Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 38B2 - : Aspiranti dal Cielo

Jace rolled out of the tent and shook Greg and Priam awake, “Come on. Time to go to work.”

Priam grumbled and turned over, “Five more minutes, dad,” he muttered still half-asleep.

Greg sat up, grabbed the bunny-boy, and lifted him up by the scruff of the neck, “Alright sleepyhead. Get up. Time to go kick some corpo ass!” he unceremoniously tossed Priam out of the tent and into Jace’s arms.

Jace helped Priam stand up as the Oslia rubbed the sleep from his eyes and went over to his pack on the floor, re-acquiring his hat and feeding his ears through the holes at the top. “I’m awake!” Priam said as he shouldered his pack. “Let’s just get on with it!”

“Someone is not a morning person,” Greg said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, I like sleeping in,” Priam replied as he sat on the couch, waiting for Jace to break down the tent for them to leave. “Where are we going to be arriving, Quinn? I doubt there’s a portal in the ocean.”

“There are many large population centers around the Mediterranean. One that should have a pretty solid entry point is Rome, Italy. One of humanity’s oldest civilian centers that has stood the test of time. The artificial landmass of Enduralife Enterprises’ main complex is South of Rome in between the mainland and Palermo. The hard part is going to be getting out to the location.”

Greg frowned, “Yeah, any boat they’ll see coming. Same with any type of aquatic assault. How do we get there?”

Quinn’s voice came over once more, “From above. You’re going to airdrop in. I’ve already got a flight chartered. An old crew member that I did some jobs with owns a small plane. He’s going to take you from the airport outside of Rome, far up, and let you drop down. Escaping the island, though: that’s on you guys to figure out.”

“Really? No thoughts on how to escape an island?” Priam asked exasperatedly.

“There are boats you could steal. If you take out the server, the turrets around the island would be disabled. No issues with tha-”

“Patrol boats,” Greg replied. “They can be manned with people with guns.”

“If you’re rescuing an Aspirant whose Class is literally called ‘Blaster’: I think you’ll have enough offensive firepower.”

Jace finished packing up the tent and shouldered his pack. “Good thing we won’t need parachutes,” he said with a grin as he led the group to the street. The trio walked under Jace’s Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3) [Group] as the world warped around them and they arrived at The Cosmic Corridor once more.

[22 Days remain until the Earth portal lock ends.]

[6 Days remain until the Star Council withdraws.]

They entered the dark space of Earth’s portal hub, and the message flickered across the group’s vision. Jace walked up to the console and pushed the button for Rome. The blue pastel portal opened, and he led the way through.

They exited into an enormous town square. People milled about: high class people. Jace saw the ancient buildings of reconstructed white stone all about, and the people were dressed like the richest of the rich he’d ever seen. Never had he witnessed such wealth.

Quinn’s voice crackled over the comm as if she was a tour guide, “This is the Piazza del Popolo. There is an obelisk called the Flaminio Obelisk. A significant landmark here. This is where Enduralife Enterprises has their employee housing…for the higher-ups, at least. In the surrounding regions and the islands around their artificial island, they have housing for their lower-ranked workers.”

A map appeared in Jace’s vision, and he followed it to a small walkway that went down towards a river. A small boat was tethered here; a fabulous, white-wood and silver construction. An enormous outboard motor was on the back, and a tan-skinned, bulky man whose size rivaled Greg’s own mass sat in a chair, reclined back.

“That’s your pilot,” Quinn stated. “Drop the Cloak.”

Jace did so, and the man jumped slightly before chuckling and sliding his glasses down his nose slightly, “scared the shit out of me.” His accent was quite thick, and Jace would have struggled with understanding if not for Universal Translation. The man laughed as he stood up and buttoned his light, short-sleeve shirt. “Cipher warned me about her friends being sneaky, but cloaking tech? Damn.”

He held out his hand and grinned, offering assistance to board his boat, “Call me Augustus. I’m your pilot: both of this boat and my plane. Please, we have a good ways to travel along the river.”

Jace hopped onto the vessel with Priam, and Greg took the man’s hand to get on the ship: his larger bulk not quite as nimble as his companions’. “How you doing, Augustus?” Greg asked.

“Do I know you?”

Greg let his helmet recede and the other man had a grin that rivaled Greg’s own. The two clasped hands, and Jace couldn’t help but think it looked slightly absurd: the two heavily muscled and bearded men, seemingly playing a match of arm wrestling in mid-air.

“You son of a bitch!” Augustus shouted as he laughed aloud and hugged Greg like a long-lost friend. “How you doing?”

Greg held up his hand, showing off his Cosmic Power Symbol, “I’m great. Aspirant, Tier 4.”

“No shit?”

“Nope!” Greg walked over to the seat next to the pilot’s seat, and Augustus tossed off the rope, started up the engine, and began gunning it at extreme speed down the river. “Decided to finally get fat, eh?” Greg taunted.

