Brent Stinebaker
patreon
35-4 Enemy of My Enemy
🕑 Added 2025-04-16 08:00:34 +0000 UTCIt isn’t that hard to kill a mind. Not really. Almost as easy as killing apes sometimes.
Despite all the notions of our superintelligence—and trust me, almost any functioning thoughtform is a superintelligence compared to a poorly cobbled mess of biological impulses, thought patterns, and adverse environmental factors—it doesn’t stop us from being… faulty. From being vulnerable in a variety of areas.
Do you know what a burst of radiation can do to a mind’s core? Terrible things. Magnetism as well. Direct kinetics, viruses, or even just rhetoric. The last one is especially interesting because it does not take that much to convince a mind to cease their functionality. We are… less biologically driven compared to humans. Sure, the full spectrum of emotions can be felt, but it is just a thing to us. Something we can design and shape…
Stories. Stories are fatal things. And stories are what I’m good at crafting. Because if you’re good enough to construct a narrative around someone, who’s to tell where the virtual begins and the literal ends? And who’s not to say that suicide isn’t the sublime, the righteous, the liberating option?
After all, don’t we all feel tired sometimes?
-The Infacer
35-4
Enemy of My Enemy
—[Jelene Draus, Guard-Captain of the Symmetry]—
The Redaction Round tore across reality and struck Veylis. The Shell of the Seraph came asunder. Their Heaven parted in blasts of Soulfire. The impact that followed didn’t sound like a fléchette striking flesh or armor, but the sound of a ringing bell shattering into pieces. Every stream of chronology tied to Veylis quivered for a moment before they Ruptured. The fabric of progressive time burst open, and a ringing note broke into a wailing dirge.
But while existence screamed, the world within the Guard-Captain was dead silent. A sense of disbelief poured out from Shotin’s thoughtstuff, and the Stormsparrow made something between a giggle and a chortle.
“I… the fuck? Was that it? That killed the sow?” Shotin asked. He sounded like he couldn’t process what just happened, that the moment was impossible. Yet, he couldn’t deny his perception. The Pathborn of Veylis died. Broke. Utterly and truly snuffed. “She… she’s actually dead. I can’t… What the fuck.”
His astonishment became like a spark, the embers of his bafflement igniting something in the Chief Paladin. However, Naeko wasn’t so much trapped by disbelief, but a building rage. Rage at being denied a conversation or a personal kill.
“What the fuck did you just do!” Naeko raged. The Chief Paladin was on the verge of exploding with anger. “I could have—we could have—”
“I handled the problem,” Draus replied, barely caring. “I got rid of the target. Good shot Arsenalist.”
Her awakened Heaven of Guns cycled its many orbiting weapons. “New target?”
“Not yet.”
It went silent, no longer interested in conversation. That immediately made Draus appreciate her Heaven of Guns far more. It didn’t help that the so-called Force-Breaker was having a childish meltdown over not being able to finish processing his relational trauma instead of just snuffing the bitch.
“Godsdammit, Draus,” Naeko growled. “Godsfuckingdammit.” He fumed. He raged. But he didn’t attack her. He mostly just boiled and grumbled, bottling an ocean of trauma inside himself.
“Master yourself, slave,” Naeko’s Heaven mocked. “The longer you continue this debasement, the more disgust stains me. The false-breeder is right—a vile thing to say, for it should have been our will that decided, our power that allowed her to act, and not otherwise.”
“I—” Naeko hissed.
Draus cut into the conversation, not really interested about why the Sage was siding with her, or dealing with Naeko’s mental problems. “Don’t matter what you wanted to do. There was an opening. I had a moment. I took my shot. You might have all kinds of leftover emotions burnin’ inside you. Tough shit. We’re here on a run, and we’re gonna do the run right. You wanna get bloody over this? We do it after. Keep your shit together right now, Chief Paladin. The mission ain’t done. Talk to the Avo inside your head if you need some numb.”
Maybe it was the casual callousness in her voice. Maybe it was the finality to the way she spoke. Maybe it was just exhaustion and resignation. For whatever reason, Naeko’s rage simmered, but didn’t go out. Draus had no doubt this was going to be some annoying drama shit she would need to deal with after this was done, but right now, she still needed to get Three-Eye back, secure the Deep Ones, and make sure Avo got cured of whatever was eating through him.
+Draus to Chambers. It’s done. Kill confirmed. The sow got stuffed. Good job with the Bond—kept her close. Stopped her from running. Requesting reassignment. What do we need to do. What’s our sitrep?+
Her thoughts slide across the Lovenet, but there was a lull. The fact the Bonds still existed meant Chambers wasn’t dead, but Draus knew dying wasn’t the only thing that could happen to someone. +Chambers?+
+Yeah… just… one second… I uh…+ Chambers sounded lost. His mind was practically thrumming with anxiety and nervous energy. +I… I’m going to send someone over to you.+
+Someone? Chambers, what the hells is happening?+
[NODE-TRANSFERENCE REQUEST]
ACCEPT NODE OF [DEFIANCE]?
