The Clone returned to Destruction's Desolation. As planned, Zenyak arrived shortly after, still rippling with cuboidal power that would be intolerable for any mortal within three hundred light years. Obviously, he had not taken the Clone's advice. Not yet. That was the purpose of this meeting.
Through the haze of the iteration's tortured physical and metaphysical alignments, Zenyak's expression was all business. REPORT.
The Clone bowed his head for Zenyak's palm on his crown. The physical matrix of his avatar was again destroyed countless times by the hyper-charged exposure, requiring his Immortal Ka to renew his avatar repeatedly.
Withdrawing his hand, a wolfish smile alighted on Zenyak's power-soaked and twisting physical avatar. IT IS AS YOU ANTICIPATED. JOSHUA ELIAS TANNER WENT IN THE POLAR OPPOSITE DIRECTION HE WAS WARNED AGAINST. WELL, PREDICTABILITY OF FOOLISHNESS IS STILL PREDICTABILITY... AND REALITY'S REQUIREMENT OF KARMIC BALANCE IS MET WITH YOUR WARNING TO STAY AWAY.
Zenyak stared at the Clone. THIS SCENARIO WILL PROVIDE KARMA WITH THE GREATEST OPPORTUNITY TO BESTOW GROWTH ON THE BONDED PAIR. OR KILL THEM BOTH. WELL DONE. IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF.
Seeing his chance, the Clone moved the conversation to his goals for this meeting. He was, after all, an exact copy of Zenyak Marztanak before the penultimate combatant went insane enough to threaten the foundational substrata of the multiverse. And The Clone wouldn't be denied. So, you see the potential in Sophie Tanner, Alysa Nang, and the Bonded pair as Agents of Karma. You will stop absorbing the cuboid force and allow the multiverse to restabilize?
Zenyak dipped his head and eyed his Clone from below his bunched brows as if he was planning the appropriate response to being called to task by himself. I AND THE OTHER PARAMOUNTS ARE NOT MADMEN, CLONE. IF THE BONDED PAIR SURVIVES AND SUCCEEDS. AND IF KARMA FOSTERS THEIR GROWTH ACCORDING TO THEIR EFFORTS AND RISKS, I WILL PRESENT YOUR SUGGESTED SOLUTION AS A VIABLE ALTERNATIVE... AND MAKE THAT RECOMMENDATION, YES.
Zenyak waved a finger and traveled back through the rich blue tones of the Way to the other two Paramounts. The Clone again noticed how even Reality's fibers were tortured by his presence in this state. How can they take such risks? The Three should be above the draw of pride and fear of destruction. But, apparently they are not… In fairness, I wonder if any of us are. And if they can fall victim to their pride... Can I not fall as well? His eyes remained fixed on the damage his progenitor’s exit left on Reality warily. Have I not already?
The Clone would remain vigilant to avoid the pitfall his progenitor had so willingly thrown himself into. Discussing this subject with Intelligence might also be a worthy idea… At any rate, there was a chance of preventing destroying the multiverse under the guise of saving it… And all I had to do to get the attention of those three power-mad yahoos was risk turning Karma and Reality against us by gambling on the actions of the other most foolhardy pair in the multiverse...
The Clone paused and rolled his eyes at his surroundings, as the ramifications of what he had just said sunk into his own superior consciousness…
…It is already too late for me to avoid my progenitor’s insanity, isn’t it?
* * * * *
Radin Talan, most recently appointed of the five serving elders of the Talan Clan, didn't like the activity his reconnaissance teams had been tracking on Noha-3. Three or four moderate-sized groups of treasure hunters per standard galactic solar cycle were to be expected. These groups had usually been fortunate enough to find a Treasure Atlas unearthed from the renegades Shisoka and Utsuki's long-lost hidden caches. As such, they were expected to eventually arrive on Noha-3. After all, the Talan Clan created the Atlases, buried them, and sold the locations to the greedy seekers in the first place. It simultaneously guided them away from the actual locations of the Clan's troves and brought in a fair amount of sol for their effort.
A tight smile touched the corners of his mouth. We might be blacklisted and on the run from the Kotei and his council all these long years... But the Talan are just as ruthless as the rest of the Kaizuko.
Radin's cheer was short-lived, and a sour expression soon wrinkled his narrow face as he dwelt on the sharp edges of his last thought. We are ruthless, yes, but always on the run. I... No... the Talan deserves better than to be constantly on the run!