“I may have a bit of bulk, but I still work out every day.” Augustus chuckled, “A dad has to have a dad bod, right?”

Jace cleared his throat a bit, “How do you two know each other?”

Greg glanced back with a grin, “He’s ex-AISI. Italy’s intelligence agency. Technically the country still exists, they just rent all of their land to Enduralife.”

Augustus tapped a button as the boat began steering itself, and he turned in his seat, “You’re awfully roguish looking. Did you run with a crew before becoming an Aspirant?”

Jace shook his head, “Independent Courier.”

“Ah. Well, Greg and I worked together in an investigation. And when one muscle-man meets another, well, it’s instant friendship!”

Greg nodded, “Not to mention we did a few jobs together. His crew and mine. I didn’t know that Cipher knew about him.”

Quinn’s voice crackled over the comms, “My last name is my code name. Always has been. And yeah, I coordinated with Augustus’ team. I had no clue that he worked with Greg before.”

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Jace nodded as the two men continued to chat back and forth to each other, sharing their recent past. But Jace looked at Priam, who was clutching onto the boat’s handles for dear life as it bounced rapidly against the waves. Jace gently grabbed and squeezed his shoulder, “You okay?”

Priam nodded, “This is scary, but exciting! That’s weird, isn’t it?”

Jace nodded, “I mean, you’ve fallen out of the sky with me. I would think that’s scarier.”

Priam smiled, “Yeah, that was pretty scary. But you had a hold on me.”

Augustus interrupted them, “We’ll get to the airfield in about twenty minutes. You wanted a night mission, right?”

“Correct,” Quinn’s voice came crackling not only through Jace’s earpiece, but also through the speaker’s on the boat. “They’ll need to hunker down for about three hours before you take off.”

Augustus nodded, “Hang on tight!”

Dee felt more thuds against her chitinous shell, feeling the impact transfer to her goopy interior. She would have coughed up blood if her biology was capable of it. She was quite badly injured; even for the very hardy Plorp species.

Hurry up, she thought.

Xera had told her that help was on the way. Official signing would happen once she was in safe hands. And, Dee was assured that a healer was with her rescuers.

The Aspirant who had been tormenting her let out a laugh as the doors opened and a pair of men in white lab coats walked in with a type of syringe. Dee felt fear race down her core: the center point of her being and her only real organ that also was her brain. She moved her core up to the head of her chitinous shell, and felt the syringes poke into and begin draining her from near the knee-joints.

Given time, her goop would regenerate. But at this rate, with the constant beatings preventing her normal rate of regeneration, she’d be dead after another series of removals.

I can’t hold out for much longer, she thought as she looked up at her Wayfinder who was being beaten up to prevent System access by this other Aspirant’s snake-creature. Her sight drifted down to the Aspirant who had been abusing her. “I’m going to kill you when I get out of here,” she said.

The Aspirant laughed and shook his head, “Not a chance in hell. No way you’re getting out of here.”

We’ll see about that. And I cannot wait to melt you to your bones!

The river trip was rapid, and Augustus had hosted the group at his small country estate which had a private airstrip. The man explained that Streetrunning had made him quite wealthy. That, and his connections with Italy’s government: or the remains of it: enabled him to settle his family’s ancestral estate.

It took a hefty payment to Enduralife, but Jace could see how important the heritage was to the man. Everything on the property was perfectly maintained and was immaculate. Him and Greg played with the man’s kids. A set of four who couldn’t be older than 10 years old.

Priam and Jace sat on the patio, sipping watered-down wine, as the sun set. Greg came up to the two and took a swig of his glass, turning to admire the sunset. “You boys ready to jump out of a plane?”

Jace nodded, “Yeah. Let’s get to it.”

Augustus walked up as his children kept playing in the small field that was set aside for that purpose; scattered toys were strewn all about. “You know, Greg, you’re welcome to visit any time.”

Greg nodded as he shouldered his pack and gestured to Jace and Priam to do the same, “Yeah, I’d love to bring Missy here. But we’ll have to wait a bit. I’m sure the megacorps post-shut down will not be sitting idly by. Once the Star Council fixes things up a bit…I’d be happy to do so.”

Augusts waved for the trio to follow him to the end of his airstrip. It was a packed, dirt road, and at one end was a hangar. The man slid open the doors and revealed an old, two-prop plane. “My pride and joy. I scrounged together the pieces or made them over in my forge on the back of the house. This thing is so low tech, it gets by most scanners.” He chuckled, “Plus, some improvements make it have a tiny radar cross-section, so the odds of us being detected are slim-to-none.”

Jace, Greg, and Priam loaded into the small cabin. It was separate from the cockpit, and the vehicle sputtered to life. Jace felt slight unease, and it must have been evident on his face as Priam squeezed his leg. “Hey, you good?”

