The solution to my problem with hovering in outer space was found quite quickly. After all, I only needed to move a small stone three centimeters in size. So, while my astral shells were not shrinking due to the lack of a physical body, I magically opened a stargate with a diameter of ten centimeters and moved to the planet with the shelter of Inusannon, where my beacon from the chakra was located. There I used the part of my body that I had discarded earlier to immediately get a normal vritras body that had all the necessary chemical elements in its composition.
Taking a breath, I wondered what to do next. Despite the fact that this world was inhabited, there were quite a few intelligent beings on it. The batarians were just beginning to learn it and it was not an official migration, but simply the relocation of individuals who decided to start a new life in a new world. So, finding a normal spaceship here was a challenge.
After thinking about this question, I decided to build my own spaceship. Now I knew the technology for creating engines based on the Mass Effect. And the hull of a ship can be the simplest. I don't need an atmosphere or artificial gravity.
The only problem with this solution was the need to get the Zero Element somewhere. But I had an entire Inusannon base at my side, where this element is located in every zombie, plus in the reactor itself.
Bearing in mind what happened to the Inusannon themselves, I decided to disable the base's main reactor first, and then deal with the huskies. I wasn't going to make the same mistakes again. No more heroism - just simple and effective solutions.
When I reached the entrance to the dungeon, I went down the main corridor and then down the Elevator shaft. To my surprise, I found myself in some technical rooms crammed with equipment to keep the stasis capsule running. There was nothing interesting here, so I quickly found an exit to the main room of the base. It turns out that in one of the rooms we missed a door that merged with the wall.
I doppelgangered the form of one of the zombies and walked quietly to the reactor. The undead's reaction to me was pretty funny. Every zombie I met paid attention to me, quickly ran closer, and then started scanning for signs of life. Not finding such, zombies fell into a stupor, and after a few seconds lost all interest to me.
When I got to the reactor, I banally cut the wires going to the automatic power regulator. This triggered an emergency shutdown of the reactor, after which all I had to do was get inside the main chamber of the reactor and smash all the equipment there. After this act of vandalism, one could not worry that someone would be able to start the reactor again without carrying out major repairs. And then I turned into a crazy mixer that chopped all the zombies into mincemeat in just fifteen minutes.
The collection of the zero Element lasted for a week. As it turned out, the technology of purification was quite complex, and even magic did not help me to speed up the process. I had to act 'the old-fashioned way' and build a cascade of enrichment centrifuges. But in the end, I got more than ten kilograms of zero Element, which would have been enough to create a Battleship-class engine.
The spaceship I created was the size of a minibus. There was only room for one undemanding passenger inside. In addition to me, there was a Mass Effect Core - it's the main reactor, shield generators, one heavy-duty 'Blaster' type gun, a pair of lasers, and an inertial engine that allowed this whole pile of debris to fly.
There were no fuel storage facilities for the ship's design. Instead, I created a wonderful thing called 'The Positron Cannon'. It ate a huge amount of energy, but it could level the ship's electric charge without having to waste matter.
On the tenth day, I climbed into my miracle trough and took off, entering the orbit of the planet. I had a map of the galaxy with the flight route in my memory, so there was no problem with laying the course. On the planet, I left the same beacon on the chakra, powering it so that the charge was enough for at least a hundred years of work.
When I reached the relay and made two jumps, I changed course and went to the neighboring star system. Here was the space station of the pirates, where the 'archaeologists' bought their ship. More precisely, the two Azari were the main ones in this company. A salarian scientist and a krogan had joined them at the beginning. And at the station, along with the purchase of the ship, they hired a batarian and a second salarian.
I was interested in this station as a source of money. It was full of pirates, smugglers, and slavers who could be dispossessed in the name of the Moon. My ship's shields were also a masking device, hiding it in all ranges of electromagnetic radiation.
Of course, there were scanners that could bypass such a disguise, but then came into effect the microscopic size of the ship itself. I had worse visibility than a space torpedo specially designed to overlook defense systems.
Thus, I was able to sneak up on the station and get on it, opening one of the technical hatches on the cladding. There I first went to the main reactor of the station, where I staged a small sabotage. It was not difficult to do this, as reading thoughts revealed to me all the secrets of local inhabitants.
