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DMA - B2 - Chapter 24 – The Nebula Alliance Ambush!
🕑 Added 2024-11-22 14:47:32 +0000 UTCJace got across the street easily enough, but as he approached the doors to the building, the hackles on the back of his neck rose up, and he took a few steps back. Something is off. The air had grown still. Quiet. He could feel something along his body; like a static cling of electricity that hugged him tightly. It gave him goosebumps.
Greg got up behind him, “What’s wrong?”
Jace shook his head, “Something is off. No clue what. Try going forward a bit.”
Greg did so, and after taking two steps past Jace, he jumped back and raised his rifle, “The fuck?”
“Right?” Jace replied. “Something just feels…off. Like my body is warning me.”
“That’s combat instinct right there,” Greg said as Priam joined the two. “When you listen to your body, and have been in combat for a while, your subconscious picks up when something is off.”
Priam pointed up to the top of a several-story building across the street, “Did you guys notice the people over there?”
Jace looked up and saw a group of five individuals standing up on the rooftop. They were all dressed in different colored armor. Power armor of some type. And they were awash in colors – Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, and Black. But the color palettes were distorted by waving lines of electricity and static that crawled across their bodies.
“Aspirants, and an Ascendant,” Ollie stated. “They know we are here. The static field must have betrayed our presence. Just like the fog cloud at Pheracorp; at least one of them can detect the absence of that energy.”
Jace looked around the streets and saw that they had been cleared off. It’s like they’ve cleared away the battlefield, he thought as he glanced at the building behind them. Cybronics HQ was a massive structure with glass panels – and a few of those panels had slid aside as more turrets came out.
The night sky above framed the five figures, who each wielded a melee weapon save for the central figure. They had an enormous rifle couched on their hip. And that black-armored figure shouted, “Jace Seren! We know you’re here! Come on out, or we release the gas!”
Jace looked around the ground and saw the grating leading below the street. Initially, he thought it was just drainage for rainwater, but as his eyes zoomed in, he could see nozzles pointing upward. Do I really pull out my trump card this fast? He thought as he imagined using [Reflective] Dark Matter Shield alongside Hope’s Edge. No. But I don’t know what type of gas this will be, or if Greg and Priam could survive it.
Jace glanced back at his companions, “Get inside and get Quinn access. I’ll handle these guys.”
“You sure?” Greg asked.
“Yeah, we can stay behind and help!” Priam followed up.
Jace shook his head, “I can keep their attention.” He slipped Greg one of the four remaining flash drives with the tech-plague. “Get in there, find the server core, and destroy it.” He looked back as he drew his sword and dropped Dark Matter Cloak.
He heard the two of them rushing to the building, and Greg smashed through the doors like a battering ram as alarms sounded. Jace looked up at the five figures, “I’m here!” he shouted as he brandished the weapon.
Clouds of gas rose up around him, and it tasted tangy. Ollie chuckled, “Nerve gas. Wow. They really wanted to kill you. You will not be affected thanks to your body’s alterations.”
Jace grinned as he saw a screen flash in his vision.
//////////////////////////
[Quest: Defeat the Storm Force Five.]
[Time Limit: ASAP.]
[Reward: Epic (Equipment Augmentation) Boon.]
[Sender: Dark Between Stars]
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Thanks for that, Xera, Jace thought.
The person in black armor shouted out, “Not affected by the nerve toxin, eh? That’s fine. You’re facing off against my squad. Hope you’re ready to die.”
Activate the (Terrifying) Augmentation, he thought. The four people accompanying this central figure all began to tremble in fear. “Really? Seems like you’re alone here.”
Jace could hear the cursing from above as the black armored figure with the rifle began patting their allies’. “Come on, why you scared? It’s just one guy!”
“H-h-his e-e-yes,” the one in yellow armor wielding a large sword replied. The others were similarly muttering terror-filled utterances, and Jace knew they were gripped in the throes of fear.
Jace shot his Ghostlight Grapnel onto the building and pulled himself up. The person with the rifle began flying in the air, straight up, as winds carried them aloft. Jace finished retracting to the roof and glared at the four, terrified Aspirants. “Fight me and you die. Run and you live,” he growled.
