Brent Stinebaker
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33-12 Information (III)
🕑 Added 2025-01-27 19:04:51 +0000 UTCThere’s a secret to raiding Guilder facilities. A little trick you can pull on all of them.
Most Squires don’t have the firepower to raid a Guilder stronghold. Sorry, juvs, but the vics lied. A couple of half-strands with a slap-dash golem, a dozen drones, high-end augs, and a bit of grit aren’t going to be anything but an “x” mark on Guilder detection systems if you make a suicide run. You’ll get a spatial-kinetic slug put through your skull from a multi-function firing platform hidden in some demiplane.
Unless you’re a Godclad with heavy Necro and materials support, there is no “one-man army” solution to breaching a fortification.
But this is where the other Guilds come in. See, they hate each other. They really, really hate each other, and most the of time, they spend decades—even centuries—wait for a moment or an opening to strike at. All you need to do, in the end, is reveal a chink, and they’ll go all in for you.
From there, what you need to do is plan an infiltration speed-run. Let the Guilders destroy each other.
Do I recommend you run a job like this? No. It’s shit, it’s risky, and odds are that you end up snuffed because space folded the wrong way. But if you’re really looking to kill something beyond your weight class—make them bleed near a predator of their own size.
If there’s one thing I learned in my lifetime, it’s that everyone wants to kill someone, and that someone probably has it coming. You just gotta find the right reason and give them a proper opening.
-Quail Tavers, The School of the Warrens
33-12
Information (III)
—[Samir Naeko, Sage of the Sundered Sky]—
“So. To state my terms simply, I will ensure the security of your Guild, the active search and rescue of your missing Citizens, and ensure your probationary integration in league with the Symmetry. Now. I see your faces, I know what you’re all thinking: ‘This motherfucker’s insane. We can’t agree to this. We’re separated from central and don’t have the authority.’ Well. I am your authority. And under me is the best chance you have at surviving the coming weeks, months, and years as the Substance slowly overflows. So. That’s my piece. You got any question?”
Eleven other Dowagers just stared wide-eyed at Naeko alongside Brilliant Orchard. Each one had been plucked off the battlefield or from their residences via Chambers Bonds, and all of them were “old acquaintances” of Brilliant Orchard. People close enough to her that a relational connection existed.
It was a good batch of No-Dragon elites, too. A few from the Branch of Exalted Warfare. Some from the Bureau of Rejuvenation and Cycles. Three from the League of Biomancy. And finally, a few from the Department of Agriculture. Their number amounted to twelve in total, and they each wore a different animal-based bio-rig. Pretty specific animals too. Naeko saw dogs, tigers, pigs… The Sang infused symbolic meaning in everything they did. No other culture was quite as subtextual, but that also meant they were pretty damned hard to most outsiders.
Unfortunately for them, Naeko had spent more than a few centuries hunting their gods as well, breaking their dynasties. Old and experienced as these First Daughters were, he knew the ones that came before them, and he could see the sheer dread in their eyes.
Yeah. He missed that. Being able to inflict fear, to get what he wanted from the implication alone. It really saved him the trouble.
“And so you were a fool to abandon your old ways.” The only thing he didn’t enjoy so much was the new voice grumbling in the back of his head. But it did give him perspective—an understanding into the truer nature of his Heaven. It also gave him the delicious opportunity to ignore the Sage as well. Miserable fucker didn’t take well to spite. “Do not ignore me, you worthless, embarrassment of false divinity.”
Naeko did. Because he was the whip-holder, and the Sage? They were less than even a slave where he was involved, and what could a Slave of Peace do against the softest measure of violence.
“Chief Paladin Naeko,” Dowager Fragrant Iron from the Branch of Exalted Warfare began. She wore an ox-like rig that encased her body within a vessel of rippling muscles. “We understand that these are troubling times—unprecedented times. But you have to understand that any agreement on our part will not be accepted by a greater consensus of the politburo. Even with Sister Brilliant Orchard’s seniority, I fear that our agreement to this ‘alliance’ will be seen as coercion at the least and betrayal at the worst.”
“You were already betrayed,” Naeko answered. With a wave of his hand, he called up images of New Vultun—of the Substance that consumed the Tiers, and the continent splitting ruptures that were being battled by millions of golems and Rendsinks each passing second. “Veylis betrayed you. Did she warn you about what she was trying to do? What she was planning? Did you even know what she intended to pull at the trial?”
He took a step closer to the No-Dragons and several of them flinched back. Which made him stop.
“Why do you hesitate—”
Because I already got what I wanted. There was no point in pressing when someone was already bending.