After I had made sure that the station would not explode and that no one would leave early, I proceeded to a thoughtful genocide of the local population, collecting all credits into my account. For the sake of such a case, it was necessary to get a professional multitool trader, which supported the conduct of financial transactions.
This raid ended four hours later. More than fifty million credits fell into my clutches. I don't know why I needed so much money, but my greed didn't allow me to stop and fly away, knowing that there are vile but rich people who are not worthy to live in this world.
After collecting the tribute, I went further along the route. The rest of the way passed without problems until I got out of the jump in the system controlled by asari. Here was battleship in the orbit of relay, which immediately began to scan me in all possible ways. I don't think they were waiting for me personally.
I don't know if the asari tried to contact me via radio, but if they did, they didn't do it on the same frequencies used on the batarian ships. And most likely they see me as a torpedo that arrived via the relay as a free gift. At least five seconds after I came out of the jump, they tried to burn me with a high-power laser. Well at least my shield, enhanced with chakra, was able to reflect the attack.
"Hey, you critter, why are you fucking shooting at me?" I yelled at all frequencies.
The answer was a shot of two missiles, which rushed to me with great speed. I had to shoot them down with my Blaster on approach. That's it, I was angry.
“Surrender, or you will be destroyed!” I shouted, bringing the ship's weapons to peak power.
In terms of size, my ship was a flea. But in fact it was a flying reactor with a gun built on the basis of inusannon technologies. After waiting ten seconds, I waited only for another volley of lasers. Well, you've chosen your own destiny.
The volley of my gun literally tore three hundred meters of steel to shreds. The remains scattered in space, melted by the heat. I think I owed most of the power of the explosion to the ship's reactor, but it was an epic sight. A flea killed an elephant with a single blow.
There were no other ships nearby, so I proudly waved my tail and headed for the second planet in this system, where the asari colony was located. From here, I had to get to another repeater ten light-years away. But I didn't have an exact direction. After all, I didn't have a map of the galaxy because it evaporated with my body when the pirate ship exploded. Therefore, I planned to get to the planet, find any ship there, and copy a map of the location of inhabited worlds and relays.
When I reached the far orbit of the planet, I found that a dozen warships of the class from the battleship to the frigate were circling around it. But just five minutes later, they all left, heading towards the repeater. Apparently, they got the information about my appearance there.
Without hesitation, I went to the planet, found the location of the spaceport on it, and headed straight for it. As soon as I was approaching the planned landing site, the dispatcher contacted me.
“Unidentified flyer, immediately leave the area of the spaceport. Flights in this area are prohibited.”
Apparently, because of my size, they were mistaken, and view me as an ordinary flying taxi. I ignored the warning and flew straight to one of the ships that was parked. As I flew closer, I looked at the half-disassembled hull of the ship in frustration. It looks like I won't be able to find the right computer here.
In the meantime, three police fighters were coming towards me, circling around me, at the same time announcing that I should immediately proceed to the border of the spaceport and there surrender to the authorities. In case of disobedience, I was threatened with destruction.
I didn't argue or make excuses, but with three quick shots I vaporized the law enforcement officers. After that, another charge of plasma went to the dispatcher tower, where, apparently, there was an observer who noticed me. I expected more troops to come after that, but no one else came after me.
The ship parking port which I arrived, turned out to be a graveyard of decommissioned equipment. As I circled it, I came across an almost complete ship standing next to a building. I landed next to it and went to the source of the parts I needed.
A couple of asari blocked my path. They were armed guards, but apparently, they didn't know that I had just blown up three police flyers.
"Stop! This is a private area. Who are you and what are you doing here?
"I want to buy a couple of parts from this ship." I decided to solve the case in peace.
“No selling.” They declined immediately. "Get out of here, now!!"
I didn't listen any further, shooting the guards before they could point their weapons at me. Blaster shots were fired from the building in my direction, so I sent a more powerful response there. There was an explosion, the building folded into itself, and there was silence. That's good! The sun is shining, the birds are singing. Or are they grasshoppers instead of birds? Ah, the hell with this xenofauna.
