Lords of Gossamer & Shadow - [LoGS: IC] Simitre of Azmus

[JoeChuck]

The Gossamer world of Azmus is home to a technologically advanced race of humanoids that have reached the stars. The Azmans have colonized several planets and moons of their solar system, but reaching the heavens brought them no peace. The race has feuded amongst themselves for resources ever since leaving the cradle of their home planet. The Azmans also clung to nationalistic prides and political rivalries causing further strife. This territory and resource mongering quickly escalated into all out war on most of the colonized planets and the moons became free-for-alls.

Then a discovery brought the Azmans back together. It was an undiscovered planet found lurking in the asteroid belt that the Azmans named Bolk. The planet itself only offered another place to fight for resources and land, but the mysterious Monolith was what united the Azmans. The Monolith is a large crystal etched with a language that no Azmans had ever seen or heard of. Its mystery enthralled the whole race bringing them together to question its existence and who had made it.

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An uneasy peace was held until the Monolith fractured and released a force dubbed Simitre. This force sent an initial shockwave throughout the whole solar system disrupting all forms of matter. The Simitre also mutated all the Azmans on Bolk. The mutated Azmans went on a rampage destroying every part of the colony installation established on Bolk. The mutants then toppled the Monolith releasing more of the Simitre which start mutating Azmans all over the solar system with no rhyme or reason.

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The Azmans united to fight the mutants and seal off the Simitre by restoring the Monolith. It worked for a while until the Simitre released another shockwave that imbued the mutants with the powers to manipulate their physiology and even the shadows around them. The Azmans were at a loss for a time, but their spirit prevailed. They drove back the mutant threat and restored the Monolith, but not entirely. The Simitre still plagues the solar system, but to a lesser degree. Azmans can still get Simitre poisoning and change into killer mutants.

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The Azmans are still divided into four factions of note, which are called mega-corporations vying to gain supremacy in their solar system. These mega-corporations are as follows:

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Black Helix- Masters of cloning, medicine, and genetic manipulation. Each solider is said to have a clone ready to take his/her place should they die in the line of duty. The Black Helix has recently spent most of their efforts on reversing mutations of Simitre poisoning.

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Zyborg Technologies- Undisputed leader in robotic and cybernetic research, Z.T. outfits all of its soldiers with the latest cybernetic enhancements. Rumor says that they are working on thinking-machines capable of genuine thought and learning. These machines may eventually be able to decode the inscriptions on the Monolith someday.

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Galactic Syndicate- This is an umbrella organization that has many interests. The syndicate is known for espionage and the selling of secrets. Ever since the discovery of the Monolith, it has been a very lucrative time for the Galactic Syndicate. Who or what caused the Monolith to fracture is still one of the only secrets that the Galactic Syndicate has yet to uncover.

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Ares Inc. – The premier arms and armaments manufacture. Along with their massive arsenal and their full hardy attitude, they alone wield the most destructive force in the solar system. The Ares Inc. was the faction that landed on Bolk and laid waste to last large mutant threat inhabiting the planet allowing the Black Helix to restore the Monolith.

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All four mega-corps still fight over the Monolith, but it’s a diplomatic battle. No one has stepped foot on Bolk after the Monolith was reconstructed in fear of fully releasing the Simitre again. The mega-corps all agree that the Monolith is power that needs to harnessed, but to what means is the debate.

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There is another small faction, called The Clout, made of religious fanatics that believe the Monolith is a source of all evil and the horn of an ancient beast destroyed by their god called Immotus. The Clout is more-or-less welcomed in any colony regardless of what mega-corp. is running the installation. They are not considered harmless however and are kept a close-eye on. The Clout will “smite” any Azman that shows the tiniest bit of Simitre poisoning.

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What does this Gossamer world mean to the Lords and Ladies of Gossamer? The Simitre is powerful and the shockwaves sent echoes to other Gossamer worlds that suffer the same results, but in lesser and varying degrees. If the Monolith were to fracture again and fully release the Simitre, there is no telling what havoc the echoes could cause in other Gossamer worlds. The mutants being formed from the Simitre could become a threat on the same scale as the Dwimmerlaik. The first Wardens sent to Azmus all came back with horror stories. Many have started to fear that the Simitre might be able to mutate Wardens of the Grand Stair. This fear alone has made many refuse to take post on the Gossamer world.

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You are the few Wardens willing to investigate and control the situation in Azmus. The first entry should establish what planet or moon you’re on and what faction has garnered your character’s interest. You can include names of Azmans you meet or associate with and I’ll take note of them at NPCs that we’ll elaborate on as the story develops. You’ll be naming the planets and moons that you’re on yourself. To give some continuity with the naming of the planets and moons, most names are 4 to 5 letters long and contain at most two vowels. The Azmans do not normally name planets and moons after things or with words of great meaning, but it is common that the name of a planet known for something specific will become slang by association. Many refer mutating as “bolking-out” and a planet or moon becoming depleted of resources as “azmused”. Have as much with that as you wish.

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The whole Azmus solar system is the Gossamer world with many Doors leading to the Grand Stair. Other Wardens have already linked Doors from one planet to another in Azmus, but there is no telling how long those linked Doors will hold. The planet Bolk and the moons of Azmus have no Doors to the Grand Stair. Money is handled in the same fashion as in our modern society. Many of colonies utilize a space tether system that functions similar to an elevator that exits the atmosphere and links up to a docking station to board spacecraft.

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So, there it is… let’s see where this story goes.

[SalmonMax]

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Door Catalog Entry.

Reference ID: 14b10t8.

World: Azmus.

Stair Position: 2nd Iteration of 14th T-fork. Lateral 10, vertical 8.

Destination: Basement of abandoned domicile on Centrus.

Noteable feature: Close access to Black Helix headquarters.

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When the Azmans reached out long ago to leave the confines of their planet of birth behind, Centrus was the world they reached out from. It was perhaps this Gossamer's version of Earth, though the rest of the solar system was quite different, as was its history and many of the species that lived on it. The planet itself was very Earthlike though, with deserts and forests and oceans, trees and grass...things rather like birds flew in the air, fishlike beasts swam in the seas. And the Azmans themselves were very like humans in altogether too many ways.

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All these facts were recorded by SMAX upon his arrival.

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Previous visits by other Wardens had allowed him to pinpoint the Door of entry. He'd deemed Black Helix to be the most advantageous first point of contact. Not only did they have no professional interest that might lead them into conflict with himself, but they had been the entity responsible for sealing the Monolith. This implied they had some insight into its nature, and that they most likely had recordings of the artifact itself.

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SMAX made three visits. The first to verify the Door's destination, and to establish local time. The second five subjective minutes later to measure any difference between local time and Stair time, and the third in what he calculated to be the middle of the night. His calculations were correct, and he emerged from the old tenement house onto the streets of Centrus well after most folk would have been in bed. Avoiding unnecessary attention was deemed to be a tertiary objective, in support of his secondary objective to minimize local casualties.

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He was, in local parlance, a robot. A roughly humanoid metal construct standing about two meters tall, of considerably thinner build than a human being. He looked rather frail, in fact, to anyone who couldn't percieve the processes that refined and hardened his metallic skin, nor realize that the smooth, curved plating that encapsulated his skull and torso were armored shell components designed to withstand significant damage. SMAX's arms and legs were even thinner, almost spidery looking, though his forearms bulged out with shielded farings that concealed sophisticated equipment. His shins and feet were thicker as well, with splayed, square 'toes' intended to grip any sort of surface, and be resistant to conditions he might find. His 'face' lacked features save only for the pair of gleaming visual sensors placed at the same proportional locations as human eyes would be.

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A brief scan revealed no observers, so SMAX began his trek towards the Black Helix tower. It rose above, along with many other skyscrapers, from the city's downtown zone. Some distance away, but not so far as it would have been from any other Door. He broke into an easygoing, long-striding trot that ate up the city blocks. As traffic started getting thicker, he shifted to back streets. Planetary satellites beamed GPS information recklessly, with encryption protocols that were no match for his computational assets. Left. Left. Right. Left. It was not possible to avoid all contact, of course. However, his monitoring of local emergency response frequencies assured him that those who had observed him had done so at sufficient distance, or with sufficient uncertainty, that authorities had not yet been notified.

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He was only three blocks away now, carefully moving through the darkened alleys between buildings where cargo would be loaded and unloaded. He had two notions of how best to proceed. The first was simply to get as close as possible, and walk directly to the front door of the Black Helix building, and wait motionless until they opened. He calculated a significant probability that most people, on deeming him nonresponsive, would either assume he was inert or would assume he was property of the company. The second possibility was to scale the external structure of a neighboring building, then leap across to the helipad near the top of the Black Helix building, and attempt to gain entrance from there.

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As SMAX stood there in the alley, running simulations of the two scenarios, he became aware that two Azmani had approached him from behind.

