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Chapter 26 – Where there’s a drill, there’s a way
🕑 Added 2024-09-28 21:43:23 +0000 UTCJace trudged onward towards the plume of dust that became visible just on the horizon. The location where the Black Hole Conclave was boring a hole towards the center of the world, to install some type of weird, magic engine that could propel the planet to the center of the universe.
“What’s our best approach?” Jace asked.
Ollie manipulated a three-dimensional map of the world that zoomed in on their location. “There’s a ravine that goes near the site. You could use that to approach, then use your Cloak to get in closer.”
“I’ve got enough Stardust for a level, right?”
“Yup!”
“And I’ve maxed out all of my current Skills.”
“Also, yup.”
I’ve got offense up close, defense regardless of distance, a ranged option, and the cloak. I could use something that I can plant down – like a trap of some type. “Is there anything that could be used as a trap?”
“Give me a moment.” Ollie’s eyes went black as he stopped moving. A few seconds passed and he shook his head, the light returning to his eyes. “Yup! There’s a sub-type included in Dark Matter – Dark Energy. It applies negative pressure – the opposite of gravity, effectively.”
“Oh, that’s cool. Anti-gravity. So, could I make, like, an anti-gravity mine? Something I can plant on the ground as a trap?”
“Yup!”
“Let’s do that.”
Ollie pulled Stardust from his little extradimensional pouch and threw it down on Jace. The warmth spread through his torso.
<<<--->>>
Name: Jace Seren (Aspirant, Tier 1)
Power [Class Level.]: Dark Matter [Swordmage 17.]
Skills: Skill Name (Rank) [Evolutions.]: Universal Translation, Environmental Adaptation, Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending], Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3) [Reflecting.], Swordmage Stance (Rank 3), Dark Matter Dart (Rank 4), Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3), Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1), Starfire Stride (1/day)
Stardust: 305
Equipment: Swordmage blade, Swordmage starting gear, Wirecannon Arm, Dragonclaw Devastation Legs, Runner's Replacement (damaged), messenger bag, sliverscreen, survival knife, survival meals (x62), canteen (x4), medical kit (x2), orange tarp (damaged), flint bar, flashlight, 40x arc reactor components, 2x hyperbike components
Boons: None
<<<--->>>
Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1) - Places an invisible trap that lasts for 10 minutes. Upon activation, removes gravity from all objects in a small radius for 30 seconds.
<<<--->>>
Jace looked up at Ollie, “How big is a small radius?”
“Five feet from the planted location.”
“And how long does it remove gravity for?”
“Thirty seconds.”
Jace smiled, “I think we have a counter for the Black Hole powers.”
Ollie looked at him, confused for a moment before his eyes widened. “Oh. Wow. You’re right. This could be used to remove gravity’s influence on you – so it would negate a singularity-type effect.”
Jace nodded and headed towards the ravine that Ollie showed on the map, “Exactly. And I can use my legs or grapnel to stay tethered to a solid surface, so I’m not affected.”
“Unintentional genius,” Ollie quipped.
“Okay. Time for you to drop the starlight form and do that outline thingy again.”
“Yup!” Ollie’s form shifted and became the silvery outline of a river otter. He stuck close to Jace’s shoulder. “The ravine is going to take you close to their site.”
Time to be sneaky, Jace thought as he bent his knees slightly to better control the volume of his footfalls. He dipped into the ravine – whitish colored grasses dipping down into the space alongside him – and slinked through the winding path. A small stream trickled under him, flowing in the same direction as he traveled. I’ll have to come back here and refill my canteens.
The sound of voices reached Jace’s ears, and he used his fingers to trace the pattern for Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 1). Rendered invisible, he crept forward until he could see two armored figures – very similar in dress to the other Conclave members he had seen in that city a few days ago.
“I swear, it’s getting hotter and hotter down there,” the first one said.
“That’s what happens when you get closer to the core. Soon enough they’ll bring in some Conclave members of a species that is mostly made of rock.” The second individual turned to the first one, “This your first time sending a world to oblivion?”
The first one nodded, “Yeah. First time.”
Ollie moved his mouth up to his ear, “They’re both Tier 1.”
This is going to be too easy. Jace got out of the ravine and easily made his way past the two guards.
“Why not kill them?” Ollie whispered once more.
“It could cause alarm,” Jace replied. “The Quest is to stop their activities. Disabling the drill should do it. And they aren’t worth much Stardust compared to the predators here.” He continued forward through the grasslands. Thankfully, the enormous plume of dirt and debris that was being kicked up a few thousand feet away was blowing in the opposite direction.
As he approached, he had to pause as patrols went by – but none noticed him. They’re relying primarily on vision, Jace thought.
Creeping forward he got to the edge of the drill site. A large groove had been carved into the ground – like a moat – and the dirt piled up behind it to make a simple barricade. The rod-like spikes were placed in the ground, and the brackish-brown energy cascaded across the gap. Jace slipped into the moat and went around the outside edge until he got to an opening.
Two guards were standing there. They both were dressed in heavy armor – like that Nebula lady that Jace fought. They held huge glaives with sparking, crackling tips. The symbols on their hands indicated that they had Planet-based Cosmic Power. I have to get past them. They were hulking brutes of people – and their helmets were extended outward.
One of them looked right at Jace, and he froze. Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3), he thought.
“What is it?” the one who didn’t look at him asked.
