell me,” Avo said, interest fully aroused. He hadn’t expected this. But then again, with the EGI, he didn’t know what to expect.
A final influx of knowledge rushed through Avo and he found himself confused at what was being offered. “These are… bodies?”
+Yeah. A collection of various sheathes to generate, as well as heightened access to vat-functions. It’s hard to do espionage as a giant man-eating monster, you know? I decided to get you something of a wardrobe.+