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"I don't think he's bolkin' man," whispered one through a barely-stifled giggle. "Lookit his arms. There's like...fuckin...struts or something..."

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"Hey," said a gruffer, more authoritative voice. SMAX computed that it was very likely to be addressing him, not the companion. "You hear me? You alive?" Something pushed against him from behind...impact and surface consistency were appropriate for a wooden blunt implement.

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Unfortunate. He could stand and wait for them to leave, but he calculated a significant probability that they would decide he had value, and attempt to waylay him. Indicators in their vocal expressions suggested low socio-economic status, and the chemical traces on the smaller one's breath were consistent with low-level narcotic use. SMAX determined the probability that the two would seek assistance from planetary authorities was minimal, which freed him to act.

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Two steps, and he turned around to face them. Startled, the two Azmani jumped back. The smaller one brandished a wooden instrument used for playing a local athletic competition. The larger one produced a small firearm from inside his coat and aimed it at him.

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SMAX assessed its threat as negligible, but made a quick adjustment in his execution to account for the possibility of weapon discharge attracting unwanted attention.

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There was a chack as a panel on his left forearm popped open, allowing one of the instruments within to extend out. It didn't look like a weapon. More like an antennae. Even so, the larger man shook his head. "No funny business. What're you and what're you doing here?"

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"Please accept my apologies for any discomfort you may experience," SMAX said pleasantly, in an androgynous voice. A dim violet streak of lightning momentarily connected the antennae to the man's weapon, and there was a low buzzing noise.

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The man immediately dropped the firearm and shouted a profanity, rubbing his hand. His smaller friend brandished the wooden instrument again, threateningly, but his stress responses told the tale of someone who was inches from fleeing.

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Even so, the man SMAX had disarmed was hanging back, having verified that his hand was fine. "You some kind of robot or something?" he asked warily. His companion whispered, "I heard of these things! Like...police bots! We should break it! Bring it in!"

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The cowling over SMAX's right forearm came apart, and the metal plates began to reconfigure as he activated the Omniblaster. The elements of the rail-cannon emerged; most noteably the very large accelerator coil that served as a barrel. In this case of course, he would not be using it to fling dense toroi of boron carbide...he only needed the powerful electromagnetic impulse the accelerator could generate.

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"Oh shi..." said the larger one...but neither had time to do anything more before bright blue-white arcs of lightning curled from the emission ring and grounded themselves into the two men. Guided by an ionizing infrared laser, the electrical discharge was much lower energy than the spark gap would normally have required and therefore only incapacitated them rather than reducing them to ash.

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"Once again," SMAX said, "I apologize for the discomfort."

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The Omniblaster retracted and reshaped itself back into his forearm, and he got to work.

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The encounter demonstrated that avoiding the street level would likely be preferable, so he began scaling the side of the building whose alley he'd been lurking in. Unlike the Black Helix building, it had significant amounts of concrete construction, making it more easily scaleable than the Helix's smooth glass expanse. While not specifically designed for climbing sheer rock surfaces, SMAX was durable and strong enough to simple sink his fingers and toes into the concrete...forming his own hand and footholds as he went at the cost of minor superficial damage to the building's exterior.

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Being spotted at this hour, climbing with the building between himself and the still-fairly-busy downtown thoroughfares, was unlikely. Once near the top, he moved around to see the Black Helix and found a good position...a long ledge that ran the length of the structure he was on. Narrow, but suitable for his purposes. He ran along it, moving much faster than a human could, and hurled himself out across the gap of the road far below. His trajectory was carefully measured long in advance of course, though a small gust of wind pushed him five centimeters off course. He'd left himself a meter's clearance on all sides though, and successfully landed on the helipad. His mass and speed were enough to cause minor fracturing of the hardened concrete pad's surface directly under the point of impact. His own chassis remained undamaged however.

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After a moment to access and review local flight control to see if any helicopters were inbound, SMAX proceeded to the door at the far end of the helipad...and knocked politely.

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He repeated this...three knocks in rapid succession every twenty seconds...until someone finally opened the door.

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"Hello," he said quickly to the baffled and horrified guard within, "Please refrain from firing your weapon. I am not hostile to you. You may refer to me as Smax, and I am here to help your company, and your world."

[Raeth]

Considering the multitude of worlds upon the grand stair, Raeth was deeply curious about all of them, xhirs own world was not nearly this technologically advanced, magic and sorcery were the mainstay of that world, though they did have some understanding of technology as a basis for altering and adapting to their world, the Daeva found that arcane solutions are more suited to the nature of the world. Raeth however, had come across some of the more advanced technological concepts that xhe would like to add to xhirs world.

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Xhe would need to chose a form and stick to it in this world, the Azman's were unlikely to deal with well with a shapeshifting extra dimensional alien, though there was always the possiblity of using shapeshifting for deception, infiltration and adaptation. However, that was a matter to be considered later as Raeth considered xhirs favorite forms for a moment, discarding the more alien and frightening ones, then mentally flipping a coin between the male and female forms. After the choice randomly settled on female, Raeth considered several favored humanoid female forms before settling on one.

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Once chosen, flesh and bone shifted like wax, hair and skin color altering until xhe settled upon her new form. The next thing altered was clothing, fitted to suit the dark haired form, the only thing that seemed unchanged though the transformation was the necklace around xhir's neck. Once the form was settled, and checking a moment to make sure the form suited xhir, then pausing to touch the necklace, xhe stepped though the doorway into this new dimension for the first time. ,,

The first trip was, like xhirs counterpart Smax something of a investigative trip, but unlike him, xhe deliberately sought out some of the more ordinary inhabitants of this dimension and drew upon xhirs rather strong mental capabilities, as well as some sorcery to simply draw everything xhe needed to know directly from their minds.

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Finding someone on the street, passing though, a simple mind touch spell allowed xhir to created the mental connection between minds and then using a incredibly strong psyche, allowed Raeth to learn everything xhe needed to know. But fully taking all the information from the young woman selected would take several hours, and so using a form of hypnosis across the mental link, Raeth took them both to hotel, booking a room to allow xhir the time in private to gain all of the information xhe needed. Mira seemed perfect, she was a smart young woman who had a knowledge of her worlds basic history and the most important political entities from Raeth's viewpoint.. she also had a number of concepts that were somewhat new to Raeth that xhe found fascinating. Leaving the girl to sleep off the experance, Raeth then returned to the Door to step back onto the grand stair to consider what was learned even as xhe began to reconstruct the spell used and put it back into place.

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The Black Helix seemed to be the most interesting, what was more the concept of genetic engineering was a remarkable one in Raeth's mind, but the Simitre was expecially interesting, it sounded somehow similiar to the Umbra in effects, though it's influence was quite broad across the system. The other concept that Raeth wanted to explore, a minor idea that xhe had found in the girls mind, was that of psionic power, it was similar to, but not identical to the concept of magic, and Raeth wondered if xhe couldn't make it a workable one for the inhabitants of this reality, if so, the Black Helix was again the place to start, their genetic engineering would be a good basis for such things. Although, as a secondary consideration, Z.T. had potential in terms of creating and installing some unique capabilities into their cyborg subjects, but xhe needed to start with the genetic potential first, and that meant Black Helix.

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There was an secondary problem, that of identity, the people of this world were highly technologically developed and had found ways of identification and recording that were not in place in xhirs own world. Raeth decided xhe would need a hacker, both to create the identity desired for this personal, and to learn as much about computers as possible, that line of inquiry suggested quite a few potentials that xhe would like to add to xhirs own world.

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Once the spell was again in place, Raeth stepped back though the Door, unlike the robotic individual, Raeth blended in with the Azman's with ease and perfection, the female form was attractive enough to draw some attention, but not any that Raeth wasn't quite capable of dealing with easily. A few days would be needed, xhe estimated, to fully learn what xhe desired and then put the desired solution in place.

[Uriel Arcadia]

The peaceful café was always so, amazingly. Good for business, but ultimately an ancillary benefit of the real reason for Smooth Drinks Zone's calm. It was owned and run by a branch of the Galactic Syndicate, as a safe zone for information exchange and internal business to be done. Uriel sat in one of the chairs, hands around a mug of very warm caffeinated liquids. The name was something like Wazing Zhai Tea or something like that.

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However, Uriel had figured out that Azmani 'teas' were more like a mishmash of coffee, qat, and some kinds of plant products never seen on his Earth. Not distasteful, but something he learned to keep in mind during the initial blending in and cultural research phase of his arrival.

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His appearance and attire did not distinguish him from the crowd, which of course was always an important advantage to possess. Uriel was wearing the suit, as usual, keeping his smartphone on his person.

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A sip of the 'tea', as Uriel ran over the plans and preparations all percolating in his head from years of experience of tradecraft. Now repurposed to a life he never expected, to eliminate a threat never truly believed possible back home. His contact from the Syndicate should be here soon.