When I reached the ship, I was surprised to find that it was fully operational and was even preparing to take off. I had to take a swift leap into the air, land on the roof of the ship, and then form a power blade similar to the one we used to cut metal at the inusannon base. With it, I quickly formed a personal hatch for myself, then leaked inside the ship.
Here I made a couple of short circuits, which caused the takeoff to stop. All I had to do was go to the control room, where I was met by a lone batarian armed with a heavy blaster.
"What do you want? I don't have any money.”
I didn't listen to the bleating, but with a quick jerk I closed the distance, snatched the weapon from his limp hands, and cast a memory-reading spell. A minute later, I had all the access codes. I connected to my computer and downloaded all the interesting information. After that, all that remained was to chop off the head of the batarian smuggler and go to the exit.
On the way I looked into the cabin and pulled out from the safe some artifact Forerunner, which the owner of the ship was going to sell. He came here to repair the ship, and unfortunately came across me.
Without encountering any resistance, I reached my gravitsapa and began entering orbit. Then they found me again and began to demand surrender and remorse. When I got out of the atmosphere, a frigate azari appeared nearby - one of those that left the planet less than half an hour ago. I didn't think long, and I vaporized it with a ship's cannon. After that, I went to the superlight speed and went to the relay I needed.
The whole subsequent route to the Citadel followed the same scenario. At the exit of the jump, I was met by one or more ships that immediately opened fire. In response, I destroyed them and flew on. Before jumping over the relay, I usually had to vaporize those who stood in my way.
It seems that the learning capacity of the population of this galaxy was zero, because they attacked me with enviable constancy. I'd understand if more ships opposed me every time. But usually a couple of frigates or a battleship tried to intercept me. Only once they meet me with a committee consist of a dreadnought and two aircraft carriers. I had to work with them for about ten minutes, because I couldn't blow up their reactor with one shot.
So, I made the last jump and ended up in the Citadel system. There was only one relay and there were no planets or even stars. Surprisingly, no one attacked me here, although I met a dozen battleships and fifty frigates.
“The Spectrum Tela Wazir speaking to you.” I heard the broadcast on the radio. “Unknown ship, name yourself.”
“Have you decided to commit ritual suicide, too?” I asked in response.
“Suicide?” There was confusion in Azari's voice.
“Yeah. Anyone who attacks me will be destroyed. I've proved it twelve times already. It really was so hard to understand it in the first time.”
"You are accused of attacking The Alliance ships...”
"And you're accused of attacking me!" I interrupted this bleating. “I gave you a verdict - death. Do you have objections, or will you humbly accept your destiny?”
I wasn't afraid of this whole armada. First of all, I was getting used to avoiding ship scanners and attempts to destroy me. It was enough to shift a few kilometers to the side every couple of seconds, using the Mass Effect. At such distances it was like teleportation.
And secondly, on the planet Azari, as well as next to each relay, I left an invisible beacon of chakra. So, if necessary, I could return to the planet, assemble a new ship there, and then continue my 'journey' from the last 'saved' point.
“Let's make a deal.” She tried to save her ass. "What do you want?"
"Opposite, what do you want? I was flying, I didn't touch anyone, I repaired the Forerunner artifact in peace. And you bitches started shooting at me as soon as I came out of the jump.”
"Your ship's signature resembles a proton torpedo. In this case, the Navy has standard procedures that prescribe the destruction of such...”
“I don't give a fuck!” I interrupted those excuses again. "They were the first who attacked me and were destroyed. The reason doesn't matter So, will you let me through, or will I have to destroy this toy fleet of yours first? My patience is running out.”
"Where are you going? Here is...”
“It's not your business.”
“If you want us not to attack you, you will need to install automatic identification signal transmission system.”
I did not listen to all this nonsense, and immediately moved to super-light speed, heading to the Citadel. For thousands of years of domination in the galaxy, The Azari are so accustomed to acting from a position of strength that they perceived such ultimatums as negotiating. Basically, I acted as well, that's just the strength in this case was on my side.
The citadel was a space station of huge size and resembled a giant daisy with folded petals. As a result, the petals formed something like a cylinder. All this bandura rotated at a decent speed, creating on the inner surface of the petals a semblance of artificial gravity.
I slipped into the gap between the petals and began to approach the residential area. On the inside, each petal was covered by a force field that kept the air inside. This field acted on gas, but freely missed massive objects. In front of my eyes, a lot of flyers passed through it, heading for other petals.