“Alright. Let’s make this simple. You’re all coming with me.” Naeko casted a thought at Draus, ordering her to join two of the glass houses. The Regular did as informed, and suddenly, shards of glass shattered from the No-Dragon’s current structure and reconnected into a bridge leading over to the Ori-Thaum holding facility. A moment later, the walls blocking the way vanished, and from the Ori-Thaum glass house came an anguished cry.
A murmur broke out among the Sang. Several of them shared looks of worry. Naeko cocked his head. +Chambers,+ he asked through Lovenet. +The hell’s happening with the Ori?+
+Yeah… Shotin decided to tell the ambassador about Kare.+
The sound of someone throwing something against a glass wall added proper ambiance to Chambers’ statement. Naeko winced. He didn’t much like Kazahara, but he had to give the poor bastard credit: Naeko never liked informing his Paladins’ family the news. “Alright. Don’t worry. There’s no danger there. But I’m gonna need you to all come with me.”
“Where?” Brilliant Orchard said.
“We’re going to see the Ori. Together.”
This inspired an uproar among the No-Dragons.
“Madness. Absolute madness!”
“The Ori cannot be trusted. If we are to stand across from them, then we need protections for our minds.”
“This is—”
“A demonstration of a common front,” Naeko said, cutting them out. He added a bit of pressure to the room, pressed his metaphysical weight upon the delegates. A few of them groaned. Most struggled to stay upright. Green River, however, was entirely fixated on the bridge leading over to the Ori.
“Yeah, she and Shotin have history or something. Maybe that’s what she’s thinking about.”
Chambers was proving exponentially more useful than Naeko ever expected. It wasn’t exactly like having a few thousand Exorcists under his employ—The Chief Paladin almost growled. +Yeah, hey, Chambers, try picking up some of my Exorcists too. They might be able to help you run the Lovenet better. You can use their minds as temporary servers at the least anyway.+
+Got it.+
“This is gonna be a common front for us,” Naeko said, getting back to the No-Dragons. “Because if you walk in with me, then we’re doing this together, then we’re together, then that projects an end to this war. There’s a reason why I chose to speak with all of you first. I know you’re pragmatic. I know how the Dragon-Curse has hurt you and shaped your culture. And I know that your clade faces more difficulties than all the others. But you don’t have to be alone.”
“So,” Brilliant Orchard said, heavy hooves clicking against the glass floor, “you seek to serve as the metaphorical bridge between the Guilds as well. To see us joined through you.”
“If that’s how you want to understand it. I’m just saying that none of you are in any shape to war, and my palm confers an umbrella of peace. Which is the best you’ll get out of the current deal.”
“Sister Orchard,” Green River began.
Brilliant Orchard extended a messy tendril of rapidly regenerating flesh from her bio-rig’s torso. It grew into a human hand and formed into a fist above her. “We will abide. For now. Chief Paladin, I recognize the threat you pose. I recognize your demonstration of power—and the deliberate mercy you have shown. An enemy of your caliber would have seen us all executed and removed if harm was truly intended. So. An enemy you are not.”
“I’m the balance,” Naeko said. “I’m the threat. I’m looming peace and the promise of retribution. And best of all, I can be on your side.”
Through his Bond, Naeko heard Jaus chuckle. +Well said. And you keep claiming you’re not good at rhetoric.+
Naeko almost blushed. +Well, I had to pick something up from you at some point. And boasting about murdering people and breaking shit is more Zein’s influence.+
+True.+
A pang of coldness pulsed through Naeko. True. The Gatekeeper. There was another casualty. Another shattered promise. He hadn’t even talked to Jaus about the Heaven of Truth. Wasn’t even sure how to begin. As what sounded like sobbing echoed down the newly installed bridge, Naeko let out a sigh and decided to get on with this “unity” conference of his.
+Draus. I’m going for the Ori next. Have Mondelles and Vator prep Highflame for my arrival as well. How’s the situation with the Silvers? No one’s dead yet, right?+
The Regular sent him a thoughtcast of what was happening inside the Ori section, and the sight wasn’t pretty. Shotin was standing over his bondsbrother, Ambassador Valhu Kitzuhara. The latter was currently kneeling on the ground, clutching Shotin’s waist as he shook with pain and trauma.
“This one is breaking,” the Sage said. Like always, it sounded displeased. “We did not give him permission to collapse.”
+You ever give that shit a rest?+
“No. The world is broken because there are too many wills, too many decision makers. Things would be perfected with a single master. One true hand to lead and rule.”
