The seconds passed while Matthew continued being held in place, Alina was undergoing what Doc had referred to as ‘A temptation of ruin’ if she continued along this path she would lose control of her Mystic abilities and parish along with every single person at the Basecamp, however just as Matthew were starting to face the seemingly inevitable Alina suddenly had a flash of clarity and began reigning in her Mystic powers as Matthew regained his mobility and acted at once
“Suspend personal A. I. assistant Aea, override authentication #1111101110111”
A moment passed before Matthew felt his movements slow somewhat as the entirety of Aea’s protocols were suspended, then his focus shifted towards Alina that were still trying containing the rampage of her Mystic powers, knowing he couldn’t do anything to help her, he sat down and watched over her as he directly interfaced with the Basecamp defenses to raise the alert level to the maximum
‘Attention to all personal present, alert level have been raised, suit up and join me topside’
[A1 here, I am on my way]
[Ruki here, we hear and obey your command, Major]
A minute or two passed before Adam, Ruki and the 47 other former slaves, having completed their regeneration treatment and training ahead of schedule, they took up defensive positions at once as Ruki and Adam joined Matthew next to Alina, Ruki wielded his Mystic ability for a few moments before he clasped his hands in front of his chest as he bowed silently to Alina before his voice echoed out over the local net
[Mistress Alina will be fine with some time, she has passed the chasm]
‘Yes, however, we still have to keep vigilant in case of outside interference’
Adam looked at little confused at the situation, so Ruki offered an explanation
[The Mystic phenomena the Mistress is experiencing have been documented into our ancient scriptures, having overcome her raging emotions her Mystic abilities will evolve further]
Adam nodded as he mused
[...I knew the understanding of Mystic powers in the Willmir empire were lacking, but not to this extent]
Having checked and rechecked the full sensor scope for any threats in the area and found it clear, Matthew lowered his vigilance slightly and asked Adam to elaborate
‘What exactly is the understanding of Mystic powers in the Willmir empire?’
Adam took a few moments to gather his thoughts on the matter before he answered
[It certainly isn’t widely understood, Mystic awakenings are sporadic and random, furthermore they occur all over the empire, all Mystic awakened people are recruited by the ruling class of the empire where they are assigned different roles depending on their abilities]
Ruki’s laugh echoed out over the local net, after he finished containing himself he spoke
[That truly is the most basic understanding, to think deliberate awakening isn’t even know]
A few moments of silence passed before Adam asked back, completely baffled
[...Is that possible? So you can make people awaken Mystic abilities on command?]
[Yes, of course this comes with the dangers of the newly awakened not being able to control their powers and entering a berserk state in the worst of circumstances, even past that lengthy meditation is required to for a deliberate awoken to survive too]
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Adam nodded before he asked
[Then what is this chasm the Mistress have passed?]
Matthew answered
‘The chasm as Ruki called or ‘A temptation of ruin’ as Doc have so colorfully named the phenomenon, is a state of sudden heightened emotions that is experienced by adept Mystic ability users, failure to reign in their emotions lead to them losing control over their abilities with fatal consequences, however those that mange to pass this trail often show far greater control over their Mystic domain than they had before’
Adam nodded once again, he thought back to situations like this that had happened in the Willmir empire’s history and immediately found several examples of this Mystic phenomenon, the Duke mulled over this folly of his old seat of power and let out a sigh, he was dead to the empire he had ruled over and called home, and so it was dead to him, even if it still would take a while for him to let go…
-
Around dawn Alina finally managed to contain her runaway Mystic powers, while her robotic body underwent maintenance via nanites supplied from Matthew she finally spoke while she gazed up at the sky
“Beyond the sky… It’s so empty… And dark”
Matthew gazed up at the dawning sky and spoke
“Yeah, there’s a large temperature difference if you are in the light too”
Alina nodded as she continued to gaze at the sky, she spoke again after a few moments
“There’s something in the sky too… It’s flying around the planet in orbit”
“A satellite?”
