Macronomicon
patreon
Chapter 172: Operational Security
🕑 Added 2019-06-13 19:31:03 +0000 UTCThe area under the church was much bigger than it should have been. Long marble halls stretched in three directions from the staircase, with no indication offending anytime soon. The halls were well lit by tiny enchanted bits of core in recessed alcoves above them.
The whole thing looked modern.
Studding the walls were door after door with reinforced glass windows, and behind each door was a specimen?
There was a man that looked somewhat like a shaggy minotaur behind one of the doors, except his horns were too thick and his hair looked like he could survive a nuclear winter in comfort and style.
Further along was some kind of snake-child, the age old question of wouldnt it be cool if we could stick arms on a snake? at least the kid it was probably a kid wasnt stuck halfway between legs and slithering and therefore unable to move.
GArth could just see it hissing kill meee.
It seems like theyd found some kind of research facility?
Now thats interesting. Garth murmured as they followed Shadow, who was snuffling the ground in search of the thing hindering their escape. They followed the hall to the left for a good hundred feet when a door opened behind them, causing Caitlyn to inhale a sudden panicked breath.
Garth put a hand over her mouth again and they leaned into a doorway, pressing into it as flat as they could.
It was a meaningless gesture, more reflexive than thought out.
Luckily for them, the woman who came through the door had her nose in a stack of papers, and was heading the opposite direction.
She wasnt wearing a lab coat, per se, but she gave off the scientist vibes, and was wearing a white uniform.
Garth dragged Caitlyn along behind him, aiming for the door the woman had just come through, his instincts screaming at him to take advantage of any temporarily unlocked door.
He managed to slide Caitlyn through just before the door latched shut. Shadow oozed under the doorframe and popped back to full size, watching him with a curious head-tilt.
Its sneaking around secret government facilities one o one, Garth whispered. Always go for the slowly closing door.
Shadow seemed to agree. Or at least it didnt show any outward signs and going back to sniffing the floor.
The room they found themselves in this time had a lot more people in it, a bunch of eggheads at the opposite side of the room all staring through a large piece of glass, taking notes and muttering to themselves. There must have been a dozen of them, and if even one of them turned around, Garth would have the unenviable task of punching a bunch of people wearing glasses. Terrible Karma, that.
He still wanted to know what they were looking at.
dont let anyone out the door, Garth said, directing a glance at the two of them. Garth tried to harness a little mana, but predictably, the mana was vacuum sealed to the floor. This was a no-go zone.
Makes sense.
Garth tiptoed up behind the dozen lab workers, noting that they were rather racially diverse. Two humans, three corio, a benkei, five shinta and a couple oddballs, Garth couldnt name.
Luckily for him, Garth had recently gotten rather tall, so he was able to make out what they were staring at without having to jostle through them.
What garth saw was horrifying.
There were three children in a dozen cages.
Garth said three because the other children werent children, per se. They were Kipling. Little pale lanky mockeries of the human form.
Before Garth could do anything, the frontmost researcher pressed a button in front of himself, and a brilliant light shown down above the tenth cage.
Garths Mana Sight being what it was nowadays, he saw the Kipling spirit or whatever the fuck it was, come down from whatever container it had been held in, circling lazily around the brown-haired boy. It was nearly invisible, bending the mana around it, and it didnt have much of a form, but it did have eyes that watched its prey hungrily.
Dont you fucking dare. Garth thought furiously.
As if it heard him, the spirit looked up at Garth and the researchers, and the invisible thing twisted violently before slamming up against the glass, aiming for Garth. The hairs on Garths head stood as the researchers began to mutter to each other, heedless of the invisible thing trying to get through the glass.
Integration is slow. Do you think we got a dud?
Give it a minute or two. Theres no rush, a seasoned corio said, still watching.
The Kipling spirit battered itself against the window futilely for another second before it seemingly gave up, heading for the shivering ragamuffin.
No, you cocksucker! Garth shouted, startling every person in the room, including himself.
Rather than take the time to explain what he was doing there or come up with a clever solution, Garth lunged forward, shoved the balding orc with spectacles out of the way and punched the glass, perforating it with his carbon-reinforced knuckle. Garths attributes didnt reflect his self-modifications.