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Ironically, the Galactic Syndicate was in some ways his second choice for an organizational base of resources. The Clout would have made superb assets, deniable, easily persuaded that their goals would align - they might even rationalize Uriel as a source of divine aid sent against the Simitre - but the irony...

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Uriel was not yet still really comfortable and ready for working with religious fanatics. So first, the Galactic Syndicate, the very exact place he excelled at most. Backed up by his Lordly nature, spells and cantrips... getting a good foothold should be reasonably achievable.

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Then once set with the first foothold - then Uriel Arcadia might reach out to the Clout. But not before.

[JoeChuck]

SMAX

“Do you think he’s Z Tech?” Copper stares through the mirror at SMAX

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Glaud puts out his cigarette shaking his head, “Fuck no, those snooty bastards put their fucking name on everything. Not a single recognizable logo is on this thing.”

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“Zyborg might have been trying to keep him a secret,” Copper turns and leans on the mirror to face Glaud and Halstead.

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“True, but unlikely. Z.T. gloats any chance they get about their advances,” Glaud lights another cigarette, “Question I’m thinking is should we call them in?”

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“Ha! Are your fucking bent?” Copper coughs and waves smoke out of his face, “This is our chance to blow those fuckers out of the water!”

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Glaud rubbernecks around Copper to get a better look at SMAX, “You’re right, but this thing still wasn’t able to decipher the language on the Monolith. We showed it examples of all our languages. It could read and speak all of them flawlessly. Then it went quiet when we showed it Simitre Speak and has stared at that photo of the Monolith ever since.”

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“Fuck this thing! It’s obviously not as big of a deal as you two are making it,” Halstead raises his head from out of his hands, “If this thing was really all that impressive, the higher-ups wouldn’t have assigned us to handle it.”

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“We were the first on the scene, prick!” Copper jumps off the mirror and stands fully on his two feet with his hands balled in fists.

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“You two are the pricks,” Halstead throws his empty paper wazee cup at Copper and opens the door, “You guys play with this fucking bucket of Z.T. garbage by yourselves.”

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“What an assholes,” Glaud and Copper state in unison.

The walls might as well have been made of paper. The Black Helix executives that had rushed to greet SMAX had put him in an interrogation room with a one-way mirror and a picture of the Monolith. First contact had gone as expected with the Black Helix mega-corporations, but the conversation the executives had behind the glass gave SMAX more to ponder and assess. More troubling, SMAX’s noosphere sensors were glitching out just examining a photograph of the Monolith and characters of Simitre Speak as the executives had identified.

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SMAX looks toward the door as Glaud and Copper enter with some physical puzzles that SMAX has already solved upon noticing them.

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Raeth

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“Here’s your new identity, Hot-tits. You’ll notice that I said you were born on Demur the moon orbiting Solin. I thought that was a nice touch, if I do say so myself,” Fafrel Pish spun in his computer chair and noticed Raeth’s blank expression.

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“You know Demur, the colony known for hot bitches!” Fafrel grinned and thrust his hips.

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“Anyways that shit ain’t easy to come by or create. Where are you from really anyways?” Fafrel spun back to his computer screen, “You know what? Never mind, chickie. The less I know the better.”

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“That’s going to cost you a lot of credits or favors!” Darmi squeals from a kitchen-like area.

“Pay or be without,” Darmi plops a tray of food on Fafrel’s desk, “The file you have in your hand is only a copy. It doesn’t mean shit, if my dad doesn’t maintain your identity in both the interfeed and spacenet. At any time, we can delete the data and you’ll be nobody again. We all know how the mega-corps love nobodies. So let’s discuss forms of payment.”

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The Pishes are independent hackers that live outside the governance of any mega-corporation. They work to cause discomfort for the mega-corps and, of course, money. Fafrel Pish is a balding and fat Azman with little concern for his appearance. He is the actual hacker and has the talent necessary to establish Raeth’s persona in Azmus. Darmi Pish is Fafrel’s daughter and “business” manager. She oversees all transactions and dealings with her father’s less than reputable profession.

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The personnel file details Raeth as an Azmani female born on a moon colony named Demur. This colony is owned by the Black Helix and, as Fafrel implied, Demur is known for cosmetic engineering. The file also states that Raeth has passed all educational requirements to be a genetic designer and provides a Black Helix wrist-badge to enter the mega-corp’s buildings with Class 4 privileges. These privileges are that of a basic worker in the Black Helix organization which is enough to get into a Black Helix building and the genetic designing laboratories. All of which is only possible, if Fafrel continues to maintain Raeth’s identity in the Azmani information mainframes.

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Darmi offers Raeth a fresh cup of wazee, “So you willing to pay 600,000 donars or are you going to steal us Black Helix goodies until we had our fill?”

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URIEL

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“The name is Halstead,” a tall, sweaty Azman states as he sits at the table next to Uriel.

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Halstead slides a briefcase over to Uriel. The Azman sips on a large cup of wazee-tah and proceeds to scroll through daily news feeds on the table display. Halstead is a mouth-breather and constantly wiping wazee from the corners of his mouth as he pantomimes his version of an average Azmani citizen on a Sabday morning.

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Uriel keeps himself from laughing at the amateurish techniques of Halstead. Despite the Galactic Syndicate being known for espionage, apparently everyone has to start somewhere.

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After a long while of sitting in silence and acting as normal Azmani, Halstead finally turns to Uriel, “Everything you need to know is in the briefcase. I’m going back down to Centrus. I hate hanging out on tether-ports.”

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Halstead stands and finishes his wazee-tah with gusto. He stumbles through the café chairs and exits the building.

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In the briefcase, Uriel will find several photographs of a robot electrocuting a couple of Azmani in front of a Black Helix building and running and jumping onto the Black Helix building’s helipad. The briefcase also contains some sort of pulse pistol roughly the size of a 9mm handgun, an ear piece, and a credit card with a 20,000 donars of credit. The pistol is fully charged and it looks like some sort of serial number has been filed off of it. Uriel fits the ear piece easily and hears Halstead’s voice doing a sound check. The message went as follows:

“First off, I don’t know who the fuck you are, but you impressed all the Syndicate agents. No one can find any traces of you existing in the entire solar system like you just fucking popped into existence yesterday. Speaking of things popping into existence out of nowhere, the Helix has something big! I saw the thing up close and I nearly bolked-out! It’s a robot that is capable of thinking and reasoning on its own. Not only that the fucking thing can talk and read every fucking language on record. It says its name is SMAX and its here to help us. What the fuck?! It doesn’t have any Zyborg Technologies logos on it and its way more fucking advanced than anything I’ve seen come out of Z.T. No one knows who built it yet, but it came straight to the Black Helix building here on Centrus. Black Helix has had this fucking for a couple of days now and I think they are talking about relocating it to a moon colony, but I don’t know which one. I’m working on getting you at least a maintenance level wrist-badge, but security in the building has been beefed up since the arrival of SMAX. It’s like a fucking kids’ sci-fi movie!”

The message ends with that and the ear piece turns to liquid in Uriel's ear.

[Raeth]

Raeth listened to the talk of the hacker, fairly certain that he didn't know how much xhe was not only learning from his actions, what neither of them were aware of is that Raeth didn't simply want their expertise, xhe wanted their skill, wanted to understand and learn how hacking into computers worked and over the last few days, xhe had done quite a bit in order to learn it. Xhe could have spoken the spell, or simply used the spell from the list of those racked, but instead Raeth had taken the time to actually craft the mink link spell and set the duration to weeks, first for Fafrel, then for his daughter Darmi, then performing an internal shapeshift to xhirs mind, altering it to the hyper learning state of a child, enough to pick up everything xhir could about hacking from the Phishes mind... and there was a lot to learn, xhe was almost as good a hacker as Fafrel now, though xhe didn't have his experience with many systems..

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There were plenty of time left on the mind link, weeks still, as long as xhe remained in this dimension, and Raeth considered the ease at which xhe could simply dominate their minds and simply make them do as xhe wished, but that lacked.. finesse in xhirs mind. Still, fully letting them know what they were doing, unveiling what they were working with, that was something that needed to be done with style,

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"A nobody is it." xhe laughed, the musical voice of xhir present from filling the air as the absurdity of that statement washed though xhirs present form. "I have been actually been nothing for a time, when I become one with the Umbra itself, my body unraveling into nothingness for a time, nobody is such silly term for something such as I." Xhirs words were such that no doubt they intially though xhir mad.. Raeth would shortly prove to them something fair different..

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"So small your ambitions are.. you ask the question of origins so idly, then declare a lack of interest for your own protection, even as your mind is alive with curiosity, it seems sad that your people are so lacking in a sense of wonder. I could answer the question, but you would have trouble believing me without proof, and the proof I am capable of offering would not simply frighten you, it would terrify, you are not prepared for the answer to your question.. and yet, I am inclined to give you the answer anyway.. though there are so many ways that I could also just provide you with what you are asking for so very easily instead, but I like both of you, for all of your manipulations, you have some caring and loyalty to one another that I find pleasing to taste upon your minds, as well as inventiveness and a will to survive, but you are so inwardly focused... I am inclined to stretch your views of the universe a bit, to open your eyes further then you have ever dreamed.."