Radin's frustration boiled his blood. But, if he was honest, he found the Clan's need to hide from the Kaizuko incredibly ironic. After all, it was his mother's desperate actions, in concert with his father's passion, that had ultimately freed the Kaizuko from the Cudgel. Only by demonstrating Daibosu's vulnerability had it been possible for Stuado's subsequent coup. Without question, the resulting power change made life better for all Kaizuko.
Unfortunately, though Daibosu was gone, the old thug had not been forgotten. There were still many of his former allies on the ruling council. Those who not only wanted to get back what had been taken by Radin's mother but lusted to exact revenge for the shame of being duped by his father's treason. Radin couldn't deny that his parents had made Daibosu and the commander's counsel look more foolish than a planet full of treasure seekers following bogus maps. The commanders' enduring wrath was only made worse by the fictional but never dying legend of his parents flagrantly hiding away under the noses of the Kaizuko on Noha-3 for the last fifty thousand years.
Radin quietly sighed at the thought. While his parents' first meeting had been greatly exaggerated... Shisoka's love of Utsutki had indeed led him to betray Daibosu. His parents had told him several times that after catching a member of his mother's team surveying the Kotei's vaults, Shisoka followed him to the local tavern where Utsuki and her conspirators were waiting. Seeing his mother's beauty, Shisoka had put his life in her hands. Giving Utsuki access to the Cudgel's vaults. Not only that. His father continued the deception and accepted Daibosu's frantic order to hunt down Utsutki and retrieve his treasure.
Shisoka's unflinching loyalty before this allowed the ruse. With it, he had utterly blindsided the Kotei and the Kaizuko Commanders' Council to give Utsuki and her crew the breathing room to disappear. His father's complete willingness to not only break faith with Daibosu but continue the deceit guaranteed neither he nor any of his blood would be trusted by any Kotei ever again. Should any Talan resurface, they would be quickly captured, flayed, and spaced. It would be foolish to imagine any other kind of welcome, even from the reportedly benevolent Kotei Stuado.
As this was all true, Radin could not comprehend why his parents still adamantly refused to take steps against Stuado or his circle of cronies. They preferred hiding. So, the Clan hid, regardless of the damage to Radin's or the rest of the Clan's sense of justice or honor.
For his entire life, Radin had been taught that flight was the only option if the Kaizuko were near. Confrontation and violence against them were out of the question. Whatever the reason, the message was clear. The Kaizuko were better than him! Radin and the Clan's existence was, somehow, subservient.
But it has gone on for far too long!
Now that his parents had elevated him to Serving Elder, Radin's inferiority would end. The day was near when he would lead the Talan proudly out into the galaxy. He wouldn't be alone. The Savoy wanted Kotei Stuado and his Kaizuko ground under their heels as much as Radin did. The mercenary organization was ‘taking steps to remove the Kaizuko stain from the galaxy.’ The vampiress Xsias had told Radin this when he accepted her parley invitation after his elevation to leadership. Xsias had made it plain that the Savoy would be ‘...grateful for Clan Talan's aid’ in their efforts. And they had been! Just to meet, Xsias had provided him with the Impact Stone—an item of power granting Force Essence Attunement. More than this, she had implanted voltaic lumina rods along the Meridians of his forearms to enhance the externalization of his Force skills.
Having been formed on the pinnacle peak of the only known cation planet in a negatively charged galactic sector, the voltaic lumina rods were unsurpassed natural treasures to guide and amplify energy flow. Radin could feel the power arcing up and down his Meridians as they vibrated with destructive potential.
Xsias will surely give me even more when we move against the Kotei! Radin had to suppress a sharp grin. When the Savoy hammer comes down on the Kaizuko, I will ensure the Talan are standing shoulder to shoulder with the mercenaries. Together, we will bring the Kaizuko to the shameful end they deserve!
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Then there was the little something extra he and Xsias had enjoyed at the close of their talk. Undead or not, Xsias was intriguing, to say the least! Radin couldn't stop smiling as he remembered their liaison. It had gone on for hours! Without a doubt, Xsias must have been as captivated as he was.
And I'm going to get to speak to her again today!