“I smelled something.” The one that had looked at Jace walked over to him, and he scrambled out of the moat and made for the gap now left by the guard who went to where Jace was standing.
“There’s a scent trail here!” The person pulled off their helmet and Jace got a good look at them. They were a dog-person with an elongated snout that sniffed at the air. “Someone was here. This way!”
He ran off down the moat that Jace had been traveling along, and the other one turned to the inside of the protected space. “We need more on the perimeter! We might have an intruder!”
Jace got inside the barrier, past the entrance, and got next to a bunch of stacked boxes marked as supplies. A group of Conclave members went past him, shouting orders and barking commands as they reinforced the perimeter. And just like that – I’m in, and the guards inside are reduced. He smiled at the lucky occurrence.
The dust continued to be carried away into the distance by the wind, and Jace could finally take in the whole of the operation. He was on the top-most level of a terraced dig site. Rings descended down to the bottom of the pit, where an enormous, building-sized metal tube was vibrating and whirring, with plumes of dirt, rock chunks, and smoke shooting out of various apertures. Each terraced level had tents, equipment, supplies…at a guess, Jace figured with two people to a tent, they had around a hundred people here.
“There’s a lot of them,” Ollie whispered.
“We don’t have to fight them all. Just stop the drill.” Jace looked around the top-most level. “Ollie, keep a timer for me. Seven minutes.”
“You got it.”
Jace knew that he had ten minutes of the Rank 3 Cloak before he would run out of energy and have to deactivate the Skill. He didn’t want to run up against the clock. Limited time. He took a deep breath and focused on the various palettes of supplies placed around the bottom of the drill. They were marked and labeled; thanks to Universal Translation, Jace could tell exactly what was inside. Replacement parts. Destroying those would slow things down.
“There has to be an energy source,” Ollie whispered. “Move around the rings so I can get a better look at the drill.”
Jace followed the instruction and spent three minutes carefully navigating the now-abuzz drill site. Dodging the people going to reinforce the perimeter was easy enough, but he had to be careful about not dislodging any dirt or rocks that could tumble down and give away movement. He might be invisible, untraceable, and undetectable – but the environment around him was not.
“Okay. I have queried the System.” Ollie pointed next to Jace’s head, using his little paw to direct the Aspirant’s vision. “See that panel? That is the control console. Destroying that should prevent the drill from being useable until its replaced.”
Jace nodded. The metal platform Ollie pointed to was on a terrace one ring above the drill itself that was at the bottom of the pit. A long, thick, metal cord connected it to the side of the device. Getting over to it was easy, and he was in front of the controls within a minute. “Time?” he asked.
“Two more minutes on your timer.”
Jace looked up at a sudden noise – a clattering and shouting. People complaining about a ‘false alarm’. They’re coming back. “Best way to destroy it?”
“Chop it up.”
Jace nodded and pulled his sword. He hacked at the console over and over, carving through the metal as it sparked and crackled. To an outside observer, large gashes spontaneously appeared upon the rent apart metal. Thankfully, none were down here monitoring the drill. Jace was able to chop the device up into bits before moving away.
But the drill didn’t stop. It kept going. “Damn,” Ollie whispered. “It must have a default setting to be ‘on’.”
Damnit! What else can I do? Jace looked up at the exhaust that was still kicking up dirt and debris. Come on Jace, think. What can you use? Looking around, he saw the repair components, and an idea popped into his head. Sheathing the sword, he pulled out his tarp, wrapped it around the crates, and used his belt to tie the whole bundle together at the top where the corners of the tarp met. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1).
A sphere of black energy – about the size of a baseball – appeared on top of the bundled crates. And…detonate.
The mine went off, and Jace gripped the belt holding the tarp and boxes all together as gravity lost its pull on him. Aiming his prosthetic arm to the drill, he fired off the grapple and pulled himself with his cargo to the top of the drill’s exhaust. He gripped down with his feet claws and pulled the now-weightless cargo up and over the lip. Jace shoved the boxes down as far as he could. “Ollie, can I turn off the anti-gravity effect?”
“Yup! You can cancel Skills early if you want.”
Okay…then stop floating. He felt gravity reassert itself onto him as his legs and grapnel were suddenly supporting his weight. And the crates fell into the machine. They were ground into bits and pieces as the metal components fell into the inner mechanisms of the drill. The object began vibrating violently under Jace’s feet. It emitted a tremendous creaking and rumbling noise as it kept shaking harder.
“Time to go,” Ollie whispered.
Jace used the grapple to descend before retracting the cable. He felt his eyelids fluttering from the energy use. I have to get out quickly. Foregoing any type of subtlety, he used his grapple prosthetic to pull himself up the terraces rapidly, getting to the perimeter barrier within thirty seconds. The focus of the Conclave members was on the drill, and they were shouting commands and orders to try and shut it off.
But they couldn’t. The control console was shredded. Jace glanced down as he sprinted around the outside edge, trying to get to the entrance he had come in from as the electric fence was too high to jump over.
“Shield! Now! Rank 2!” Ollie shouted. “Put it in between you and it!”
Dark Matter Shield (Rank 2), Jace thought as he manifested the tower-shield. The drill vibrated, whirred, and ground to a stop.
There was shouting down below, and Jace felt even more tired. “Why?” Jace asked weakly.
“Just watc-”
Crack! The drill’s top snapped off.
Bang! The world in front of Jace exploded.