Alina shock her head slowly before she spoke again
“A craft… ‘Mighty Endurance’ is painted on the starboard side of the middle section… It’s moving rapidly though space and time, one moment is one place, the next it's in another… It’s either falling apart or in perfect shape”
Matthew nodded, he looked silently up into the sky, had Aea not stepped out of line he would have it crunch the data Alina was receiving, however with Aea out of the picture Matthew put a hand on Alina’s shoulder and spoke to her
“Show me”
A few moments passed before it appeared in his vision, it was indeed the Mighty Endurance, an experimental jump freighter that had smuggled him and the rest of BlueArrow’s hit team around for around 3 standardized years, just as Alina had stated it flickered around, like a movie being rewound and skipping around to different spots in the tape
“Well, that’s fucking weird… There are a couple of outgoing lifeboats stuck in the distortion too…”
Matthew lifted his hand from Alina’s shoulder and the view of the Mighty Endurance disappeared, after that he patted Alina on the shoulder
“Don’t keep staring at that for too long, we don’t want Wicka to take notice”
Alina nodded, then she lowered her gaze and looked silently at Matthew for a few moments before he spoke
“Welcome back, you had me worried about you for a few moments there”
Alina nodded, she muttered a few moments later
“Sorry to worry you, Matthew…”
Then her figure disappeared as she reappeared behind Matthew and placed a hand on his back as she spoke
“Hold still”
Matthew held still, a few moments later Alina appeared in front of Matthew once again and spoke
“You can let Aea back in, I’ve made sure it won’t misbehave like that again”
Matthew nodded and spoke out loud
“Enable personal A. I. assistant Aea, override authentication #1111101110111”
A moment passed before Aea’s voice echoed out inside Matthew’s mind
[Startup of general A. I. personal assistant Aea started… Startup protocols completed, checking active task…]
Matthew felt it, the dullness of his body had disappeared, and the slight metal fog he had felt for a few hours quickly lifted
“How are the preparations for the next operation going, Aea?”
[Several tasks stalled out due to suspension of protocols, however a large part of the logistical shipping have been completed, launch of operation will be ready in 52 minutes, Haliea-005 and Haliea-006 are in route from island outpost while Haliea-007 and Haliea-008 are ready for boarding]
Matthew nodded and spoke
“Looks like it was the right decision to increase the amount of Haliea’s on hand…”
A moment later Matthew heard a giggle from Ripper that stood ready, as they still were in a state of heightened defense, she was wearing her personally customized (And very pink) Mk. 8 high mobility powered armor, when she didn’t elaborate why she was laughing at him and kept giggling Matthew eventually lost patience and asked
“Do you have something to share, R1?”
Ripper pulled herself together and gave Matthew a (somewhat) serious answer to his question
“No Major, however I fear D1 would take kindly to your comments”
Matthew paused and was about to argue before he shut his mouth, he realized that he indeed had shoved the task of sourcing material for the new Hyper computing cores as well as their newly increased air fleet on Doc
‘Right… She tends to stew in her anger for a while before suddenly exploding… Aea, pass a message to Doc to have her take 5 days off’
[Confirmed]
Seeing the message that passed through the local net Ripper broke out into full on laughter as she clutched her stomach, seeing this Matthew finally called it and yell out
“Alright! Lower the alert level Aea, all personal heading out on the next operation needs to remain topside, the rest of you can return to your normal schedule”
As the alert level was lowered, the combat androids and many of the beastman soldiers that wouldn’t join the first wave of the operation to retake their home returned to the bunker complex underground with little to no complaint, despite having been kept on high alert the entire night
“Your people have excellent discipline, Ruki”
Ruki bowed his head in humility
“Thank you, Major… Our final bastion, our fortress city, weathered an extended siege… It is natural that the ones that survived this long were the most disciplined…”
Matthew nodded, he too understood how such a fire seared discipline into each and every person that managed to pass through it alive