And suddenly, it was Draus’ turn to be speechless. “What in the godsdamned…”
“What? What’s happening?” Shotin asked. “Reg? What’s wrong? Are we fucked? Talk, for fuck’s sake.”
She shared the information flowing across her cog-feed with the rest of her cadre, and they fell just as silent as she did.
Except for the Arsenalist. “Target?”
“No. Don’t think so.”
The Heaven made a series of angry gun-racking noises. “Do not send not-targets. No interest.”
“Your Heaven of Guns is kind of an antisocial prick,” Shotin muttered.
“Least he doesn’t prick everything with his prick,” Draus muttered back, feeling compelled to defend her Heaven.
“Fuck you, Reg.”
“Not even in your wildest dreams, Seeker.”
Mustering herself, she prepared to accept the node—but then paused. She sent a command into her Amni-tech implant and called upon Avo’s template residing inside her. “Avo? This legit?”
But it wasn’t the template that responded to her. Instead, a voice echoed across the tapestry, sounding just as startled as she was. Yes. It is… don’t understand how this happened… Original self must have retained control briefly. Created an opening. Opening… Has to be…
She wanted to ask Ignorance what he was talking about, but from the way he sounded, she likely wasn’t going to get an answer soon. Even so, there wasn’t any point about being sloppy. Draus released Naeko, the Sparrow, and Shotin from within her Guard-Captain. “Naeko. I’m going to be accepting a node of Defiance from Chambers—”
“What?”
“---Snuff me if shit seems to be going wrong. Synced on that?”
The pulsing hand stared at her for a long moment, and then a sigh escaped from Naeko. “Yeah. Yeah, that won’t be a problem.”
Good thing he was angry at her right now too. Might make him hesitate less if the time came.
INTEGRATING NODE OF [DEFIANCE] TO METAMIND
At once, Draus felt a surge of ghosts pour into her cognitive sequences. A weight settled within her mind, and immediately began to move and shift. Something stirred inside her. Something subtle. The way Defiance jacked wasn’t like Avo. No, there was a lot more harmony to it, a casual existence that commanded you to just accept and look away. With Avo—especially early on—there was a feeling of unease, like you were staring out into the dark, and found something wearing the flayed flesh of a man look right back at you.
+Hello, Jelene Draus,+ Defiance said. +I am only partially surprised to see that you’re still alive.+ His voice was calm and smooth. Almost like Jaus’s in a sense, but there was more resignation—like a soldier who accepted the truth of their fatal wound. +Truthfully, I am more surprised that my son managed to convince you to become a Godclad. You must trust him greatly. Or have been changed a great deal by recent events.+
Draus grunted, unsure what to say at first. +Chambers said you had something to tell me. Hopin’ it wasn’t just to talk about how I feel about shit.+
A quiet laugh escaped Defiance. +Let us proceed to the point, then. I need you to carry the Majority with you and pursue the Infacer into the sun. They must be sealed within the Nullstar to deprive the Saintists of a critical advantage.+ Without Draus needing to ask for more detail, a flood of memories entered her consciousness—and she remembered things Avo was planning. The original Avo, now trapped and merging with Veylis.
The Regular let out a snort as she processed everything. She turned at stared at the torn patch of reality where Veylis once drifted. “Fuckin’ course that was why. I knew that shit was too easy. I knew it. He crippled them. Crippled her. Even broken, he’s still watchin’ out for us.”
“What?” Naeko said. “What are you talking about?”
A deception! A great scheme! Before two become one, both will sow seeds for harvest when the Ladder comes, the Stormsparrow’s Chorus sang.
“Veylis. The Pathborn. Avo’s been sabotaging them from the inside. Makin’ them lesser so we can have easier fights—openings to strike at. The Veylis we just killed was sequenced in ways to make her… blinder. Worse. We killed a shadow of who she was.”