Radin had a hitch in his breath at the thought— Then he caught himself. It is odd to have such strong feelings just at the thought of speaking with a woman... it isn't like me to be so focused on a single woman. His wives usually met all his needs. He looked out over the shield wall to the desert beyond and pondered that...
A few micros later, his head cleared. Radin shook the uneasy feelings off. True, I wouldn't typically focus on just any woman. But Xsias isn't just any woman, is she? No. With a woman this amazing, it was normal for her to fill his thoughts. She would certainly reward him for telling her about the large, black AI mechanical she and all the Savoy had been put on alert for. When she learned it was here, Radin might even get to meet with her again!
It is also true that turning over the giant mech is unrelated to my goals of protecting the seclusion of the Clan... But for some reason, Radin felt he simply had to notify Xsias it was here. No time like the present! Radin pulled the transmitter she had given him from his aspect focus and activated it as she had instructed. Puncturing the tip of his thumb with the needle on its thicker end. Xsias had assured him that the blood she had fed him from her wrist would do the rest.
A brief static hiss erupted from the transmitter, and the device floated from his grasp and hovered at face level. A brusque male voice spoke.
"Thrall 1156, report."
"This is Radin Talan, serving elder of the Talan Clan. I have activated the beacon to speak with Xsias..."
"Thrall 1156. Report!"
Though Radin was slightly perturbed by not speaking directly with Xsias, an internal voice quickly justified it. She is such an incredible being and obviously can't be hanging on the transceiver for random communications, can she? I must play along for her sake.
"Very well… I spotted a large AI Mechanical being that she asked me to be on the lookout for. Could you please tell her—"
The voice's tone demonstrated a significant increase in interest as it cut him off. "Display a holovid of the AI Mechanical immediately!
Radin rolled his eyes. The man was still keeping him from Xsias. But I’m in it now...
Radin tapped several keys on his wrist unit, and a holographic video of the black-armored mech walking into the bahom cave on the shield wall played out before the transmitter.
"Standby for further orders."
Less than half of a micro-gyra passed, and a hologram of Xsias appeared from the transmitter. It showed her from the shoulders up at twice her actual dimensions. Her raven hair had been cut short on one side and covered her shoulder on the other. Her lips had been painted midnight blue, and a smile spread across her full lips as the connection completed.
"Radin, lover! Who would have thought that you would have been so useful in such a short time—"
Joyous, Radin couldn't keep quiet. His words burst out. "Xsias! I'm so happy to see you!"
The cruel smile on Xsias's face cut the air between them. "Radin dear, of course you crave me. You are under my compulsion. Please don't interrupt me again. While you won't remember anything specific that we say or do during this conversation... I don't want to make you damage yourself while you're still useful to me."
Radin slammed his lips shut and stared, doe-eyed at her.
Xsias continued in a business-like tone. "Good. Is the AI mechanical, designation RX, still in the cave you showed me?
A brief pause of silence ensued before Xsias curtly snapped out. "You can answer direct questions, dolt!"
Like a child who was unsure of his position in a group of adults, Radin spoke with uncertainty, "Ahh... Yes... the AI mechanical is still there."
"Good! Stellar coordinates have the hologram you uploaded confirmed to the planet Noha-3. In the top third of a rock formation cutting across the central desert. Is that correct?"
A shorter pause where Radin's compelled mind decided it was appropriate to answer without incurring her wrath. Then he answered eagerly, "Yes! Yes, it is."
"Excellent. I need you to slow down and, if possible, incapacitate RX. Its plating is pure adamite. You will not be able to destroy it. Our latest intelligence has it capable of Earth and Water Attunement skills. Do you have the means of stopping it for 1.2 standard rotations while I am en route?”
For a moment, the enraptured child staring at Xsias returned to the composure of a seasoned strategist as he considered the tools available to him. Then his adoring expression returned. "Yes... I can do that. But it will require burying it in billions of tons of rubble. Will that be... okay?"
A sly look came over Xsias as she winked vampily. "I like how you think, lover! I'm starting to remember why I went with the paramour compulsion with you! You have earned yourself a repeat. Know that if RX is still incapacitated when I arrive, I will reward you as I did the last time we were together." Her smile deepened until her fangs showed.
Radin's face lit up like a supernova. "You will join with me again?!!"
