Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 68B2 - : Dispatching mercenaries with ease

“Good news!” Ollie said as Jace roused from his slumber, the Wayfinder popping into existence after the Aspirant’s hour-long rest.

Jace yawned and stretched, “What is it?” he asked.

“Priam, Greg, Dee; they killed the god-king on Priam’s home world! There’s going to be a victory feast in a week.”

“Well, I think Xera’s job comes first.” Jace began rolling up the bedroll and packing away the tent. He also popped open a few survival meals and scarfed them down before washing that back with water from his canteen.

“Making it back to the city at your speed is going to be easy enough.”

Jace nodded and looked around. The clearing to the side was peaceful, and the trees around him buzzed: quite literally: with insect activity. They were buzzing around him in a thick cloud: something akin to mosquitos that were trying to penetrate his leviathan-skin hide. I hate bugs, Jace thought as he used his grapnel to latch onto another tree, and stepped off the branch: swinging across the jungle canopy.

He traversed in this method for several hours. The thick trees were perfect for him to navigate a sort of ‘highway’ that the animals did not come up to: and the few times he did spot the dinosaur-like creatures on the branches, he used his Dark Matter Cloak to slip by them undetected.

And Ollie tagged creatures that needed culling. Those were quite easy to deal with, as Jace would just put his Cloak on (Rank 3) and take a single chop at the neck. Nethaldrim was sharp enough that it simply sliced through the creature’s spine in one fell swoop: almost instantly killing them. Both carnivore and herbivore fell before his blade, and by the time the dormancy period began to set in, he had racked up quite a few kills and a hefty amount of Stardust.

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[Stardust Acquired: 65000]

[Stardust Split: 13000]

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Jace was not tired in the slightest, as his occasional activation of the Cloak was not enough to bypass the restoration provided by his [Innervating] Skill Evolution to Cosmic Infusion. So, he elected to keep traveling well into the dormancy period. The whole time, he kept his eyes open and his ears peeled. He knew how quickly a safe looking environment could turn hostile: Earth had been much the same. One minute he might be in a familiar alley, and the next he could be getting jumped by street folk who didn’t follow the code.

And that attentiveness to his environment paid off. Ahead, he saw the enormous cliffs leading up to The Spirals. But before that, he saw what was clearly an ambush. The jungle had been clear-cut back a good few-hundred feet, and arrayed out in a campsite of sorts were dozens of Cosmic Power users. Wayfinders were on watch, and Jace made sure to activate Dark Matter Cloak at (Rank 3) to prevent them from seeing him or Ollie. “Ollie, in the hood,” he whispered.

Ollie complied and did his usual head-wrap-top-of-skull, poking his whiskers just barely out of the hood. “I count thirty Aspirants. No Ascendants. Must be here for the contract Deckard put out on you.”

Quinn’s voice came over the comms, “I’ve been using Xera’s network to monitor some of the traffic in various chat channels.”

We have chat channels? Jace thought.

Quinn continued, “Looks like there is quite an interesting development. You’ve got a group of Aspirants who are all sharing information about you. A sort of…community effort to bring you down and split the Stardust reward.”

“Mostly focused on me though, right?” Jace asked.

“Yeah. Deckard has a reward on the others: but the one on you is much bigger. Anyways, they are a group hunting you.”

Jace looked at the cliffs, “I can just get past them with some Dark Energy Mine action.”

“Or,” Quinn replied, “Send a message. Kill them all. Show them that it’s not worth hunting you.”

Jace stood, silent, for a few moments. They are hunting me down and trying to kill me. Killing them first would be justified. But… “I’m concerned that they might see me as too hard of a target and go after the others.”

Xera’s voice came over the comms, “That trio can handle themselves. I agree with Quinn.”

Alright then, Jace thought as he unsheathed his blade. Void Blade (Rank 5) [Rending]. Void Shield (Rank 1). “Ollie, give me a head count of their powers and numbers.”

The otter nodded, and his chin bumped into Jace’s head. “Thirty Aspirants. All of them are lower Tier than you. Want me to list off all their Cosmic and Ascended Powers?”

“Not necessarily,” Jace replied as he lowered himself to the jungle floor using his Ghostlight Grapnel Arm. “Mainly the Black Hole or Supermassive ones since they can detect me.”

“Right. I will tag those ones in your vision.” Jace saw several figures become highlighted with a red symbol above their heads. “Tagged!”

Then it’s time to go to work. Jace walked up to within one-hundred feet of them. Raising his finger at the first of six, he spoke softly. “Void Beam (Rank 1) [Limited Range].” The ray of grey-white energy cascaded out and went completely undetected: as one could not detect the Void, since it was nothingness given direction. The beam slammed into the first one of the Black Hole users, instantly annihilating him from the waist-up as the fifty-inch-wide beam tore through space.

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Pivoting, and running down the edge of the perimeter, he pointed at and repeating the process, feeling his energy drain with each shot. But within fifteen seconds, he had slain all of the Black Hole or Supermassive users: effectively making him impossible to detect. The camp began to come to arms, shouts of panic and alarm permeating the air.

Jace just shook his head, this isn’t fair for them. He cocked his arm back and threw his sword: watching the blade sink into one of the Aspirant’s chests. Recalling the blade to warp back to his hand, he made his way into the camp. “Ollie, tag support focused Classes like Priam.”

His Wayfinder companion flagged the various individuals based on their Classes, and Jace also saw another HUD overlay his vision as Quinn’s voice popped into his ear, “I’m helping speed up the queries, otherwise it would be up to one minute per target: you’re welcome.”