“Snap out of it! Help me out here!” The person with the rifle from above shouted as they brought the gun to bear on Jace.
Jace looked up – breaking the effect requiring his line-of-sight for the other combatants – and shot his grapnel onto the figure with the rifle. Pulling himself up, the person ascended higher and higher as they fired a shot at him. Jace’s increased reflexes enabled him to easily deflect the projectile, and he reached them. Slicing out with his sword, he cut deeply into their chest armor, and they screamed out in pain.
“Hey! Down here!” Jace glanced down, and the person who was preparing some type of lightning attack just let it fizzle in their hands as his gaze fell upon them. Right, they are only afflicted with the fear if I keep them in line of sight.
Jace turned back to face the black armored one with the gun, who was busy muttering something to their Wayfinder. Jace grinned and sliced at the hovering, spectral shape just behind and above the man – and to the rifle-wielder’s dismay and shock, Jace sliced through the Wayfinder, banishing it to the Starlit Sea for however long it would take to reconstitute. “No calling for help,” Jace growled as he pulled the sword back and stabbed into the person, twisting the blade.
They went limp and began to fall. Jace turned in his free-fall only to be greeted by four different colored streams of lightning. Red, Green, Yellow, Blue – all combined into an enormous blast of electrical energy. And it harmlessly smashed into his Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3). His foes had no clue about his Cosmic Power’s natural resistance and resilience against electricity and magnetism, just like that cat-mage back on Nihilethelea.
Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). Detonate.
Jace’s fall ceased and he used his grapnel arm to pull himself down to the rooftop. All four of the armored figures were trembling in fear. “P-p-please sp-spare us!” the one in red armor begged. A female voice.
Jace raised an appraising eyebrow, Really? You want me to just be okay with you surviving after attacking me? But then, another thought hit him. And he grinned. “Make it worth my while. All of your Stardust, all of your Boons. Now.” I might not be able to take their stuff once they die; but what about if they gave it over?
The various Wayfinders floating near the figures began extolling their Aspirants, encouraging them to not give up, to try and fight…and Jace simply slashed through each of the spectral figures.
The four armored figures no longer feared Jace because of the eyes – he just did something no one should be able to do. Injure Wayfinders. Banish them to the Starlit Sea. Hurt a spectral manifestation of a construct.
“Okay!”
“Here!”
“Just let me live!”
Ollie flew out from Jace’s neck and tapped each of their Cosmic Power symbols. He also dusted the splattered and crunched corpse of the fallen rifle-wielder.
//////////////////////////
[Stardust Acquired: 700]
[Gift Received: 2x Uncommon (Equipment) Boon, 3x Common (Equipment) Boon, 1x Rare (Skill Evolution) Boon.]
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“You all had very little Stardust,” Jace muttered. “But I’m a man of my word…run.”
All four of the figures turned tail and fled – running away over the rooftops as they scattered for their lives. Sheer terror having overtaken them. Ollie flew back and nestled around Jace’s neck, “You definitely earned some latitude from the Nebula Alliance by sparing those Aspirants.”
“I might’ve made more enemies also,” Jace replied as he used his grapnel arm to descend the building and headed into the Cybronics Research HQ. “I know I’d be pissed off at the person who basically stole Stardust and Boons from me.”
“It was a wise use of your fear capabilities,” Ollie replied as a screen flitted across Jace’s vision.
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[Quest Completed: Defeat the Storm Force Five.]
[Time Limit: ASAP.]
[Reward: Epic (Equipment Augmentation) Boon.]
[Sender: Dark Between Stars]
//////////////////////////
>>>---<<<
Marianne sucked in deep breaths five buildings over from where they had just run. The rest of her companions were also shaking, absolutely terrified at what they just witnessed. The Red Storm opened her helmet’s visor, “He killed Kester!” she said in shock. The Tier 5 Ascendant that had taken all four of them under his advisement post-Aspirant Trial and was helping them gain Tiers.
Billy, the Green Storm, opened his visor as well. His short, blonde beard was soaked through with sweat from panic. “What do we do?”