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Alarm, avarice and curiosity flared in the eyes of both the Phishes as Raeth spoke, and then what Raeth chilled both of them to the bone. "Your minds have been mine from the beginning, little ones, there is little I do not know of you, Fafrel Inazi Phish, hacker, thief, blackmailer... I can sense your lust focused on me.. of course I was aware of your petty dreams involving this form, the images that you formed in your mind, though you control your lust better then you do your sense of avarice, or your pride... And then, we have the daughter, Darmi Shazira Phish, business manager, deceiver, entrepreneur.. you both have such short sighted and inward focused ambitions, so lacking in real vision, so easy to direct by someone with a much stronger mind. Such small vision when I have such grand intentions for your people.. yes, I think, it's worthwhile, you need something to open your eyes to what it is that you are dealing with, to let go of some of the petty desires and let your imaginations take flight.. let's show you the power that you have stumbled onto and expand your horizons, shall we? Instead of telling you my origins, how about actually showing them too you, it's not like you could tell anyone and be believed, you would have to make up something different in order to get anywhere from it.. and so much have you taught me of your world in the last few days, you are not the sort to give up secrets as grand this one easily.. the truth is far stranger then any fiction you could come up with."

,,

,,

Xhe was showing off a bit, xhir knew it, but xhe couldn't help it, after several days locked in a single form, it felt so good to stretch out, to feel the full potential of the Umbra flowing though xhirs body, and xhe began to dissolve and something else took the female's place, something much more.. terrifying, something to totally unlike anything they had known in their reality, only the Monolith was anything like this, and the transformation that Raeth had made was nothing the Monolith had ever done to anyone.

,,

Xhirs voice burned with flames as xhe spoke "You think your world, your very universe, is the only one, it is but one of a near infinite number, and across realities there are beings far beyond your small powers who have turned eyes to your dimension, your Monolith draws us, as it touches worlds, universes beyond your own, it intrigues us.. you ask for money or for theft, but there is so much more you could be asking for, so little that you know, the power that stands before you now has few matches within your reality.. I am the greatest of the Daeva, my people have so many reflections upon your world, so many potentials and possibilities...we are echos in so many stories that have filled in your world and so many others, appearing within as both reward and retribution.."

,,

,,

Raeth shifted again and this time the form was something less fiery, more cool and dragonic in nature, shimmering purple scales covering this from as xhe continued to speak, voice something much cooler and less fiery. "I see you begin to understand, you tremble and shake, do not be afraid, you have done me a great favor, and I am inclined to be generous.. " And once more xhirs form began to shift and change.

,,

,,

The next form was one that was completely male, but one of a man mixed with the might and shape of a lion, and still grandstanding a bit, Raeth closed a fist around a flare of energy created by a tiny touch of the Umbra.. and xhirs tone now was completely male with a touch of the beast within it "There is neither form nor shape that is not mine, should I desire it..including images from your myths and legends, such as those of the great beast and his beauty.. " Raeth reached out and touched the cheek of the daughter, and she leaned into xhirs touch almost involuntarily, even as she shuddered.. "Pheromones, my dear, they draw out the desire in you, there are few things that I can not do...but this isn't really fair to do this to someone I like.. so.. "

,,

And a crystalline fingernail slide under the father's chin forcing him to look into the eyes of the beautiful and terrifying being that existed before him, and the voice that spoke now rang like the perfect tones of a tuning fork.. "Ask something more difficult, something worthy of the being before you, something less petty then what you have requested from me so far, serve me and my purpose here and I can grant you almost any wish, reach beyond your petty dreams to something more magnificent, more grand, and if it is within my power, and as there is very little that you could desire that is not within my power, though a challenge would be grand, and I can make it so... when my purpose here in your universe is complete."

Point made, Raeth put on the more ordinary form that xhe had first shown to the Phishes, and all that anyone else upon this world had seen and looked into the shocked eyes of both of the two Azmani who had unbottled a genie that they didn't know what to do with. In a more normal, if beautiful voice, the female form taken spoke once more. "But, as a gesture of good will, perhaps I should simply give you some part of what you have asked for, as a favor." She waved at the nearby table, transmuting the entire table from wood to pure and precious cut diamonds that clattered upon the floor of the room. "There, I believe that can cover you requested price.. now, I shall depart for a time and allow you a day or two to consider" With that she left the room to the more private quarters that she was staying in at this time, to give the two time to think about what they had discovered, and what they should do with it. Xhe wondered a moment, if they would be curious or cautious enough to ask her purpose here.. and xhe chose deliberately not to seek the answer in their minds, wanting to keep it a surprise.. though xhe would be disappointed if they didn't.

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel sat for a moment in contemplation and frowned ever so slightly for a moment while he digested both the mission assigned to him and the nature of his contact-slash-so-called handler. The ex-corporate espionage expert wasn't sure whether Halstead was a complete and utter inept amateur or - however less likely - putting on a front of weakness. Likely because these kinds of errors were best to not be made in the first place, but why would the Syndicate have such a terrible contact for a job like this?

,,

Failure to blend, complete lack of attention to the spy assigned and the mission, loose tongue, to the point of spilling critical organizational knowledge... and taking the 'disposable' element of business far too obviously. He had just eliminated his own apparent means of remotely contacting his operative within moments. Despite the feel of the now liquid earpiece, Uriel planned on waiting until he could slip into a washroom stall to clean it out.

,,

Again, no point in drawing unnecessary attention. The briefcase was shut within moments, and Uriel considered the other, curious part of the objective. SMAX, from the description, struck a rather familiar vibe within Uriel. A fully intelligent robot with no known connection, appearing out of nowhere... Uriel wondered whether this was another 'Warden' or simply a traveler from a separate Gossamer world.

,,

That would be determined in time. First, Uriel had the all important washing taken care of, before going back into his original place and calmly scanning the public news feeds for readily available information concerning Black Helix. Nothing too deep at first would be accessible, probably, but a place to begin legwork without raising any red flags.

[SalmonMax]

Smax tilted his head slightly and tracked the two men as they came into the room. As always, when they were in his physical presence, their heart rates increased slightly, and their skin moisture and electrical conductivity went up. Stress responses. He remained still and allowed the puzzles to be placed on the table before him. One appeared to be a three-dimensional construct of simple geometrical shapes, intended to test spatial acuity and memory to match correct sides and colors. The other appeared to be a test of reaction speed and physical precision, selecting a physical control to activate in response to a randomly timed signal.

,,

As he dedicated one hand to solving each, he engaged the two men in conversation as well. The beeping of the reaction speed test formed a strange counterpoint to his words.

,,

"Glaud," he said pleasantly, "Copper. I respect your local customs, but I must impress upon you the importance of my visit. Is there some assurance I can offer your superiors that will expedite them agreeing to meet with me? I regret having to ask, but time is not a factor that can be ignored in this matter."

,,

He then threw out the hook.

,,

"It concerns The Monolith."

,,

The spatial matching puzzle lay finished, before his second sentence. A matter of the awkwardness of manipulating it one-handed more than a limit on his capacity to solve it. The reaction test showed the cumulative reaction speed of its ten pulses as .001 seconds delay. In reality it was even less, but not because his reactions were actually that fast. It was because the 'random' firing was actually controlled by an easily-deducible pattern that allowed him to predict each pulse within the margin of error allowed by its circuit design.

,,

"Hopefully, we are done with the toys for now?"

[JoeChuck]

RAETH

,,

Raeth gives the Pishes a day to come up with a more suitable reward for their assistance. During that day, Raeth put to work the knowledge that xhe gleamed from Fafrel and Darmi. Xhe combed the interfeed and spacenet with fervor. Raeth found it fascinating to have so much information at one’s finger tips and with such ease. The fact that these Azmani could have almost any question answered without the use of sorcery was intriguing. Raeth also knew that xhe would need a backup plan, if xhir’s little outburst scared the Pishes into hiding.

,,

Raeth looked up information on all four mega-corporations and hacked into some employee files of the Black Helix. Raeth committed some of the employees’ pictures and occupational information to memory. Xhe also stumble onto a spacenet site called ShowFace that was some sort of site for socializing. Raeth looked up all the posts of a Black Helix employee named Russell Copper because of his kind face and committed some of the Azman’s sayings to xhir’s memory as well. Raeth only needed to hear Copper’s voice to fully impersonate the man. Showface had no audio or video recordings of Russell Copper which was a rarity because it seemed every Azmani was wearing their digital hearts on their sleeves.

,,

Raeth returns to the Pishes’ basement bunker. Xhe opena the already ajar door to the scene of Darmi sprawled on the floor holding the side of her bruised face and two Azmani assaulting Fafrel who hadn’t left his computer chair.