Jace nodded, “I’ve never flown before. Just fallen and launched myself up into the sky. It’s just different, is all.”

Greg leaned back and folded his arms behind his head, “You get used to it.”

The flight took two hours, and the night had begun to settle in as Augustus looked back at the trio, “Your drop zone is coming up!” he shouted. “If you drop when I tell you and deploy whatever anti-grav tech Cipher told me you had, you should land right at the center of the complex!”

Jace looked out the window: not for the first time since beginning the flight: and felt the slight pit form in his stomach once more. They were very high. But he knew that this would be an easy infiltration given his Cloak and the unexpected entry point.

Get in. Rescue Dee. Put the tech-plague into the server core, and get out on a boat. Seems easy enough. Jace’s mental checklist way of organizing complex tasks into simple to-do lists was one of the few reasons he was able to survive as long as he had on the streets. Being able to take a large number of tasks and break them into their component, most-important pieces was key to surviving on the streets.

He took a deep breath, “Thanks, Augustus. Stay safe.” He pushed open the door and looked back at his allies. “Ready?”

Priam and Greg both nodded and grabbed onto Jace’s arms, and Jace fell backwards out of the plane. Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3) [Group]. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). The tiny, black dot of the mine manifested on his chest, and Jace spread out his arms as Greg had told him that would help control his fall.

Apparently, he did it wrong, as he felt himself tumbling over and over in the sky, as the horizon kept spinning out of sight. “Greg?!” Jace shouted out, unsure of which way was up or down anymore.

He felt an arm grip his shoulder and he began to stabilize out. Glancing sideways as he got his bearings, he saw that Greg had stabilized out and applied enough pressure on Jace’s shoulder to force his arm into position. “Straighten the other arm out! Starfish! Legs and Arms out! Suck your stomach in!” It was only thanks to the comms that Jace could hear him.

Ollie swam in the air next to Jace, assuming the same position as glittering nebula streaked behind him. “Look at Priam!” he pointed slightly down below the duo. Jace followed his gesture.

Priam was a natural skydiver. He was spinning, flipping, performing twirls and spirals as he gained height by slowing his fall, and sped up by tucking everything in. He was giggling and whooping with delight, but Jace heard Quinn’s voice over the comms to shut down the enjoyment of free falling, “Make sure you’re within 5 feet of Jace. Deploy the Dark Energy Mine in 48 seconds.”

A timer appeared in Jace’s vision, and Priam did a few more flips before adjusting his body to slow down and line up with Greg and Jace’s bodies. He grabbed Jace’s other shoulder to keep them all together and grinned as tears rushed from his eyes from the extreme speed. “This is awesome!”

Jace looked straight down and saw the enormous island grow bigger and bigger as they descended. It was a fortress, and even then, that term did not do it justice. The island was easily twenty miles across: a whole entire city built on an artificial landmass that was tethered to the ocean floor. Docks were spread all around the island, as well as several floating airstrips for deliveries. Drone hubs were also scattered about, and the buzzing autonomous vehicles were flitting from destination to destination: dropping off or picking up resources and finished products.

Jace counted on the timer, knowing that it was going to be a very close activation to the ground. They had to be in grapple range of 100 feet. The buildings rushed up towards them, and the golden honeycomb of Priam’s barriers popped around each of them. As well as the small, golden hourglass above their heads and in the corner of their vision: notification that his [Contingent] healing ability had been placed.

Greg’s body became encrusted with rock, and both Priam and Jace were marked with a light, brown and blue mark of his Protector’s Vow (Rank 3) [Guardian’s Vow].

Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3), Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending]. Jace’s Skills activated, and as the ground rushed up to meet them, he saw the timer hit 0. Detonate.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freeweɓnovēl.coɱ.

The trio had their momentum arrested and were suspended fifty feet off of the ground. An intersection of streets, with employees roaming around from location to location. Cars moved around as well as mechs and security squadrons.

“They are not on lockdown,” Quinn stated. “This should be the easiest infiltration.”

Jace fired his grapple line to the ground and pulled himself and his two hanging-on-allies to the cement below. He dismissed the Dark Energy Mine.

The console in front of the security officer lit up. “Sir! The gravitic sensors that we installed have picked up unknown absence of gravity!”

The commander came up behind his underling and peered over his shoulder. Every Enduralife employee had a badge on them. That overlaid with the map of the facility, combined with the Nebula Alliance’s tech that enabled them to push a sensor for localized gravity into the very construction beneath their feet meant that they could track every person on the artificial island.

And now, they had received the notification that their contact had warned them about. It meant that hostile Aspirants were present. The ones that had taken down three other megacorps in under the span of a week.

“Notify the Aspirants we have on loan. Lock down everything. Mobilize every mech and soldier.”

“Yes, sir!”