Brent Stinebaker
patreon
16-5 A Choice of Skins (I)
🕑 Added 2023-09-22 20:02:51 +0000 UTCGlaive Benhata’s body remains missing, an entire node has been stolen after appraising the situation at the Trident. As of now, I am certain we face an enemy ace that has achieved a feat beyond skill.
It really smacks the words right out of your mouth.
Aside from myself, Not-Here, Signtaker, and perhaps a few other notable Godclads who have their ontologies rooted around clandestine miracles, few others can do what I suspect has been accomplished today.
And don’t think I don’t know what you’re all suspecting. Yes, I am a suspect. No, I didn’t do it. But I’m interested in finding out who managed this so I can meet them.
Right now, I can tell you that whoever we’re facing doesn’t just have a Heaven, but an extreme mastery of the Nether. To the level that they can outright steal the ghosts and sequences from our survelliance phantasmics without triggering alarm. Likewise, they must know how we operate considering how they avoided the attention of our patrolling Incubi altogether.
My suspicions are that we’re facing a team of high-caliber individuals. Perhaps a dedicated Fallwalker cadre empowered and supported by Highflame. But that still doesn’t fully explain the Necrotheurgy situation.
No one should match us. At least, no one at present. The Low Masters no longer have the resources to conduct such dives, even between the No-Dragons, Highflame, and Omnitech, I doubt they managed to train anyone up to our capabilities.
Subsequently, I suspect we’re facing a freelancer unit.
Like the White-Rab. But this is too loud for him.
I recommend myself as lead investigator for this incident. Count me among the suspects still, and put me on watch, but I want take charge of this hunt. There’s something about this that I…
I’m just interested in understanding our enemy.
It has been too long since we’ve faced a proper enemy ace.
-Shotin Kazahara, Ori-Thaum Godclad on the Breach at the Trident
16-5
A Choice of Skins (I)
Crimson exploded as Dice tore her way through the Syndicate enforcers within the megablock. From fires creeping along blood-made fissures, Avo watched the progress of his chosen Ensouled, and likewise did Draus–the glass shimmering with her presence.
Desperate screams mingled with gunfire as the former FATELESS surged forward, a tidal wave of slashing gore, shredding through all in her path.
Syndicate golems should have been en route to assist. But Draus ensured their permanent deactivation, and from their ruins found new nectar for his Frame.
[Sangeist x6; Snake-King x2; Galeslither x3]
In the three days after his acceptance into Aegis, a multitude of demands occupied his attention as he found himself preparing and reacting in equal measure. Though Calvino promised immediate delivery of requisitioned equipment, none could predict the fickle whims of New Vultun.
When thaumaturgy was in play, reality grew slippery and promises were rendered paltry.
A spatial detonation had delayed the goods–and only now were the Agnosi close to stitching the leak.
In the meantiime, things still had to be done.
Between Chambers and Cas, the initial preparations for the Cult of the Unborn began without ill omens. Chambers fared better with his new gifts when there wasn’t the need to null his subjects, but there was still a lingering unease as he jacked–a bleedover that Avo never experienced.
Watching the half-strand wrestle with his own actions as the full weight of sonder came down upon him was a fascinating thing to observe. How humanity joined and undid. Ghouls never had that–want for community and empathy. It was their greatest boon, and also why they were barren of culture or future.
To want was to build, and ghouls didn’t want. They needed. They craved. And then never got better.
Regardless, Chambers managed to plant an Auto-Seance in the Skintaker’s mind easily enough. Avo would direct him to claim more of such individuals to seed their influence across the Nether. For now, though, the manipulation would begin slowly as the Ghoulpounder Thoughtcast began its slow reorientation in content. The templates warned Avo against building concrete plans before the forecast for audience reactions was settled. A broad trajectory was what needed to be followed. Everything else was a matter of organic development and steering.