,,

“Where the fuck did you two fucks get these fucking dia-odes!” A gnarly looking Azman in a tailored suit embellished with electrical cables powering a vice-like claw on his right arm.

,,

Fafrel’s eyes bulged as the Azman’s claw tighten around his neck, “YOUWONTBEEELIEVEME!!!”

,,

The other Azman was stuffing the “dia-odes” into a strange box that seemed to be calculating the worth of the haul. This Azman was dressed more like the Pishes and didn’t seem to have any devices augmenting his body.

,,

“Fukhed, How much?!” The gnarly Azman asked the other while spitting contempt in Fafrel’s face.

,,

Fukhed looks up taking notice of Raeth standing in the door, “600C, Teago!”

,,

“And trouble,” Fukhed closes the box and points a strange looking device at Raeth.

,,

URIEL

,,

The drop back down to Centrus from the tether-port was a little disorienting, but nothing Uriel couldn’t shake off. The sweet scent of the female Azman’s perfume that was sharing the drop-pad with him was what Uriel couldn’t ignore. He kept his eyes steadily on her with the confidence that he could have her, if he wanted. She had large almond-shaped eyes that were bright yellow-green in color, long purple hair twisted into a bun revealing pointed ears that had been a genetic fad for a short time in this Gossamer world. Her dress was silver and slinky with tiny lights that brightened and dimed with her breathing. She smiled several times at Uriel letting him know that she knew.. They were alone on drop-pad.

,,

Uriel kept his confident stare on her as he thought more about his first meeting with Halstead. If Halstead was in fact putting on a front, he was an amazing actor. If not, the espionage game in this world needs some educating. Uriel smirked to himself at the thought of a bunch of amateurs searching for information on a man that never existed in their world until a day ago

,,

“I like your retro look!” the female Azman shouted from other side of the drop-pad, “You can call me, Jonna! Halstead is a complete prick isn’t he?!”

Uriel’s stare goes from one of pleasure to one of business… mixed with a lit bit of pleasure. Jonna grins and focuses her gaze on the Black Helix building off in the distance. Her breathing-synced dress didn’t change its pace of pulsating light. She reaches into an almost invisible pocket and pulls out a single room key. The lights of her dress pulse a faint pink light for a moment.

,,

“Coming?

SMAX

,,

Glaud puts his hands on the table with all the puzzles that SMAX completed in a manner of moments. He lets out a long whistle and shakes his head, “unfucking believable.”

,,

Copper laughs, “SMAX, you’ve got their attention. They just don’t like to show their faces much.”

,,

“They’re old fuckers that like to rule from a distance,” Glaud interjects while trying to figure out the spatial matching puzzle.

,,

Copper straightens suddenly and places one finger to his left ear, “What? Really?!”

,,

“What the fuck are they saying, Copsie?” Glaud leans into Copper’s left ear.

,,

The telecom conversation goes on for a little bit and Copper pushes Glaud away with his elbow.

,,

“The Ups have a request for SMAX to allow him their audience,” Copper takes his finger from his ear, “I don’t know if you’ll like it SMAX.”

,,

“Copper, just say it,” Glaud stands over by SMAX.

,,

“They already made arrangements with Ups over at Z.T. and they have some sort of alien-robotics analysis machine,” Copper stares a SMAX, “it’s never been used before.”

,,

Glaud puts his hands on the table again, “How do you even make a machine like that and what does it do?”

,,

“As far as our Ups know it’ll take SMAX apart and put him back together to learn more about him and other tests to determine SMAX’s place of origin,” Copper shrugs and pours a cup of wazee.

,,

“So, what does Black Helix get out of the deal with Z Tech?” Glaud walks over to the wazee pot.

,,

“The robots that we’ve wanted to land on Bolk and study the Monolith without getting to close to it,” Copper stares at the photo of the Monolith and sips on his wazee, “Z.T. doesn’t have the balls to do it themselves because they’re afraid of collapsing the Monolith and suffering the Simitre fallout again.”

,,

“Interesting,” Glaud looks a SMAX, “What do you say SMAXimilian?”

[SalmonMax]

"No," was Smax's reply. It was quite firm, and without any of the conciliatory language he'd included thus far. It didn't sound 'angry' exactly, but it seemed that his cordiality was slowly waning.

,,

"It is important that you and your superiors understand the situation. I am not a device, or a non-volitional construct. In every way that is important, I am a person, and I will be recognized as such. The fact that your machine would fail to disassemble me is not important, nor is the fact that you would learn very little if it succeeded. What is important is that you realize that I will cooperate with your customs up to a point, but not in a manner that reduces me to a tool, or object."

,,

"It is my intention to work with you, not for you."

,,

"If this is not possible, I will depart, with my apologies for having wasted your time."

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel smiled. If this was what it seemed.... better at this than Halstead, for certain. "How can I resist such an invitation, Jonna?" He followed, with a smile and confident, smoldering look. "I'm Uriel." In the distance was the building of Black Helix. Where SMAX would be, supposedly. Mental note, do a surveillance run through. Case the building, prepare for any need to gain entry if the pass did not manifest from Halstead.

,,

Get a sense of security, their preparations... and keep an eye on Jonna and her lovely looks. For pleasure -- and business. Can't let one's guard down for a honey pot. Uriel would be shamed if that somehow happened.

[Raeth]

Before stepping into the room, the Umbral Star, name of the necklace around Raeth's neck that xhe was never without, shifted slightly and Raeth touched the artifact psychically, then frowned as xhe got a sense of danger ahead, and in this area, the Umbral Star was never wrong. So when xhe entered the room to find the intruders there, Raeth was already alert and had brought the vision of the inherit weaknesses in all things that was the most basic ability of the Umbra Master. Immediately deciding to play to xhirs strengths rather then theirs, Raeth acted as quickly as possible.

,,

First, the weapon, while xhe would have liked a closer look at it, xhe didn't want to feel the effects of whatever the weapon being lifted to point at xhir was, so reaching out with xhirs control over the umbra, xhe let it's reality warping nature run rampant over the weapon being lifted, knowing that it would twist the item out of all recognition and purpose that it was being put too. It might even do some damage to the one carrying it in the process, but xhe couldn't count on that,

,,

Second, the cybernetically enhanced individual who appeared to be named Teago, xhe cast the mind link spell, and rather then the gentle touch xhe had used with the Pishes, Raeths powerful psychic reached out to psychically stun him, taking him out of this battle and leaving on his friend, and whatever other tools and weapons he might have.

[JoeChuck]

SMAX

,,

Copper inhales deeply, obviously feeling dejected. He stares at the tiled floor for a while before motioning to Glaud, “show Smax video of Sector Hewlett.”

,,

Glaud’s eyes bulge, but he promptly picks up a small device and points it at the mirrored wall. The mirror flickers and the image cuts from reflection to a video of surveillance. In the lower corner of the video labels the footage as Sector Hewlett.

,,

The footage shows an Azman male strapped to a surgical table with hands and feet bond by thick metal bands. A man with his face covered by a surgical mask enters the room with a strange looking device with a hose attached to it.

,,

“Sector Hewlett Test: 314. Commencing,” the masked man says directly at the camera.

,,

He climbs into a vacuumed sealed suit and flips the switches on the device. It hums and lights flicker as the subject on the table starts to squirm and spit obscenities at the masked man. The bound Azman is partially silenced when a funnel is placed or his nose and mouth. The masked man attaches the hose to the face-funnel and flips a final switch on the device.

,,

The bound Azman convulses and fights to break free from his constraints. His skin darkens to an ashen gray and his eyes flare with an orange light. His neck pops and the face-funnel drops to the floor as his mouth opens wider than it should. The Azman’s jaw cracks and snaps shut breaking teeth into a jagged pattern. He screams as his eyes flare brighter with orange light and bumps protrude from his head. The skin on the protrusions split and three horns erupt from the Azman’s head. He never passes out from the pain. Finally, from his hands comes a spray of blood as his fingertips give way to bony claws. The Azman is transformed and Smax is fascinated at how similar the event was to birth.

,,

“Sector Hewlett Test: 3.14. Complete,” the masked man pulls a small gun from his pocket and shoots the test subject in the head several times.

,,

Smax’s noosphere analyzers were going off the chart during the transformation. The Azman didn’t mutate. He completed his evolution or at least got closer to being complete. Smax immediately analyzes Glaud with the same noosphere calculations he gleamed from the footage. Gradually, the noosphere overlaid the same image of the creature over the image of Glaud. Next, Smax did the same to Copper with the same result.

When coming to this Gossamer world, Smax thought his initial readings of the Azmani biology was that of most humanoid races. Incomplete and evolving. This new information of how the Simitre and the Azmani were connected is trouble. Once perfect killers, the Azmani race is the shadow of a greater fully evolved race and the Monolith is the only thing keeping them separated.

,,

“Smax, I wanted to show you that because I want to prove something,” Copper says while still looking away from Smax, “the Ups make the decisions for greater advancement and we follow. I’m sorry.”