“Simple,” Archie, the Yellow Storm replied as he sat down. “We call the Alliance and tell them we failed.”
In all of their vision’s, the message appeared.
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[Deckard here.]
[I watched. Condolences for Kester, he was one of our best field operatives.]
[I’m officially giving you lot a bonus. Stardust. A ton of it. Enough for all of you to hit Tier 4 so you aren’t affected by that fear aura.]
[Do not fail. And no more lightning or magnetism – you can’t use that on a Dark Matter wielder. It just won’t work. Rely on your weapons, and your Class-focused Skills.]
[And, as extra incentive, whoever kills him gets an additional bonus.]
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“Holy shit,” Faroa, the Blue Storm, whispered as he surged with light-blue energy. “We…we can do this! If it’s just because we were a lower Tier, well, that balances it!”
The rest of the Storm Force also used the massive surplus of Stardust they were just given by their faction to level up. There are benefits to working for the mercantile faction, Marianne thought. Even if it is a bit cutthroat compared to the other ones.
They had all achieved Tier 4, and they glanced at each other and gave silent nods of approval. “Let’s go fuck him up!” Marianna shouted as her visor closed and she led the charge back across the rooftops.
From behind, she heard shouts of her companions, and she screamed out, “Storm Force!”
>>>---<<<
Priam glanced back to the entrance and used Priest’s Smite (Rank 1) on the single guard that attempted to stop them. Sorry, he thought as they were jolted by the electric energy that coursed through them.
He had thought sorry a few times as they went from room to room and he helped Greg dispatch security guards and soldiers. All of them were heavily augmented with metal prosthetics, and to Priam…it was like a walk in the park. Their metal parts couldn’t stand up to his electricity or magnetism fueled Smite.
They entered a large room, and he saw the purple shroud surrounding him and Greg fade as Jace’s footsteps ran up behind them, “I dealt with those guys. What did I miss?”
Greg smiled, “We were just about to clear out another room.”
Quinn’s voice crackled over the comms in Priam’s ear, “You are on track to the server core. It’s underground. Sending one of you down there while the rest hold the stairwell is the smartest move to prevent you from being cornered.”
Priam peeked around the corner and ducked back as bullets impacted where his head was just a second prior. “It’s a group of them,” Priam said rapidly as his heart beat frantically. “Twenty-eight of them, all heavily armed and armored.”
“You want me to-”
“I can deal with them,” Priam said, cutting off Jace with a grin. “I need to do my part.” He poked his head out – briefly – and pointed at the center of the chamber. “Wrath of the Gods (Rank 5).”
A singular point of bright, yellow, crackling energy appeared in the air at the center of the room. With a resounding crackle and several enormous pops of arcing electricity, the tendrils of power extended from the central point and erupted. They arced into the combatants, and instantly fried the cybernetic-imbued people. They all fell over as one, and Priam sucked in air as he felt his eyelids flutter slightly.
“Great job!” Greg said as he went in and swept the room with his rifle barrel. “Come on, we are almost at the stairs.”
Priam was about to respond, but his sharp hearing picked up movement behind them. He turned around and saw that Jace had as well as four, armored, colored figures ran down the long hallway with battle cries on their lips.
//////////////////////////
[Quest: Kill the Storm Force Five.]
[Time Limit: ASAP.]
[Reward: Epic (Equipment Augmentation) Boon.]
[Sender: Dark Between Stars]
//////////////////////////
Jace gripped Priam’s shoulder, “You get that just now?”
Priam nodded, “Yeah. I thought you dealt with them?”
Jace brandished his weapon, “I killed the one in black armor, and drove the rest off. Looks like they aren’t giving up.”
Greg grabbed Priam and pulled the Priest behind the wall, “We’ll hang back and support you.”
Yeah, we got this! Priam readied his Soul Warden Writ, the smooth, metal tube a solid comfortable reassurance in his grip.
Comments
Andrew Denton
Man, it bothers me (not as a flaw of the story!) that the corps are so up their own asses that they can't even conceive of someone just speccing into anti-corp. "Why wouldn't everyone love us? WE love us!"