"Of course not! You pathetic creature!" Xsias' hologram rolled her eyes. "I haven't had female anatomy or organs since a Tiger Affin shredded them from my living body one hundred thousand standard cycles ago." She flipped her hair and smiled coyly while winking a solid black eye. "But just like the first time, you won't remember that..." Xsias's expression turned as brittle as volcanic glass. "Incapacitate that AI mechanical now!"
The emitter shut down and left Radin alone. His body rocked slightly from toes to heels as Xsias' blood compulsion deepened its control in response to her words of command. Several micros passed before he became conscious again, only remembering the promise of Xsias' reward. While he didn't know it, Xsias hadn't lied. Radin recalled nothing of the specifics of their conversation or her sadistic admissions.
Radin wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth and clicked his wrist controller to speak to his three field teams in the area. "This is team leader. All teams, fire Darkstar grenades into the cave the AI mechanical has entered on my count. Confirm order."
Radin's receiver registered three affirmative responses. Then he immediately started counting down as if he had no choice but to do so. "Three, two, one. Fire."
Immediately following the explosion, a two-thousand-meter-wide swath of the clifftop had bucked up into the air and collapsed in on itself. The dry air of Noha-3's central desert was charged by the sky-splitting sounds of fracturing rock. The overlaying table of stone on the shield wall shattered, and echoes cracked out into the distance. Everything with a life force was stilled as a wide-capped plume of dust violently rose into the clear sky. Winds swept up, and a deep tectonic rumble overrode all as mountains of broken stone collapsed into the now atomized material below. Ultimately, a five-hundred-meter-deep depression settled roughly into the shape of the bowl Radin’s junior wife Freeda served him soup in.
For several minutes, Radin had looked on in silent appreciation at the stark beauty of the devastation he had wrought.
But that had been forty-five micro-gyra ago. Now, the entire cliffside of the desert's shield wall crawled with troops from the Brigantine. There were two different types. One was composed of the elite security forces that the better Kaizuko commanders had. The other group followed even greater discipline and showed rigid military bearing. It was clear that the second group was well-trained in disaster response. Instead of running willy-nilly and digging randomly, they assessed the entire surface area and began spelunking into the reachable fissures. What was even more disturbing was that someone was coordinating the two groups toward their individual strengths, and they seemed to be functioning as a well-integrated whole despite their differing uniforms. The Kaizuko were not known for working well with others and certainly not sharing their capital ships with other forces. Radin would need to consider this unusual development.
It was also evident that the Brigantine had a lot of soldiers. Far more than Radin had anticipated. Already over one thousand had come down with the steady stream of shuttles descending to Noha-3's surface, and there was no end in sight. They had even begun placing large earth-moving equipment in the more stable locations of the depression to start the selective removal of debris.
All in all, even if their actions were more efficient than what would usually be expected from the Kaizuko, they weren't overly surprising. Soldiers would look for their leaders when they went missing.
What surprised Radin was how wrong he had been to order his teams to maintain their positions after the detonation. Radin knew that he should have ordered the immediate evacuation of himself and his teams. While he couldn’t explain it from a strategically sound perspective... He simply knew that he needed to be sure that mech had stayed put.
So, they had remained. Radin had hoped there would be time to leave after a short watch. The rapid response of the Brigantine had put a quick end to that notion, however. Less than five micro-gyra after the detonation, the first reconnaissance teams arrived. With their coming, Radin and his men had been forced into a waiting match against their rescue efforts.
All this aside, what really had Radin concerned right now were the platoons of soldiers marching directly for his surveillance bunker. Several squads of heavily armed troops moved across his video receivers into rear and lateral flanking positions. A squad of four was also approaching directly through the cave entry to his primary entrance. He was also able to detect two Brigantine shuttles that had already lifted off and were in a hovering pattern to offer the ground troops air support.
Guess it’s time to play! Radin was actually glad. Being discovered was a good omen of things to come concerning the Kaizuko.
No more hiding! The Savoy will help us rid the quadrant of these scum. Let it start here!
Radin signaled his men in the bunker and the three teams stationed outside to go offensive at his signal. A determined smile carved his face. It’s just a shame we don't have any more Darkstar fission grenades with us. But that is fine as well... A sharp look joined the savage grin on Radin's face as bright-white forks of Essence crackled around his open hands. The room flashed under the harsh white strobe and illuminated the faces of his shocked men in pulses... I have a few surprises of my own that are just perfect for this occasion!