,,

Glaud interjects, “What Copper is saying is that the deal is already made. Z Tech is coming to get you and dismantle you whether we like it or not.”

,,

“We feel you’re a person just as much as you do, but Ups sees only the profit you can gain them,” Copper finally faces Smax and raises a piece of paper with handwriting on it:

That’s why Glaud and I contacted Ares Inc.

,,

Copper crumbles the paper and it turns to dust. Smax’s threat sensors made him aware of the explosive charges being applied the exterior wall. Smax nods to the two Black Helix executives and rushes toward the wall as the explosive detonate. The wall gives way to the outside of the building and an aircraft armed with several large guns. The side opening of the aircraft was ready for Smax’s departure of the Black Helix facility and caught him as though it was planned.

,,

The four muscle-bound Azmani in the aircraft stare at Smax in amazement as they finish readying their weapons. The pilot peers over his shoulder and then looks at his co-pilot while flipping the switch to disarm the aircraft’s weaponry.

,,

“Well shit, I thought it was going to be funner than that,” the pilot hollers to the back and an Azman with a mohawk throws his weapon to the floor of the aircraft as he slumps down to sit.

,,

URIEL

,,

Jonna and Uriel walk to a building that Jonna has identified as her “place”. The two enter the motel building after Jonna swipes the room key tag on a sensor. The foyer opens up to a mostly vacant hallway. A bum still asleep and reeking something awful is sprawled on the floor.

,,

“I’m at the end,” Jonna points at a door down the way next to a taped-off door of a room being renovated. She hops over the bum and holds out her hand for Uriel. He plays along.

,,

They walk the length of the hallway without anyone else appearing until close to Jonna’s room. An older, wealthy looking Azman comes out of a room tucking in his shirt and fixing his hair. Jonna quickly tugs at Uriel’s trousers and giggles while pulling him closer to nuzzle his neck. Uriel once again plays along. The wealthy looking Azman grins at the two.

,,

“I hope she’s worth it,” the Azman chortles as he velcros the fly of his pants and walks away.

,,

Jonna releases Uriel as soon as the wealthy Azman turns down the hall. She pulls a slender piece of metal out of her bun making her purple hair fall to her shoulders in bouncy waves.

,,

Jonna reveals a hidden hole in the doorframe and jams the metal piece in. The door clicks and pops open. The room is a typical cheap motel room with a bed, side table, lamp, and a couch. All of which are stained and dirty.

,,

Jonna walks over to the side table and raps the metal rod on it. The rod gives off a chime like a tuning fork and the wallpaper shifts. A section of the wall slides away revealing the room next door. This room is all white and furnished in modern-Azman furniture. There is also a large window giving a perfect view of the Black Helix building.

,,

Jonna raps the metal rod again and the sliding door closes them in the new room. She taps Uriel on the shoulder and makes a face with her mouth open. Jonna gestures for Uriel to do the same and he does. She flips a switch and there’s a thrumming sound making Uriel’s ears itch slightly, but he feigns a little weakness as though the sound-dampeners gave him a little discomfort as they kicked on.

,,

“There we can be as loud as we want,” Jonna bites her lip.

,,

Uriel walks over to the coffee table with photos on it think they’ll be surveillance photo of the Black Helix. They’re nude photos of Jonna’s neighbors from across the street.

,,

“I get bored in here,” Jonna smirks as she lets her light dress fall to the floor revealing her close-fitting tactical corset clad with tiny devices and throwing daggers.

,,

She walks over to the window and notices Uriel’s questionable look, “No one can see in here. The outside of this window looks like bricks to anyone looking. She traces the Black Helix building and slaps her palm on the glass. As she pulls her hand away from the glass, a perfect holographic image of the building follows her hand all the way back to the coffee table.

,,

This Gossamer world’s technology is impressive. No wonder someone like Halstead can pass as an secret agent.

,,

The hologram of Black Helix even has the guards patrolling the perimeter of the building. Jonna press some hidden buttons on the coffee table and the hologram changes to a framework of the building’s interior with little moving blips that could only be personnel.

,,

“I pretty much have all the staff’s movement memorized during the morning shift,” Jonna spins the holographic building around like a toy, “we should be able to get in with Halstead’s wrist-badges and move about unseen.”

,,

Jonna’s eyes bulge and she jumps to her feet, “What the fuck!?”

,,

Uriel looks out the window to see some sort of Azmani aircraft outside of the Black Helix several stories up. The aircraft was still transitioning out of a cloak that rendered it invisible to the naked eye. Then an explosion tore away a huge chunk of the building’s exterior and a small figure jumped from the building into the aircraft. Finally, the aircraft went invisible again and was gone.

,,

On the coffee table, tiny blips jump all over the place inside the Black Helix. Outside the motel, siren rose and support vehicles race to the building. The sliding door opens to Halstead holding a box that looked like takeout food containers.

,,

“Two maintenance level wrist-badges as orduurrrrr…. Those fuckers!” Halstead drops the box and goes over to the window, “motherfuckers! What now, Jonna?”

“Halstead. Uriel. We’re going to Mariz,” Jonna shakes her head, “that was an Ares Hypewire. I bet they’ve already left the atmosphere.”

,,

Halstead turned to Uriel, “you still have that credit card?”

,,

Just then Uriel’s stomach twists into a knot. The dumbass Halstead left both doors to the room open. Screams of terror from the hallway fill up the room and the sound of tearing wet flesh accompany it.

,,

Jonna gasps, “Bolkers.”

,,

“Mutants,” Halstead squeaks in unison with Jonna.

,,

“We have to catch up with that Hypewire. This base was setup like a panic room. The only way out is through the front,” Jonna pulls long blades from the back of her corset and strike them together. The blades let out a similar ring as the metal key device, but the ringing activates serrated teeth on the blades to oscillate. A strange mask forms over Jonna’s face that originated from her thick choker necklace.

,,

Halstead removes strange looking pistol from his ankle and presses a button to charge it to full. He also places a vented mask over his face.

,,

“Lead the way, Madam Mayhem,” Halstead bows with his hand extend.

,,

Jonna kicks a panel in the wall, “in case you need something more than that EMP pulser, Uriel.”

,,

The wall panel slides down revealing an arsenal and spare face masks.

,, ,, ,,

RAETH

,,

The mind touch links Teago and Raeth’s minds for only a brief moment and Raeth doesn't even bother to protect xhir's own mind. Within that moment the two minds discover everything about each other. Raeth sees Teago as a child, as a man raising his family, as a man losing his family to mutants, and as the creature standing in front of him now. Teago sees infinite worlds, Daevera, the Umbral Star’s creation, and Raeth taking xhir’s throne in Prism. It is too much for Teago and the link overwhelms his mind. Raeth does little to accomplish complete dominance of Teago’s mind and squeezes on it. Teago convulses as he falls to the floor, but not before his cybernetic claw pinches off what was left of Farfel’s throat.

,,

Puke and blood covers the floor pooling at Fukhed’s feet. The spindly Azman stares down at the lump of debris that used to be his pulser gun. Fukhed starts mumbling a prayer to Immotus. The dull thwack of Darmi’s cast-iron skillet is drowned out by her war-cry.

,,

“Fuck you! You fucking Clout wannabe faggard!” Darmi wails on the already unconscious Fukhed. She keeps going until her strikes start sounding sticky. She then turns her attention to Teago. Raeth watches as the young Azman female unleashes a brutality that xhe didn’t think she had in her. It intrigues xhir.

,,

Darmi goes for a final swing at Teago’s head pulp, but the vision of her father’s body and torn throat makes her weak. She collapses into sobs. Raeth holds her without saying a word.

,,

“I know what I want,” Darmi looks into the powerful Daeva’s eyes, “take me with you. Take me away from here forever.”

,,

The two hear a distant explosion from outside and race outside to see the commotion. Smoke is rising from the side of the Black Helix building and an aircraft seemingly disappears into thin air. Not before Darmi gets a snapshot of it on her phone. She gentle pushes Farfel’s body out of the way of the computer and downloads the snapshot to identify the aircraft.

,,

“Ares Hypewire,” Darmi mumbles, “why the fuck would Ares attack BH?”

,,

She takes her eyes off the computer screen. Darmi faces the remains of her life. Her dead father, dead employers, dia-odes covered in blood and puke. She turns back to the computer pulling up the files Fafrel doctored for Raeth and rapidly types out some commands that end with the words ‘AUTO-UPKEEP’. Darmi hits enter. Her eyes tear up and look at Raeth.

,,

“What do we do now? I’m all yours, now.”

[SalmonMax]

Smax had to think fast, but it wasn't to keep up with the speed of the situation; rather it was to map out the new table of probabilities. As wave functions collapsed into certainties, and new potentials swam into focus, he plotted them and tagged them and after a moment turned his head to peer unblinkingly at the others in the aircraft with him. Ares had been a low-priority contact possibility previously; useful primarily as a source of information regarding their clientele and military operations in connection with The Monolith and the mutants associated with it. It was likely they would honor their arrangement with the two Helix scientists, though Smax perceived the potential they would renege if they received a better offer. An offer that Z-Tech would be certain to make, once they realized what had happened.