Draus, in the meantime, took to raiding and assassinating key Syndicate personnel as something between a pastime and pre-shaping operations. As active as Avo found himself across the Nether and in deepening his influence over the city using Chambers as an exntension, the Regular did as an operating squire finding new angles to hurt their foes.
She kept a close watch as Dice tore a bloody swath through the Three-Fingers. With Avo culling the Syndicate’s jocks and Necros as a scouring flame, Draus assinating key figures in its command structure, and Dice serving as a blunt force instrument, the Three-Fingers’ collapse arrived in an abrupt instant.
Without orders to follow and with the leadership decimated, what once stood a Syndicate of over fifteen thousand members and armed with forty-two golems shattered into warring gangs that fought each other over the rights of its corpse.
Dice never stopped hunting. Whatever happened to her hardened her against human contact and made her more predator than a girl. Even as the Syndicate that enslaved her collapsed, she spent little time on rumination or grief. Instead, she went after their offshoot gangs, then rival Syndicates moving in, and even an Exorcist drone detachment deployed to investigate the situation.
Today, she was living her new life to the fullest in Block-10 of the Tortuganda district–major death-stake under Sanctus, Omnitech, and Ashthrone. A splinter faction of the Three-Fingers fled here after their initial culling, pushing into the district like rodents fleeing a flame.
It didn’t matte in the end. When Dice stopped to sleep, Draus opened a path through the glass and Avo burned new memories into her mind.
When she resurrected, she always knew where to go and what she was facing. As if this was all predestined. As if a higher power was whispering its demands down to her through the realm of dreams.
“She’s got the bones to make a fine street squire,” Draus said, moments after stepping through a passage. She had taken to shuttling supplies and intelligence over to the girl to see how she would use them. The answer was effective, despite her amateurish approach sometimes. “Say you picked right there. But she ain’t gonna stay off the Paladin’s DeepNav for long if she keeps goin’ loud like this. Might wanna consider burnin’ an Incog into her or somethin’.”
Avo had considered that but stayed his hand. There were few enough people across New Vultun who had access to that phantasmic. Even with her current performance, he wasn’t sure if she would become a force unto herself or just a smokescreen for his operation in the end. Such a thing depended on if she continued to prevail.
Should she persist, he would make personal contact with her again, and see her Heaven elevated further. Progress demanded power, after all, and a girl should be granted her just rewards.
{AEGIS REQUISITION ARRIVAL IMMINENT}
ETA - 00:16
A low growl sounded from Avo as his Neurodeck updated the delivery time for their equipment. It was originally scheduled to arrive on the day of their order from the Inventory. As of now, forty-eight hours more had passed, and his Bone Demon remained unclad of the promised Meldskin.
{Patience,} Calvino said. {These things happen. It’s not like you don’t know.}
The ghoul grunted. The voidship descent had been mostly fine until the last minute, when a Fallwalker raid on an Omnitech Elysium went sideways and they ended up driving themselves into a thaumic overload while trying to avoid the Compression Bomb that was launched after them. The resulting damage inflicted on existence caused air traffic over Loathing to be compressed into a looping two-dimensional plane for some time before the Agnosi were finally dispatched.
He should be glad the rupture didn’t see his items utterly destroyed and instead just inconveniently delayed.
At least it diverted some of the city’s focus away from recent incidents.
The Nether remained tight with tension as Stormtree and Highflame stood at an unseen standoff along the borders of their districts. Nu-Scarrowbur languished under quarantine still, and with each updated broadcast did the death toll climb by instances of a million.
Setting Chambers up in the Deep Bazaar in the meantime, squire-chatter offered information of actual worth. Whispers regarding the absence of Essence among Nu-Scarrowbur’s dead didn’t surprise Avo–he must’ve killed some as collateral damage during his flight across the city, and more than a few fed the growing bulk of his Frame. What was taken could not be hidden, however, and part of him knew that Highflame was certain to understand the implications of such an anomaly.