For my ship, the force field also was not an obstacle, and I was able to land on the roof of the building in a residential area. The surrounding non-humans looked at my gravitasapa with surprise. Apparently, the parking of such devices in this place was prohibited. I went to the nearest humanoid, which turned out to be a Salarian, and used a spell of memory reading on him. The victim lost consciousness, and others began to run away with panic wails.
From the memory of my 'guide' I learned that the aircraft parking located on the lower levels. All sorts of criminal elements also live there. Having learned all I needed, I climbed back into the ship and went to one of these cloaks. Although outwardly the Citadel was quite well-off and developed, it had enough dark corners, where even local law enforcement agencies preferred not to go.
After flying into such slums, I once again used the memory reading spell to find out in detail where I could 'park' my ship. However, such boorish treatment of local residents did not remain unrequited. The friends of the knowledge donor tried to attack me, so first I had to calm them down by setting up a bloodbath with dozens of dismembered corpses.
Finally, after half an hour, I was able to find a suitable parking spot. It was an abandoned warehouse with only one entrance. I changed the password for opening the door and set up a simple trap - in case someone other than me enters the warehouse, the ship will burn the intruder with lasers or with weak blaster shot.
After that, I took the form of a krogan and went to investigate the Citadel and gather rumors. Croghan I chose due to the fact that these entities in principle do not have documents. They considered all legal issues meaningless, and as an argument in court considered only muscles and blasters.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
My heroic passage move between entire fleet made a lot of noise in the media. Mostly journalists relished the details of how several dozen ships failed to destroy one ship the size of a flyer. And the destruction of the Alliance forces in my path showed that, from a combat point of view, a fleet of spaceships is completely useless. The most of them quoted my phrase about 'toy fleet'. Some politicians demanded an increase of the defense budget, and their opponents proposed to abolish all military forces altogether because of their apparent futility.
My first appearance in public was captured by security cameras, so the police were looking for a guy in a spacesuit, or at least a man, and didn't pay any attention to the krogans. During a week of slow research, I managed to gather some information about John Shepard – A Specter who saved the Citadel from the Geth invasion.
Two years ago, he was declared dead in a shipwreck. But now there are rumors that Sheppard has returned to life and is assembling a team. Someone hinted that the former Specter had become a terrorist and now working for the Cerberus group. Others fervently argued that Shepard was fighting for the happiness and freedom of the entire galaxy. The Reapers were almost all perceived as a mythical threat, invented by some politicians in order to gather more power in their hands.
All these rumors were expectable, but they did not answer to the main question: where is Sheppard at the moment. I thought about visiting the key locations where the events of the 'quest' to save the galaxy were supposed to take place, but I didn't have time to make a final decision.
At one point, I received a call to my multitool from one of the informants. He claimed that the spaceship Normandy had just docked at one of the Citadel's docks. I promised that if the information was confirmed, the informant would receive a bonus of fifty thousand credits, and then immediately rushed to the twenty-seventh deck of the Central ring. Along the way, I took the form of an ordinary human, copying the image of my host from the Stargate world.
I found Sheppard coming out of the security checkpoint. Mordin Solus and Miranda Lawson appeared to be walking with him. As I approached my victim, I simultaneously scanned him in every way I could. For this case I even activated the long-prepared chakra construct, which purpose was to conduct a full diagnosis of the patient's health.
“Hi, Shepard.” I communicated to the main character of mankind, coming to the distance of a couple of steps. "You're dead."
"Thank you, I've already been informed. But the rumors of my death are somewhat exaggerated.” He answered. "Who are you?"
“My name is Atman. And when I said you are dead, I meant you are dead right here and now.”
"What?" Sheppard began to look around in search of ambush.
"You're dead." I repeated, noticing how Cerberus's henchwoman started to worry. "Your body is a corpse that operates at the expense of Reaper’s technology. You're basically more of a computer than a human being.
“No!” Shepard almost shouted. His eyes widened in horror.
"Haven't you ever asked how Cerberus managed to resuscitate a two-year-old corpse? There's a specialist standing next to you who knows exactly what you are.”
"Don't listen to him.” Miranda intervened. "Come on, we have more important things to do."