,,

He would have to be prepared to make concessions to keep them on his side.The upside to this was that if he could accomplish it, he would be in a much more secure position, if not much closer to his goal. The downside was that those concessions might require significant outlay of time and effort, which would not then be used in the pursuit of his purpose here.

,,

But it would be more productive than constantly dodging every corporate who had interest in him.

,,

"Thank you for your timely intervention," Smax said to the soldiers, attempting to inject some of courtesy that organic minds tended to find comforting from him. "If I may ask, what are your orders concerning me?"

[Raeth]

Xhe looked over the dying individuals with a sense of regret, more for Fafrel then the other two, though now that xhe had taken in the full measure of the others mind, xhe knew that it was the experiences that had brought the two of the dying men into his circle of influence. With Fafrel dying, xhe knelt down beside him and gently closed his eyes even as xhe reached though the mindlink still active between them and encapsulated his mind, soothing his last moments and taking in a gestalt all of his life and experiences, encapsulating it within his own mind, due to an idle thought that xhe may or may not follow, before standing and listening to Darmi's request.

,,

The explosion in the distance took xhir by surprise, that would be something to look into later, as xhe turned xhirs attention to the matter at hand. "So be it, you are now mine.. by blood and fire I make you so, the first I have taken into my clan since they were murdered.. " xhe paused a moment and gave her a look over. "Though we shall have to make some changes in you, you are still too frail, I intend to make you much.. tougher."

,,

Darmi blinked then looked alarmed, and Raeth put xhirs arms around her. "Do not worry, it will not hurt, that much I can assure you, if I had done this earlier, or had remained, rather then giving you and your father time to process, then things would have been different, consider this part of my paying the dept owed."

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel took advantage of the offer and went through the cache quickly. Quickly he added a sleek, more powerful counterpart to his already holstered pulse pistol as a second backup.

,,

As his eyes focused on a blue-steel, compact carbine equivalent, a long tube with trigger and grip, Uriel warned Halstead, "Halstead, do us a favor and work on your fieldcraft. And yes, I have everything you gave me."

The ex-spy snatched up the carbine. All weapons on him were rechargeable and had large 'ammo' supplies anyway. Excellent.

,,

"Fuck you, new guy! Maybe I'm so good I don't give a fuck," Halstead looked down at the pulse-carbine in Uriel's hands, "You spray and I'll clean up with my mini-rail. Jonna, cut the fuckers down, if they get close."

More screams and the snapping of bones came from the hallway. Jonna, still only clad in her tactical corset and panties stepped into a pair of combat boots with some sort of Azman tech about them.

"Not a word, guys," Jonna fell into formation with Uriel in front and Halstead in between.

,,

Uriel put on a mask while Halstead did protest too much. Well, congrats to Jonna for an excellent outfit. Too bad the mutants were unlikely to let the sex appeal distract them. With them prepared, Uriel marched out to get his first official look at Simitre mutants. Let the profiling begin with a gun-battle.

,,

Entering the hallway, the already dim lights from before were darker now and the end of the hallway was completely red with blood with four large Simitre mutants tearing into the bum and presumably a tenant of the motel. The mutants seemed completely preoccupied with their meal making them easy targets. Uriel readied his aim to make quick work of the mutants with the pulse-carbine.

Then Halstead sneezed.

,,

The mutants' shadows twisted immediately and expanded to cover the remaining light within the seconds before Halstead finished his nasal discharge. With the hallway being pitch black, the only light came from the three spies' equipment and the orange glow of the mutants' eyes. The mutants shrieked a horrible shrill. The sounds of bare feet slapping the ground rapidly, and claws digging into to the walls came closer.

,,

Damn it, Halstead! Uriel restrained his ire at his companion while smoothly and coolly adapting to the change in the situation.

,,

The hall was mostly utter dark, but with the orange glowing eyes providing immediate distinguishable targets - not as bad as it could be. Uriel simply adjusted his aim a tad and fired off precise, short bursts as he had already planned to.

Behind his face mask, he quietly spoke the word ‘con-gelo’, repeatedly invoking the Paralyze cantrip on the mutants ahead. With their shrill and the face mask, Jonna and Halstead did not hear Uriel saying the cantrip four times in a row. The mutants were easy enough targets for Uriel, even in the dark. The paralyze cantrip helped compensate for the speed of the pulse-carbine verses the speed of the bull-rushing mutants. The mutants got only halfway down the hall when the lights came back on. Halstead still managed to let out a war cry and fire off a few shots of his mini-rail, sending out white-hot streaks of ammunition at the mutants before it was all said and done.

The mutants weren't dead, but badly wounded from Uriel's sharp-shooting. Jonna rapped her blades together to activate the serrated teeth again.

"They heal fast. I'll make this quick," Jonna rushed in to finish them off. She decapitated two without a problem, but the other two had already started to recuperate and stand. Jonna cut one of the recuperated mutants before crashing through a room door to get out of the way.

"SHOOT THE FUCKERS!" Jonna yelled as she dived to safety. The one she cut followed her into the room closely. The other mutant still seemed dazed from its wounds and slumped against the wall.

,,

Jonna's scream filled the hallway.

,,

Uriel could see the remaining mutant's wounds mending themselves, with plume of black shadow-like mist exiting the wounds.

Halstead yelled, "Jonna! We're coming!" He lifted his mini-rail and started to advance slowly towards the recovering mutant. His knees were visibly shaking and he had sweat dripping into his eyes.

,,

Uriel hissed the incantation for Paralyze one more time and pumped several shots into the remaining mutant's head, before turning and hurrying after Jonna. She seems to be far more important than Halstead was really being and more attractive, at that.

,,

Uriel turned in to the room with Jonna and the recuperated mutant. Halstead was close behind and looked over Uriel's shoulder. Both of them saw the mutant holding Jonna by the throat and holding her face mask in it's other hand. Simitre poured off of the mutant and traveled straight into Jonna's screaming mouth. Both of her blades were stuck into the floor at the mutant's feet, the serrated blades still oscillating and cutting deeper into the floor.

,,

The mutant was preoccupied with Jonna, was bigger than the other three and had a key-like tattoo on its chest, laughing with a deep croaking sound.

,,

“No.... not now,” Uriel did not have the patience for losing his few allies at all yet, much less Jonna. He charged up to the distracted large mutant, and reared back, channeling Paralyze once more through his ---WHAM! Headbutt. Then he placed the carbine at point-blank range of the mutant’s forehead and fired.

,,

Jonna laid on the floor coughing Simitre mist out of her lungs. The force of Uriel's headbutt would have crushed the skull of any average being, but the mutant's skull didn't give in the slightest. The mutant was still stunned by the cantrip and caught off guard, making Uriel's kill shot an easy engagement.

,,

Halstead looked horrified, "Jonna. Your call. How do you want to handle this?"

Halstead leveled his mini-rail to Jonna's head. She looked up, still coughing out Simitre.

,,

"Let's go. I'll at least get you guys off planet. I might have that much time left," Jonna stood and smacked Halstead's mini-rail from his hands, "This is mine now. You're completely useless with it."

,,

No, Uriel thought, he would figure something out. Perhaps it was silly to focus so much on letting his hormones rule his planning, but dammit! He was a human being! And being able to solve a case of Simitre poisoning would be of great help. "Ok. To Mariz."

[Raeth]

Moving from the girl, xhe reached out and grasped the case which had the diamonds in it, then handed it off to Darmi, then looked around the room with the three dead men laying on the ground, before taking Darmi's other hand, and leading the way out, xhe needed to move the girl to a safer place, and it would better to do the work while she was asleep, it would take hours and hours of work to do.. this wasn't the quick work of simply unleashing the umbra, this was fine delicate work that was more akin to crafting spells or designing a new computer program, the sort that would take a great deal of concentration and care. And this place wasn't the best place to do that kind of work, xhe wanted somewhere quite, protected and safe, where nothing could interrupt xhir.. some place appropriate for ritual as well, for making Darmi part of xhirs clan, as well as working the changes xhe had in mind.

,,

Moving forward to the door, Raeth hesitated a moment, there was danger out there, considerable danger, the world outside had just gotten much more.. chaotic. It wasn't hesitation with regards to fear, it was hesitation with regards to planning, xhe would need to move carefully in order to properly protect xhirs charge, until the desired changes were worked in her, Darmi was vulnerable. So preparing to make what protective actions xhe must, Raeth moved out of the Darmi's place, heading for a safer location.

[JoeChuck]

SMAX

The pilot of the Hypewire introduces himself as Malik Kashin. He tells Smax not to worry about ranks or titles when dealing with Ares Inc.