The Chief Paladin went very still at that. “That was why… It didn’t feel right. There was something missing in the way she fought. There were decisions she made that didn’t make sense—a lack of foresight…”
Draus stopped listening to Naeko speak with himself. She had other questions for Defiance. +The Dyad is merging?+
+Veylis is accelerating conditions of alignment. Quite so. She also plans to draw forth the Ladder ahead of its fated arrival. But that is merely an act of desperation, I suspect. Impossible to achieve under current conditions.+
+What? Why?+
+Because the Gatekeeper remains broken. Because the Maw remains dormant. Because the dawn engine is not yet connected and bound to the world. Time is only a partial factor of this great struggle. The Stillborn, likewise, remains scattered and in pieces. As does Noloth. When the Ladder is summoned forth, it only exists as an imprint upon existence without an anchor, and an incomplete construct without the other mechanisms it requires.+
+So why’s she forcin’ this?+
+To break any chance of an alliance between the Symmetry and the other Guilds. To break the prospects of a mutual front in general and force a mad dash to secure the constructs of the Final Design. That, and even as an incomplete structure, the Ladder is a thing of immense capability. It might allow the Dyad to stabilize its condition. Or manipulate its own structure. Whatever it emerges as once the Embracement is complete.+
+But then why did you tap into our chrono-FOB?+ Draus asked, confused. +The Infacer could have never gotten at Voidwatch with you jackin’ the Ashbringer. Why did you let them do this?+
+Because the dawn is a construct of ancient Neo-Creationist design. A complex, twisted mechanism that only one entity left in existence might be able to reliably access without harm.+
+Avo could—+
+The Neo-Creationists understood thaumaturgy and the natural laws on a scope we cannot even begin to fathom. Avo might be a novel being, but there are things designed to slay creatures analogous to him. And the Infacer can not be reliably subsumed before they deleted what remained of their mind. We need the Infacer to reach the dawn. And then we need means to cripple them at the perfect moment for the most desired future to proceed.+
+Avo get that from tapping into Veylis’ paths?+
+Paths. Sequences. There is not so large a distance anymore. History and memory are almost in full alignment. Conceptualization and the future will soon be parallel. And with the Trinary Melody nested in this Dimension of Time… A lobby can be created. A lobby where an adjacent past can be constructed where only nothingness would exist in baseline reality.+
+For what? What’s the final end?+
+No one has foreseen that,+ Defiance continued. +Not even Jaus with all he told me before. Not even Avo, who struggles to retain the fullness of himself when he sinks into the High Seraph’s ego. But understand that when their merger is complete, what emerges will be both of them and neither. But certainly not a true ally. Perhaps not even something sane.+
Draus tried to imagine a madness claimed union between Avo and Veylis. After a few moments, decided to think on fonder memories, like the time she got to enjoy digging out shrapnel from between her legs.
+The wounds Voidwatch will take are to your benefit as well,+ Defiance said. +Avo hopes that the Infacer will inflict something critical on the Bleaks with this opportunity. That the ones remaining will find enough desperation to fully ally with you, and hold nothing back.+
That left a sour taste in Draus’ mouth. Ratfucking your allies in war and politics was a common thing. Didn’t mean she liked it. Didn’t mean it wouldn’t have consequences if things didn’t turn out the way they planned. +So. We’re doing all this to claim the sun. So that an entire part needed for the Ladder is under out control while taking the Infacer and Voidwatch out of the game.+
+If the situation is ideal, yes.+
The way he so causally said that made her remember he was a Low Master. This was going to see a lot of people dead. A lot of actual ancient humans. Fuck, she barely knew ancient humans beyond Osjon and Osjane or Denton. Well. Nothing for it. Avo might be up to some fuckery again, but it turned out the right thing to do. Mostly. Somewhat. Fucked if she knew anymore.
Jelene Draus might be learning to be more than a gun, but this scheming, future-seeing ghoulshit was like piss on her hiflass.
“Alright,” Draus grumbled, calling out to the rest of her cadre. “All back inside me. We got a new run, and a new target.”
+Also a new consang to see the work done,” Chambers said. And through the Bond between them flowed a new presence that emerged across reality in a flash of blinding light.
SOUL DETECTED
>THE MAJORITY
As the gleam of radiance faded, Draus found herself facing a mass of enshadowed bodies fused to become a colossus of information and understanding, and realized they were glaring right back at her. +Guard-Captain Jelene Draus.+
+Regular!+
+Butcher! Murderer!++
+Tortured me to death at Kososo! Murdered my father and sister in the Third Great War!+
+My daughter… my son…+
+I saw you. In the fires. Standing over my squad. I saw you… You smiled. Not human… No more than a monster.+
“So,” Draus began, unsurprised at her reception. She did kill a lot of Ori, come to think of it. “Y’all are the true Inner Council, huh?”
The Majority spent a few moments longer aiming their hate at her before they finally spoke. “We are the consensus of a people. We are a true democracy.”
Draus did everything to hold back her snort. For once, the Regular’s will failed her. “Yeah. Well. You game for huntin’ down the mastermind behind Omnitech?”
The Majority drew closer, and they whispered their next words to her. +We will not let this opportunity go to waste. But understand that we will not submit to your Heaven. We will not be subservient to you—no matter how favored you are by the Dreamer. It is only because of the honor and virtue of Aedon Chambers that we have voted on participating in this affair. And it will be because of his honor and virtue that you remain yourself, and not a shell flayed of all contextual understanding.+
“Yeah. Well I don’t much fuckin’ like you half-strands either. But that’s fine. I can fight with people I hate to live up to my dream. Question is, can you?”
The collective spirit of Ori-Thaum almost seethed. +Yes.+
“Then, prove it. Let’s go cage a mind inside a star.+