+Avo would have a field day with you.+
+The Burning Dreamer. For all his power, he is too aberrant, too unnatural. A true master—+
+A true god doesn’t need someone else to make them real.+ Naeko silenced his Heaven. For a moment, only he and the Sang’s footsteps clattered along the bridge. +You see this shit? I can do it too. I can make dumb-shit fucking statements and not justify them afterward. I get it. You’re a palm, and you think the answer is to crush anything that dares stand against you. Great. Nice. So does every other god in existence. But that’s not the way of the world.+
+And you know the way of the world, you blind, worthless vermin. Without me, you are nothing. You would be nothing. They fear me! You are but the aesthetic. I am the means to true power.+
+Bullshit. The real means of our power is Chambers and his Heaven.+
+Your jest lacks the slightest wit.+
+It’s not a damned jest. It’s the truth. Did you get my Paladins back? Did you reconnect the world? Replace the Nether?+
+These things are trivial. Unimportant. We are the will that decides if one can struggle, if one is allowed violence.+
+Yeah. That worked enough against Veylis, didn’t it?+
+That is your failing, not mine.+
+Maybe. But let’s not get this shit twisted: I broke you. And the Guilds would have broken you as well. You’re not beyond them. We’re not beyond them. We’re just a very inconvenient problem that might cripple them for good if any one of them tries to remove us. But if we did things your way, we might just see them united as well. Against us. And after they finally overload us for good, they’ll go back to doing what they always do.+
That conversation ended there, but Naeko knew the Sage heard none of it. Gods weren’t logical creatures. They weren’t even emotional creatures. They were elemental. Shaped to be a certain way, and that way they stayed. That was the way they had to be.
+Perhaps you are right.+
Or not. Naeko nearly got whiplash from the Sage’s acknowledgement. He came to a sudden halt mid-march and Brilliant Orchard bounced right off his back.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
Naeko blinked. Yeah. Something was wrong. His Heaven agreed with him.
+Do not gloat or think yourself wise. But you are not incorrect. And my words regarding the Dreamer are… unwarranted. My existence is owed to their blessing, after all. By this, I am not the flame original, but a kindling lit.+ The misted palm beyond the glass twitched slightly. +Transformation. That is what disturbs us. The withered nature of you. The obsolescence of me. We wrong each other because we are not suitable for the task at hand. The complete task. And with the divine’s fall, then my belief in tyranny is insufficient. There must be… a change. A different mastering of these slaves. If not through your means, then another.+
+Sage… What the hell are you talking about?+
+I am saying I wish to… learn.+
+Learn?+
+Become greater. Grander. And this requires an evolution of my Domains. Naeko… I wish to be more.+
As they drew close to the Ori glass house, the Sage receded slightly, only lurking in Naeko’s mind.
There, the Chief Paladin saw Shotin staring blankly at Denton while Valhu wept. The other Ori delegates looked lost and confused. Most of them were Mirrors and glaives. A few Clan Elders, which showed some commitment. As Naeko’s thumping steps approached, heads turned to regard him and several cries went up among the Silvers.
They pointed to the Sang behind him, but on their lips was his name.
Naeko.
Force-Breaker.
Peace-Binding.
Sage.
+Sage,+ the Sage said. +They speak as if we are one and the same. But they fail to notice the Apostle.+
+Shotin?+
+Yes. He is changing as well. As touched as I was by the Dreamer. But he is even more of a crippled vessel than you. Crippled but… free to choose. While I am power incarnate but atrophied and fixed.+ The Sage regarded the Ori and the Sang. +Perhaps this is why you remain. Because of choice. Because you are the agents of change, while the divine is power incarnate. Absolute. But being absolute is a prison in itself.+
Now the Sage was starting to sound like Avo. Or even Jaus. Shit was weird. Weird enough Naeko didn’t want to deal with it. So, he focused on something else instead. “Alright!” He declared to the Ori. “Clan Elders. Mirrors. Glaives. Keep yourselves seated. I got something I want to tell you—an arrangement I want to make.”
To their credit, they were silent and obedient. Mercy didn’t even notice anyone trying to mess with the flats. Good. Might make this easier. “And I’m gonna start by going straight to the source as well. Chambers. Reach into them. Pull the Inner Council across if you can. Let’s see just how united in destiny these Silvers are.”
Comments
Brent Stinebaker
Naeko does not like to think about philosophy or existential questions. Breaking stuff feels better and is more direct.
Deathly_God
10 Imps says that nothing happens. Also, lmao at Naeko. The Sage is redefining itself, and finally able to examine its own existence. And he's just like, "Yo, that's weird AF. So anyways, back to what I was doing..."