This was a trail. An expected one. Something he could turn to his advantage if he controlled a channel of authority or information, allowing him to direct runs and dives toward his favor.
The unexpected part was the simply enormous bounty placed upon Chambers’ head.
“I mean… what the fuck, consang,” Chambers had said, showing him the 15,540,000,000 Imp reward for his capture. It had over-shadowed Draus’ own kill price by a decent magnitude–something the ghoul had taunted the Reg over, resulting in her blowing his head apart with her projectile launcher. “On one hand, I’m really flattered–like holy shit, my old man told me I would never be worth a hundred Imps. Look at this! I don’t even know what this number is off the top of my head.”
Then, the amusement faded. “On the other,” his face twitched as the fear built, “I think this means the entire city’s coming for ol’ Chambers’ tight little ass.”
After letting his surprise–and bemusement settle–Avo delved into Chambers’ mind and burned the mem-data into himself. His glee only grew. The theories the Guilds had regarding the ex-enforcer were absurd. They thought him an Acolyte of the Low Masters–a masterful Necro of unmatched deceit. When Chambers returned from his resurrection, the first thing Avo did was laugh.
Still, opportunities presented themselves here. With the enhanced access he had over the various gene vats placed across the city, there were new bodies he could grow. New sheathes for him to wear as secondary bodies using his free-walking consciousness.
Chambers, he decided, would join this roster. The Guilds wished to tumble down the path of conspiracy theories, so Avo would give them a helpful kick. Just as he would make Dice a terror if she continued to succeed, so too would he make Chambers a legend.
But… how did Calvino put it when speaking of Abrel’s implants? Oh, right: mostly as a joke.
[I… not sure if I should feel like you’re being really mean to me, or thankful that you’re gonna make me a superstar, Avo,] template-Chambers said.
+Both,+ Avo replied honestly.
For now, he would keep Chambers close by.
In the meantime, Avo studied the city through his growing haemokinetic vines. Infused with enough ghosts to run his sessions, he was slowly installing a hidden network through the gutters. Unknown to both the Syndicates and the Guilds, Avo began the opening work to establish his place of power while turning his attention downward, instead of up.
There was still the Penumbra deep down beneath the city itself. Places that the Low Masters left abandoned, and places they might linger still. There was another war for Avo to fight–a personal one he would see won.
The history of Noloth called to him like a siren in the back of his mind, but a lingering resistance halted him from internalizing the knowledge. The spite inside him wanted to destroy the memories they gave him–to deliver a naked insult to his former masters and the murderers of his father, but curiosity stayed in his hand. Curiosity, and the question of why Noloth could be worth all that was sacrificed for it.
Why the Hungers were worthy of worship, despite being so much less than any actual god.
As he peered out at the city using his haemokinetically constructed stations, he peered at his enemies. Of the Guilds and their strength, moving metal and miracles in the light, unashamed and undaunted; of the squires doing runs in the darkness, battling in the real and Nether both; of smugglers and their goods; of the Low Masters absent and their machinations undiscovered.
New Vultun had been strained and strained again in recent history. One successive crisis after another, with each forcing the city to choke on its own inhale. Only now was it releasing its long-held breath, but the exhalation came with shudders and shakes as stillness hung in the atmosphere.
As if everyone was waiting to see if a war was going to start.
{This is just posturing,} Calvino said, supplementing Avo’s eyes with Voidwatch’s. Satellite imaging and Aegis intel far exceeded the presentation of Avo’s individual efforts, granting him exact details regarding troop movements, the key commanders in the field, and the expected outcomes for each scenario.
New Vultun itself appeared as if an alloyed rash disfiguring the world, a sprawling series of scars and gaps that stretched the span of an entire continent that stood as a rising apex at its core. Narrowing over the skies far above Nu-Scarrowbur, Avo found that the Guilds had only dispatched approximately five thousand golems on each side. Enough to fight a brief war according to Calvino, but nothing prolonged.