“Don't dare shush me, Ghost’s bitch.” I besieged her. "Or I'll do to you what you did to Sheppard."
"Why should I believe what you say?" Techno-zombie asked me.
"You don't have to believe anything. The Citadel is full of doctors. Just go to any clinic and get a full checkup.”
“But... I'm human!” Shepard tried to convince himself. "I must save humanity. How can I be a Reaper?” He muttered the end of the sentence under his breath, but my superhuman ears could hear what he was saying.
Interesting. Is he a figure, too? My ideological enemy?
“I can help you in the fight against the Reapers.” I expressed my idea. "Unlike the Ghost, I don't need to hide my knowledge of the Reapers from you. Did you know, by the way, that the Ghost is a husk and has long been acting in the interests of the Reapers?
"That's lie!" Miranda Lawson couldn't stand my revelations.
Mordin Solus had been carefully to our conversation all this time, but did not interfere. It seems that my revelations have also been stunning to him.
"Is it? Any medical scanner can confirm my words. Even a portable model can distinguish a living person from a cyborg.”
"The Ghost used our experience to solve his health problems, but he works for the benefit of humanity.”
"So, you don't deny that he's a machine anymore?" You don't understand a tenth of the Reaper technology. They can control the Ghost in such way that he won't know about it. Tell me, didn't you get the feeling that by sending you on missions, he was trying to destroy you rather than help with the investigation?”
"How do you know all of this?" Shepard asked me. My words sowed doubts in his heart, but he also has some doubt about my words.
"I know a lot of things. Only a selected few can understand how I know the details of this story.”
My companion's eyes lit up with understanding.
"So, you are…"
"One of those who must survive the Harvest." I answered to unspoken question.
"What? What are you talking about?” Miranda asked.
"I think we have a lot of topics to talk about." Sheppard Said.
“I agree. And it would be better to do it not in the middle of the street, but on your ship. Some things should be hidden from the uninitiated.”
"We'll discuss it later." Jack nodded.
"Then, you should go about your business, I'll wait for you here." I made my offer. "And then we can go back to your ship together and talk."
A few hours later, I went with Sheppard to his ship, where we had a conversation. I used the Fuinjutsu barrier against eavesdropping, so I didn't have to worry about the Ghost finding out what we were talking about. Actually, the deal with Shepard was simple: I will help him to learn more about the Reapers and save his ass from time to time. I called my own interest the study of Reaper technologies to know the limits of their power and how to resist them.
Before we could finish, Shepard received a call from the Ghost. I left him to talk to his superiors while I went to the lab to see Mordin Solus.
“Hi, Muzzle!” I greeted the salarian. He made a nasty face at this treatment.
"My name is Mordin.”
"Well, that's what I said: Muzzle.” He made a vile muzzle for such treatment.
"What do you want?"
"Look what I have."
I took the Forerunner artifact confiscated from the smuggler from the backpack. It looked like a curved brick made of black glass. I ran my finger along its surface, leaving glowing traces. When an inscription of an unknown language appeared on the front surface, a holographic projector was activated, creating a moving image above this piece and reproducing the sound. That's just the image 'crumbled' into separate squares and pixels, and the sound of the voice was drowned out by wheezing and hissing.
"Can you fix it? This is a Forerunner’s artifact that contains an important message to the descendants. Unfortunately, the data carrier was damaged.”
Muzzle changed his anger to mercy and began to study the artifact, simultaneously asking me questions about its origin. Basically, I already knew everything about this device. I even knew that the recording was erased by Reaper himself, who did not want to spread the 'extra' information. Moreover, in the memory sat an insidious computer virus, whose task was to attract the attention of the Reaper. This is the virus I was going to 'test' in real conditions. I wondered what would happen when it got into the ship's memory.
Alas, from observing the study of the artifact, I was distracted by Sheppard, who entered the laboratory.
“We have information about the dead ship of the Reapers, where we can get a recognition system of their own-foe.” He made me happy. It was my real reason of visiting this ship and reason contacting to the biorobot.
“Great!” I rubbed my hands together. "Sheppard, with this system, you can pretend to be a Reaper, make a revolution, and take over the power by subjugating these machines. And then you can force them to work for the benefit of the national economy or order them to kill themselves. Everything is in your hands.”