Come get some, asshole! Garth motioned to the invisible thing. It seemed to smirk, lazily sliding away from the kid and heading for the hole in the glass.
Now, how the fuck do I deal with a sould-devouring monstrosity that takes bodies with no access to mana?
What are you doing!? The corio researcher demanded, seemingly the one in charge of the experiment.
One side, Jim, Garth pushed the man away and raised his hand to catch the evil spirit slithering through the hole in the magically warded glass.
It probably wasnt a great idea, but Garth didnt really have much of a choice. Garth covered his hand in a thin film of Beladias mana, which shrugged off the magic dead-zone like it wasnt even there. Garths green glowing hand clamped down on the wiggling thing, and he grinned as its eyes widened in surprise.
Betcha didnt see that coming, you little shit.
Beladias mana seemed to cause the thing physical pain as it writhed in his grasp, accompanied by a sizzling, popping sensation against Garths skin.
Garth brought another mana-laced hand up to tear the thing in half when it managed to squirm out of his grasp. Slippery thing. It gave him a cautious look and instead went for the corio on the ground, slipping around Garths hand and up the nose of the corio.
The blue ibex-man began shuddering, his limbs elongating, and his previously flat teeth becoming sharp and pointy.
Hmmm. Let me stop and consider the deep moral ramifications.
Garth grabbed the guys horns and twisted, hard and fast, severing his spine.
Killed a kipling, killed a guy who torments children for a living. Win-win.
The Kipling had other ideas though. The invisible spirit flew from the mouth of the corio with his head on backwards and shot into the balding orc.
Huh, this might be more complicated than I thought, Garth thought, as the orc fell to the ground and began convulsing.
Well, when a problem gets complicated, put a bandaid on that shit and ask for help, Garth thought, breaking the orcs arm and legs while the rest of the researchers began to flee in panic.
The orc finished the transformation, becoming a slavering Kipling version of himself, eyeing Garth hungrily. Unfortunately the creatures limbs were damaged beyond repair and Garth was sitting on his back, pressing him into the stone floor of the research facility.
There, band-aid applied. Now
The remaining ten researchers were bottlenecked at the door where Shadow growled at them, the size of a panther.
Hey, eggheads. Garth said. Whats the deal with this guy? he asked, pointing at the Kipling underneath him.
They were too busy staring at Shadow, whod grown some pretty respectable fangs.
HEY! Garth shouted loud enough to vibrate the industrial spirit-proof glass.
The researchers hesitantly looked back at him.
Whats the deal with this guy? Is he gonna enter a new body every time I kill him, or what?
I dont know. One of the lanky shinta women said.
Well, what were you studying here? Unless you were just putting Kipling in kids bodies for shits and giggles.
The shinta woman stepped forward and started saying something, but it was interrupted by a snarl from her former co-worker.
Shut up a sec. Garth said, busting the creatures jaw. He glanced back at her. Go on.
You know the theory of the Kipling?
A symbiotic species that goes ridealong with dungeon cores. Not being restricted by the speed of light, they take over sapient hosts on the target planet weeks before the cores show up, boosting the odds that a dungeon will complete its lifecycle and poke a hole in the fabric of reality to start the process all over again. The interplanetary version of a virus, actually.
Um yes. She said. Im surprised you-
Ive been around the block a couple times, Garth said, waving it off. What were you studying in this Podunk backwater? Garth looked them up and down. They were most likely with the Dan Ui clan, and Earth was being used as a sort of Area 51, where no one really wanted to go anyway.
The plot thickens. Garth thought as the shinta organized her thoughts.
Think of the collection of realities we experience to be a cluster of bubbles at the bottom of a deep ocean. The kipling came from beyond that abyss, and we know almost nothing about them. If we could understand more about what makes them the way they are, we just might be able to create something that prevents them from entering our realities from beyond the edge of nothing.
Huh, and how does putting them in children factor into this? Garth asked.
Theyre easy to get? she said with a wince.
Right, and why were you putting them in anyone, for that matter?
Weve recently developed equipment that can detect Kipling that have mutated. By studying their entire lifecycle, we hope to identify traits that can be more beneficial to society as a whole.