“Thanks,” Jace replied as he continued his easy, bloody work. Slaying each target with one throw of his sword; the weapon piercing all defenses thanks to the [Astral Annihilator] Skill Evolution on his Swordmage Stance. “This just is not fair,” he commented to no-one in particular.

“I agree,” Quinn replied.

Xera’s voice came over the comms, overriding Quinn’s voice. “That is only natural. Void is very difficult to guard against. Unless they have a means of detecting it; which very few species have. If they had a coordinator like Quinn? Then perhaps there could be an actual threat mounted against you.”

Good to know, Jace thought as he finished off the remaining Aspirants, ignoring the pleas for mercy and cries of pain. When silence fell on the battlefield, he went around having Ollie dust each one of them.

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[Stardust Acquired: 1750]

[Stardust Split: 350]

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Jace sheathed his blade and jogged to the cliffs. The ropes that were hanging down were thick and sturdy, but instead of using them, he simply shot out his grapnel, launched himself skyward and at the apex of his launch, retracted the hook and re-shot it. Thanks to it being some ephemeral, ghostly chain its travel time was rapid, and he was able to ascend far faster than the few scant people making their way down the cliffside with enormous baskets strapped to their back.

“You are doing well,” Xera stated. “Keep up the good work.”

“Thanks,” Jace replied as he ascended skyward.

Xera pushed back from her console and stretched. “Josie, keep an eye on things.”

“Yup!” The blob Wayfinder and her new assistant Wayfinders took over the consoles as Xera walked down the hallway towards her vault.

Keying in the entry code, she went to a seat and plopped down in it, tapping several buttons as she saved her consciousness. Not true personality forking or duplication, but an actual backup. If something were to happen to her current body, then her mind would travel: regardless of distance: to her backup body’s new location. After the process had completed, she went to view her newest clone.

The skin was the same glassy black color, but this one had been reinforced with several prosthetics and was effectively a metal shell around an empty brain. Tapping a few buttons, she began making some adjustments to the machine. Right. Now for my other patients. Tapping some buttons on her wristpad, the black aura appeared around and behind her, fully obscuring her features. Tapping yet more keys, the air shimmered briefly before a bewildered trio stood before her.

Shhiv glanced around in a panic, but took up an aggressive pose, “What’s going on?!”

Missy just cowered in place, unsure of what happened.

Ree sucked her gelatinous ‘goop’ into her chitinous shell.

Xera nodded, knowing that only her purple eyes were visible to the trio on the silhouette of her figure. “I am X. The leader of the Dark Between Stars. You have met Sera, one of my lackeys.”

“What do you want?” Shhiv asked as she began to move her fingers towards a ring on her hand.

Xera tapped the backup body in its container, “I want to do the same to you. Backups bodies. Forces are at play and beginning to move in on Khrox. I am moving the apartment around, but I like having plans within plans.”

Shhiv relaxed her stance a bit, “You’re Jace’s boss?”

“That is partly correct. I work for her,” Xera lied.

Missy sighed with relief and straightened her posture, “Thank God.”

“No, thank me,” Xera replied. “Now, if you each please enter the replication pods with your names on them.” She pointed down the row to empty pods just like the one her backup body was placed in. “And then, we will have to install a neck implant: it will be quick and painless.”

“This isn’t a forking backup, is it?” Ree asked.

“It is not,” Xera replied. “If your body would perish, the backup body here would receive your mind: fully intact. The Cosmic System guarantees it.”

Shhiv eyed Xera suspiciously, “If you’re Jace’s boss…prove it to me.”

Xera raised a quizzical eyebrow, then snapped her fingers as screens appeared around her showing all five of her Signers in their various locales. “Is this sufficient?” she asked as she gestured in a broad, sweeping motion and the different status screens appeared next to each Aspirant’s video feed: provided by Quinn’s Skill.

Shhiv relaxed, “Right. The pod with my name?” She went over and slipped inside the container. Missy, upon seeing this, did the same with her pod, and Ree reluctantly entered hers.

Xera tapped her wristpad and the pods sealed. All three women were knocked unconscious, and tapping a few more keys, Xera began the process that would install the implant that would surround their brain and: upon death of the body: quite literally rip their brain out and teleport them to their new bodies.

Well, the Plorp was the weird exception. Xera rapidly tapped keys as she engaged the ‘anomalous physiology’ protocol, and the implant was replaced with something that would work on the ‘core’ of the Plorp woman.

Fifteen minutes later, the pods opened, and the three women came back to consciousness. Xera stood in a relaxed posture as they all exited and glanced at her. “Is it done?” Shhiv asked.

“The implant has been placed,” Xera replied. “Growing the clone bodies will take a bit of time, and the genetic samples were already taken. Do any of you have an opposition to cybernetic, magitech, or magic augmentation on these new bodies?”

Missy spoke up first, “Anything that lets me live longer to stay with Greg.”

“Easily done,” Xera replied.

Ree shook her head, “I’m good! Thanks for this. Will you get us back home? This was neat and all, but I was in the middle of playing a new game on the cosmopanel.”

Xera tapped her wrist pad and both Ree and Missy vanished. But she had Shhiv remain. “Well, what about you?”

Shhiv walked up and stared at Xera, meeting her gaze. “I don’t want Jace to worry about me at all. So, yeah, I’ll take everything you’ve got. As long as I can still have my physical intimacy with him unaffected.”

“Easy enough,” Xera replied. “Anything else?”

Shhiv grinned as best she could: her sharp teeth making a more scary than happy appearance. “No. Thank you.”

Xera tapped her wrist pad and sent her away as well. Dropping the shroud, she set to work growing the new bodies. I have to order a bunch of stuff for Missy and Shhiv. Lots of new augmentations and alterations. A good blend of technology, magic, and magitech for redundancies.