"Do you think it's possible?" Future chief Reaper expressed his doubts.
"If you don't try, you won't know. One thing I can say for sure, they will accept you as their own. You really are one of them.”
“Please don’t remind. I still have a report on the results of the medical research before my eyes.”
We started preparing for the flight and an hour later we were already departing from the Citadel. Twelve hours later, we approached the bulk of the Reaper ship, hovering in the void of space. Here I distinctly felt the activity of the astral Reaper. Its tentacles slid just inches from the surface of the ship, making no attempt to get inside.
The reason for this was banal. Susie, the artificial intelligence of Normandy, was constantly broadcasting a special signal to the surrounding space, which told to the Reaper, temporarily refrain from consuming this delicacy. Yes, even the Reaper virus that had entered her memory was immediately detected and neutralized with the help of a master key.
It became more and more obvious to me that this whole story was a game. Not Shepard's game with the Reapers, but the Reaper's game with his future food. Painfully familiar emotions slipped from this essence. Such feelings my parasite radiated before devouring another victim. Apparently, they are from one family.
Sheppard, Mordin and Tali-Zora, a quarian which has experience with furious computers, went to the ship. And of course, I got involved with them. We walked through the empty corridors, got to some control point and there pressed a couple of buttons on the computer.
In my opinion, only idiots could believe that such actions could hack something on the ship which were reasonable computer. It looks like all the members of Normandy, before the 'recruitment' went through the process of lobotomy. Why would intelligent computers have a control panel and keyboard? If the Reapers' computers could be hacked so easily, the 'Russian hackers' would have crack them in just a couple of hours.
The whole 'quest' was more like a scene from a low-budget TV cinema. The idea may have been normal, but for the sake of budget savings the script was simplified, some of the scenes were cut out, and as compensation stuck more evil aliens, which the heroes need to crumble into cabbage. As a result, the quest participants thought more about how to stay alive, rather than about how cheap a phony they got into.
When Sheppard and the company went on the way back, cutting through hordes of monsters, I decided to stay on the ship of the Reapers, which required to play a convincing scene of self-sacrifice. I didn't even have to strain too much, because Reaper, feeling my presence, set on us literally thousands of collectors. At the same time, most of the enemies attacked me exclusively, not paying any attention to all the other violators.
I waited until Shepard was off to the Normandy, then I stopped holding back. Massive heavy Blaster fire destroyed all opponents, then I turned on the disguise mode and leaked into the technical compartments of the ship. The most important point here was the disguise from the Reaper. As soon as he stopped perceiving me, all his puppets immediately lost the will to act.
For the next month, I roamed the ship, watching how the Reaper controlling its puppets. For one thing I studied the technologies of the Reapers, which were very insane advanced. Judging by their actions, they weren't using even one percent of their power right now. A normally protected Reaper ship could not be damaged using current cycle technology.
Usually Reaper begin the Harvest as soon as the most advanced civilization of the cycle reached a certain level of development. This ensured that the technology of the opponents did not cross a certain threshold, and therefore nothing can prevent their destruction.
After a month of searching, I finally got to the most important - the central memory store of a computer. Actually, physically I discovered it after a week, but I was able to decipher the information only now.
Studying the memory of the Reaper allowed me to fully understand what is happening in this galaxy. It is worth starting with the fact that this ship was a mass grave for a race that lived in the time of the Leviathans. So, its memory contained information about those distant events that took place a billion years ago.
The ship itself was now actually a corpse, because a shot of a huge kinetic weapon destroyed its 'personal matrix' - a computer that makes basic tactical decisions. It was impossible to restore this computer, because in fact it was the matrix of consciousness of millions of sentient beings of this race. But the absence of 'brains' did not affect the connection of this ship with reaper, who continued to monitor the operation of all systems on board.
As a result, I managed to get to the memory of the astral entity itself. The intelligent ship was constantly analyzing data from its memory, reliving the destruction of its civilization time after time. I have slightly interfered with this process, forcing it to concentrate on certain events. And when the personal memory of the computer was not enough to reproduce these 'digital dreams', the information came from the Reaper himself. It seemed to be an automatic process, so while the Reaper was indulging in the melancholy of memories, I was learning his story.