Youre trying to engineer them? It sounds like youre telling me that youre going through thousands of them, looking for a mutant with exactly the traits you want, like youre breeding freaking apple trees.
Which still leaves the question, why were you using children?
I have no excuse.
Thats more like it. Garth said, glancing around. Now, how to put a lid on this shit show.
But its for a good cause!
Garth put a fist down through the orcs brain stem, killing him instantly.
The Kipling, having not learned its lesson the first time, tried to dart up and into Garths nose.
Garth backhanded the spirit away, toward Ms. its for a good cause the spirit reoriented itself and shot into her open mouth.
She started convulsing as Garth stood up.
I might be a bit of an evil scientist type myself, Garth said, standing up and grabbing the mutating shinta by the back of her neck, hauling her toward the glass.
Garth found the switches to unlock the side door and the last three cages and flipped them.
But I always stop and think about the cost in suffering before I go on a wild freaking human experimentation bender.
Garth dragged her past the nine cages with kipling in them, to the tenth, where the moppy headed boy was cowering in the corner of the unlocked cage, staring at him with wide eyes.
Out. GArth said, pointing his thumb. The kid nodded and vacated the cage moments before Garth tossed the snarling abomination inside and slammed the door shut. The former researcher began banging on the cage bars in mindless fury.
You, you, and you, youre coming with me, GArth said, pointing at the three kids.
He hadnt intended to do any rescuing, but now that he was committed, it would feel like a waste of time not to save them. If he left them, the people in charge would go ho hum, lets continue with the experiments, and that would be the end of the kids, so if he wanted all the shit hed gone through today to have any meaning, he had to get them out of here.
Ah, the good old Sunk Cost Bias. How Ive missed you.
A thought briefly occurred to Garth and he eyed them suspiciously. Sure hope none of them have a mutant kipling inside them that looks perfectly normal. Garth had seen too many sci-fi horror movies to fall for that lame shtick.
Ill have Mrs. Banyan keep a close eye on them for a couple weeks, Garth thought as they followed him meekly out the door like ducklings.
Garth got back in the room to find the nine remaining researchers watching him fearfully. Eleven corpses, ten hungry Kipling. Dang, the numbers almost work out just right. well, at least I know what Im gonna do with them once Im don with my questions.
Alright, Garth said, bending down to use the orcs uniform to wipe the blood off his hands. You. He pointed at the closest researcher. Which way is whatever is generating the security field? The generator room, or the security room, or whatever its called?
out the door and to the left. All the way to the end of the hall, one researcher said, nodding nervously.
Alright, lets go check it out together, Garth said, grabbing the human by the back of the neck and steering him toward the door. Of course if its not the right spot
Take a right, a right! end of the hall on the right! he squawked.
Ah, its okay, people can be confused during a traumatic event.
Garth briefly considered bringing some of the researchers with him for debriefing, but his hands were already full with Caitlyn and three cling-ons.
Plus Mrs. Banyan had been getting really passive-aggressive about Operational Security.
Garth snapped the mans neck with his fingers.
Comments
Kemizle
I think Garth should have a backup plan to protect his soul if someone tries to trap his soul when he jumps bodies
Macronomicon
Ooh, cool!
Deinos
Would be more interesting if there was some real moral dilemma, eg they'd have found out invaluable information about Kipling or the reality tears, by going through "innocents". You know, like in real life.
Matthew Bakewell
No! Don't dial back I'm to hooked on the story!... note "with no indication offending" might be a auto correct error? "with no indication of ending"
Chad B. Sonnen
The Sphere coincidentally relies on the kipling for it to spread throughout the multiverse. My guess is that the kipling and the Sphere are in the same boat: to spread, expand and conquer. Both are probably created by the Gods as a joint venture for them to get access to an ever expanding source of worship.
Thundermike00
Nooooo way man. See it was fine until you had to go and cut back this book. why not only do one chapter a week for the new book just make the chapters really long and keep the 5 a week for this novel.
Macronomicon
As A side note, I'll probably dial back chapters of Outer Sphere to about 3 a week in order to pump out the first 50k of the new one, which I'm having a pretty good time with, btw.