This was ultimately just posturing. Both sides were wary to reignite a battle before their strength was restored. Some wounds left by the last great war still lingered, and Highflame especially seemed shy to tread on the path of repeating old mistakes.
{AEGIS REQUISITION HAS ARRIVED AT LOATHING}
UPDATING DEEPNAV…
Finally.
Drawing the bulk of his consciousness back across his sessions, Avo’s halo burned bright as he attached ego to vessel while he prepared to notify the cadre.
{You’ll be able to access almost any gene vat in the system once you get your ansible. I look forward to seeing you print some new bodies. Fake bodies take some getting used to, but considering how many minds you have churning inside you, I suppose you can install the necessary habits and adaptions both ways.}
+Have been looking forward to this for a while,+ Avo said. His mind wasn’t just on creating human molds to carry his mind, however, but also further enhancements to the “idealized monster” that was his base form. The Low Masters kept him humanoid because they were fools playing with stolen equipment. Now, Avo had another chance to mock their failures and enhance his own form–or abandon it altogether.
Another quieter urge also called to him in the back of his mind.
He could complete the ghouls. Finish a new design in his image and set them upon his former brothers.
It would be a fitting euthanasia, condemning monsters designed to feast upon humanity to be devoured in turn by their upgraded offspring. The deliciousness of such an offense would be a delight to inflict on both the Hungers and the Low Masters as well.
{Alright. Don’t be in a rush,} Calvino said. {Start with a pre-existing human body first before you go off playing genetic jenga.}
+What’s jenga?+
Calvino fed the information directly into his mind, and Avo found the game to be rather banal.
“Draus,” Avo said, collapsing the wall of blood serving as the door to his cell and stepping into the hallway. “Meldskins arrived. Open the passage. Time for pickup–”
“Avo!” Kae said, emerging suddenly from the lip of another cell as if springing an ambush. With her hair disheveled and bags hanging below her eyes, it was clear that the Agnos had indulged in little sleep and decided against the use of suicide to keep herself persisently energic. Still, there was a flicker of focus in her eyes–the look she got when she was consumed by her work. “I have it! After two nights of reading through the Elder Mythos over and over again, I know the changes we need to make to our Heavens and canons! Also! Also I have a new theory about your Imitators and why the rest of us aren’t showing your symptoms! We need to–”
“Requisitions first,” Avo said. “Talk while we go pick our kit up.”
She nodded and followed behind him. Crumbling into a moment of silence, he could feel the discomfort in her thoughtstuff as her mind leaped to another topic that she yearned to broach but remained too uncertain to do so.
“We’ll hunt the Glaives as soon as things are settled enough,” Avo said. “Already thinking of how to prepare the run. Need to outsource a dive to someone first. Get an overview of what we need.”
A low huff came from the waifish woman. “T-thanks.”
“No. Not thanks. My ascension broke your life. Shouldn’t pretend. Shouldn’t lie to ourselves.”
Her mind grew tighter. “Well, at least we’re doing something about it, right?”
{She’s looking for reassurance,} Calvino said. {Judging from her tone… she’s pretty confused about if she’s supposed to hate or like you.}
Avo grunted. +Not going to include any of that in my sheathes.+
{That what? Human emotion? Hate? Like?}
+Validation,+ Avo replied. He saw it in Chambers and he saw it again in Kae. For all community might’ve been worth to humans while they lived as tribes, it existed only as a weakness to monsters that sought to break society.
He shook such thoughts aside.
It was finally time to see himself improve. First in coldtech, then with his Heavens as well.
Everything else could wait until after.
Comments
Brent Stinebaker
Chapter in progress. Streamlining character abilities and skill descriptions via neurodeck updates.
Arcane
I shall relish the moment when Calvino and perhaps others see Avo occupy and control multiple bodies at once. That should be fun. Thanks for the chapter!