This story began in the days when the Leviathans ruled this galaxy. Their main 'weapon' was telepathic power, capable of enslaving any intelligent being. This ability depended not only on the structure of the leviathans' brains, but also on their astral bodies. In fact, this could be called a type of magic or psi ability.
Quite naturally, some of these creatures wanted to strengthen their abilities. After all, between them there was a constant struggle for power, and at the top of the society of leviathans sat the one who was best ability to brainwash his fellows.
One of the leviathans found out that it can strengthen himself by absorbing the astral shells of intelligent beings. At the same time, the amplification was temporary, so that to 'maintain the form' it was necessary to constantly eat 'other people's souls' by hundreds and thousands. In principle, on the scale of even one planet, this number was minuscule. Leviathan could not absorb more astral shells, so he concentrated on quality.
The result was a civilization of one of the intelligent races, the meaning of which was the worship of their 'God'. And the most prominent psionics of this race went become feed of the merciless monster. This religion was so strong and filled with such horror of the `God of the Deep` that they attracted the attention of real demons.
The first contact between dark astral entities and leviathans ended with him eating of uninvited guests. Along with this, he received their knowledge, which changed his picture of the world. The universe was huge, and there were many beings in it for whom the all-powerful leviathans were nothing more than small crustaceans, such universal plankton. Moreover, the demons have already informed their overlords about this world, so the destruction of the entire leviathan race was already a matter of decision.
But, as they say, if you can't win then lead them. Leviathan decided to enter the service of the demons, in order to get the maximum benefit from the upcoming destruction of their brethren. There was a huge ritual of blood sacrifice, in which all members of the race who worshipped their cruel God were killed. Their souls, filled with pain, horror, and hopelessness, was sent to the Dark Lords of the universe. In result, they liked this dinner so much that they appointed Leviathan as the Reaper, whose duty it is to arrange such feasts, destroying all representatives of any race.
As a reward for his actions, the Reaper lost his physical body, ascended to the spiritual level of existence, and most importantly, gained power over all computers. The Leviathans were creatures who understood brainwashing more than anyone else. That's why they used computers to control their actions. And as soon as the leviathan began to behave 'wrong', the computer immediately signaled about it and even tried to carry out activities to remove suggestion.
The ability to manage any computers in this situation became a 'trump card'. The Reaper could imperceptibly influence another Leviathan, subjugating them to itself, and none of the sensors would be able to track this interference. As a rule, such warning systems were built into the body of leviathans, so it was extremely difficult to hack a computer using physical access. But 'astral hacking' was impossible to track or prevent.
As a result, after only a few thousand years, the Reaper became the secret ruler of the galaxy. Then he began performing mass sacrifices of entire races, using various robots or other computer systems as tools.
After a couple of dozen rituals, when the 'junior races' were almost over, leviathans became interested in these strange events. Their stupefying brain could come up with nothing better than to create artificial intelligence 'Catalyst' and convey to him all the technological advances of their race.
Reaper understood that despite all his mental power, he was only one immaterial being. So, he needed powerful slaves. And soulless computers were best suited for this role. He reprogrammed the 'Catalyst' into submission only to him and set up the first Harvest, destroying the Leviathan race. Harvest was not just a sacrifice of souls. It allowed to create from astral shells of victims the strongest psychic anchor, able to strengthen the Reaper.
This knowledge also came from demons, and the leviathans were the first to test it. As a result, the first ship with artificial intelligence was created, containing the core of personality, consisting of an alloy of consciousness of millions of leviathans. The ritual strengthened the Reaper, giving him some semblance of a physical body - the ship itself.
Existence in the form of a single ascended soul was quite a chore, and the presence of a physical anchor allowed him to organize his memory. Without support on the physical plane, the Reaper's mind was plunged into a state close to sleep, and the 'Catalyst' actually became his brain, allowing him to realize the depth of the problem.
The gift of demons turned out to be a trap. Over time, reaper became more and more 'stupid', slipping into banal animal existence. His brain solved the problem, but only temporarily. During the sacrifice, Reaper absorbed the rough astral shells of the souls, increasing his power and... sizes. And the bigger he became, the harder it was for him to remain conscious.
Thus, a vicious circle was formed. The Reaper sacrificed another race, grew larger, and used the victims ' psychic shells to create another core, which was installed on a spaceship with artificial intelligence.
All this meat processing plant has existed for more than a billion years, and during this time Reaper has reached the size of the galaxy itself. But at the same time, despite all his efforts, this creature became too stupid. The more cores were subordinated to the Reaper, the more sprayed his consciousness was. As a result, the quality has passed into quantity, and the self-awareness of the Reaper has slid to the level of banal shrimp, reacting to stimuli. It was sad and... funny sight.
The fact that I was able to connect to the memory of the Reaper and learn everything that interested me, proved that this patient is actually in a state of lethargic sleep. Alas, this parody of Cthulhu did not threaten to wake up one day and destroy the universe. Moreover, soon he himself was to become feed for demons. However, the concept of 'soon' here was relative. It could have been tens or even hundreds of millions of years before this point. But since I'm in this world, it's worth considering how this situation can be used.
In order not to be distracted by the camouflage from the astral claws of the Reaper, I opened a portal to the planet from which I began my journey through this galaxy. I needed privacy and time to come up with a proper action plan.
And so, after two months of thinking, I was ready to act. After climbing to the top of a high mountain, I fell into meditation, and then mentally turned to the world around me.
“I call the Game Judge to conclude a mutually beneficial deal.”
After five minutes of such meditation, I felt the presence of someone else's consciousness, which breathed with unlimited power. It was not the amorphous mass of the Reaper. The power of this entity was like a blazing fire that could burn everything.
"What do you want to offer me?" A question popped into my head.
"I suggest to the Judge exchange one of my Justice Points for the coordinates of the known space worlds whose technologies will not violate the rules of the Game in this galaxy if I move them here."
"What benefit from this Justice Point to me?" The Judge's thoughts were filled with boredom and contempt of the insignificant microbe in my face.
“This Justice Point is an expression of the duty of another Judge, to whom I have sacrificed the souls of powerful game figures. By conceding part of this debt, I will give you the right to demand the return of a figure of a similar quality or some kind of reciprocal service.”
My scam was based on the assumption that the Game in this world is controlled by another Judge. At the same time, the Justice Points were largely supposed to be a kind of cheat that exists outside the framework of standard rules. Therefore, it was quite possible to allow a broader interpretation of their meaning, especially by another Judge.
I felt my mind was scanned, having studied my thoughts on this deal. It was faster than if I tried to explain something even through mental communication.
"It's a cheat." The Judge confirmed my thoughts. "But you're right, you can use it once. So, you don't need my help in the game itself?”
Judging by the Judge's emotions, this question was more of a formality that allowed certain rules to be used as an excuse.
“No. All I need is knowledge - the coordinates of the worlds that I can use to open the Stargate on my own initiative.”
“Very good.” The Judge nodded in satisfaction. “You already know about the existence of some game worlds, so I'll give you their coordinates. This does not reveal any fundamentally new information to you, but only allows you to use your own abilities. The exchange is completed.”
With these words, I felt a separate memory block appear in my mind, containing a list of coordinates for opening the Stargate. At the same time, there was also a small PostScript that notified me that each of the addresses I can use only once, after which it will be erased from my memory. I was also forbidden to copy or save this information in any other way.
However, there was no sense in such copying. I'm physically unable to use the coordinates twice. Because one of the parameters in them was the time of arrival, and being in the same time in two copies was against the laws of the Universe.
If I'm interested in returning to some world, I can just create a beacon there that reads the 'current coordinates' and then transmits them to me with the chakra. This energy could operate in all worlds at once, which gave me a lot of opportunities. For example, I am still felling the work of my fuinjutsu in the Stargate Universe and, if I want, I could return to the gate installer when I left that world.
After looking through the list of addresses, I realized that there was also a case. I didn't know what the worlds were at each of the addresses. Looks like I'm going to have to jump at random. The list of addresses didn't even have any order relative to each other. In memory, they were more like a handful of beans thrown into a cup.
Well, I'm about to start a new adventure, and in the meantime, it's worth preparing a foothold in this world. I will not only travel here, but I would have to bring something with me that could destroy the Reaper and all other intelligent life forms in this galaxy.