,,

"You'll know who is in charge by how loud they are!" Kashin blurts over his shoulder.

,,

"CHA-HOW!" the rest of the craft's inhabitants shout in unison.

,,

Malik Kashin briefs Smax in the deal Copper and Glaud cut with Ares. Basically, the two Black Helix Mids decided that Smax was indeed a "living" entity and needed to protect Smax from the inevitable decision made by the BH Ups. Copper and Glaud released Smax's exact location in the Black Helix building to Ares Inc. in exchange for jobs in the mega-corporation. Ares Inc. is interested in Smax's weaponry and aren't inclined to try to tear Smax apart to figure it out.

,,

"Despite genetic-engineering and medical shortcuts, Ares Inc. still approaches weapon development with observation and trial by error. We won't fucking rip you apart find out your secrets. Plus we wouldn't be able to figure out to put you back together, if we fucked you up too much," Malik grins a little too much at the last bit.

,,

"Copper and Glaud should be on Mariz a couple of days after we arrive as long as no one gets delayed," the co-pilot interjects, but quickly snaps his down to a couple of screens resembling radar. Tiny blips are starting to show up on the screens, "Those ain't ships."

,,

Smax looks out the front of the Hypewire and his threat detectors immediately pinpoint seven small unidentified bodies moving closer to the Hyperwire with more coming. Smax switches to view the objects with noosphere and as he guessed the masses are Simitre mutants floating aimlessly in space.

,,

"Can't take the long way, boys. We're going straight through," Malik shouts, "LOCK AND FUCKING LOAD! WE GOT FLOATERS!!"

,,

RAETH

The Simitre is falling into Centrus' atmosphere making a beautiful, but terrifying display similar to Aurora Borealis. Raeth takes in the sight, but is confused at the amount of Eidolon in the atmosphere. Xhe takes his eyes off the sky and looks back into the Pishes' cyber-bunker.

,,

Darmi nervously puts on a modified spacesuit to protect herself from the Simitre. She gathers things that she calls essentials and Raeth provides little assistance with carrying the bundle. Darmi rushes out of the her once-was home and catches up to Raeth. Xhe expresses to Darmi that they need someplace safer and quieter than the bunker to perform the rituals to make her stronger and a worthy addition to xhir's clan. Darmi shrugs and starts tapping away at a key board mounted to her left forearm. Text fills her glass face-plate and arrows start blinking.

,,

"This way," Darmi lurches in a clumsy walk because of the modified spacesuit, "my dad recently hacked into some Syndicate broad's system a couple of weeks ago. He got the goods on the where her safe-house is. After seeing what you did to Teago, I don't a little miss super spy will be a problem. Plus, it's only a few blocks away. SHIT!"

,,

Darmi turns the corner and the Umbral Star shifts in color giving Raeth warning enough to pull Darmi back into the alley.

,,

"I've never seen so many," Darmi whispers and start to breath heavy.

,,

Raeth looks around the corner at the Simitre mutants and is surprised at the amount of Eidolon encompassing them. Raeth was for sure that the Simitre had to been attuned to Umbra because of the mutations being reported. This was troubling and intriguing. Xhe had to get a closer look at the 14 mutants feasting on Azman flesh in the middle of the street.

,,

URIEL

Jonna puts her mask back on out of habit, "Halstead, did you drive your Camanco over here?"

,,

"Yep. I thought could use the cage in case boywonder over here turned out to be too good, too be true," Halstead checks his pockets and pulls out the ignition sensor with a less-than-appropriate key chain declaring him the BIG TWAT IN CHARGE, "I'm driving."

,,

"Good!It's about time we show Uriel why we keep you around," Jonna looks down at her panties, "one sec, guys."

,,

She runs down the hall and is back in a pair of tight fitting black pants. Halstead sighs and says that it isn't an improvement. "Let's move."

,,

"Take us to Gark's. He always gives a good deal of shuttles, " Jonna says to Halstead.

,,

Halstead corrects her, "Gark always givings ME a good deal."

,,

The trio start to walking out the front door of the motel and Uriel feels a strong stir in his gut. Strong enough make him believe that another Warden of the Grand Stair is near.

,,

OOC FOR EVERYONE

Smax and Raeth- we'll resolve your situations in the Fight PM.

Uriel-sit tight and I'll PM you when we're ready for you.

[JoeChuck]

SMAX

The Ares commandos start readying their weapons and yelling out obscene phrases to each other to boost their spirits. Smax takes in the full calculation of 'floaters' coming toward the Hypewire. The end count is twenty with five already within a mile of the ship. Malik flips the switch to ready the Hypewire's weaponry, but shakes his head and flips it off.

,,

"The Hypewire doesn't have enough energy to get us back to Mariz and blast these fuckers back to Immotus," Malik looks down at the radar that is filling up with tiny blips, "fuck-a-duck."

,,

Smax set separate processes to begin analyzing the sensor data of the approaching mutants. They represented a departure from the humanoid form far in excess of other recorded variations. It would be instructive to capture one alive, but that seemed...unlikely in this situation. They were not prepared or equipped to undertake a capture mission safely.

,,

As Ares was engaged out of interest in his weapon systems, it seemed prudent to give them a taste of what could be offered. Sharing data on his systems was problematic, of course. Caution would be required. However, the mission to understand the simitre and remove its threat took precedence. It was likely that little of their research would yield immediate results. Knowing how the Omniblaster worked wouldn't let them create power generation systems capable of fueling one, or manufacturing processes capable of building one.

,,

It would set them on the right path though, and it would likely help them optimize and enhance their native technology.

,,

Unavoidable at this point.

,,

"I will need a secure location outside the hull of the ship I can fire from," he reported. "I do not require atmosphere or other life support."

The Omniblaster whirred to life; several cylinders unfolding out of the raised cowling on his right arm, and the front aperture opening to allow its barrel to extend out. Electrical arcs crackled briefly around the gunmetal grey of it as it bled off some accumulated environmental charge in preparation for firing.

,,

The Azman with the mohawk is already fitting a well-lit helmet over his head and clamps it airtight. He lifts a large gun that flickers to life pulsing with red and purple lights. The hums and ends with a high pitched similar to an electric drill going haywire.

"I'm Nolo. Wanna keep score?" The large Azman grins as the other check over his gear.

Malik flips a couple of switches and a door opens to a decompression chamber leading to the outside of the ship. Nolo steps inside. He looks at Smax and the Omniblaster.

"Let's see what you can do, Tin Man," Nolo jerks his head toward the door lead to the outside of the ship.

Smax and Nolo stand poised outside the hull of the Hypewire. Malik speaks through an intercom, "full-steam ahead, fuckers. We ain't wasting any time getting to Mariz!"

Nolo fires off a couple of shots. The gun sends out flares of raw energy laced with electromagnetic qualities. The end result is spiked microwave beam that cuts through three Floaters, but Nolo is no surgeon with the weapon. The hurt mutants can be seen writhing and Smax can see small traces of noosphere already healing the monsters.

,,

Smax accessed the soldier's communication network, and reported, "They will recover from non-lethal injuries. Concentrate your fire on one at a time until it is destroyed, then move to the next."

,,

Aim was hardly necessary. They were large, and moved in very predictable straight-line paths. He configured the 'Blaster for laser fire. Its onboard laser was scalable in power to be applicable for any purpose from targeting and range finding, to burning through plate steel. He selected the closest simitre mutant and targeted its head.

,,

The beam of coherent light, shifted far into the ultraviolet, was invisible and inaudible in space. The only sign of what he did was the vaporization of one bloated, misshapen head. He paused then, to assess the results of the hit and determine if the loss of the head was in fact lethal...or if more drastic measures would be required.

,,

The mutant that Smax shot does not heal back. Its lifeless corpse bounces off the hull of the ship. In the distance, Smax and Nolo see more shapes coming. Some mutants and others are dead Azmani.

,,

Nolo growls as he continues to shoot the floating mutants, "Where are they coming from? There must be a shipwreck somewhere out there. Can you detect or scan for shit like that?"

,,

Two noticeable jostles of the Hypewire gives Smax and Nolo the heads up that some floaters have attached to the hull.

,,

"You check it out and I'll keep anymore from attaching," Nolo grunts and begins shooting the closest mutants with his maser rifle.

,,

Even if Nolo isn't killing them with every shot, he's at least deflecting them away from the ship.

,,

RAETH

,,

The Simitre mutants seem to be preoccupied with feeding to have noticed Raeth coming around the corner. The Umbra Star is sending huge waves of warning to Raeth.

,,

Raeth would be more willing to investigate these mutants, if xhe wasn't trying to escort Darmi to a safer location to begin the ritual. With facing the mutants being a dangerous thing for xhir to step into, let alone Darmi, xhe contemplates find a better way around.

,,

Darmi sighs in relief when Raeth steps back into the alley. She reconfigures the GPS to find a different route using less used streets and alleyways. Raeth and Darmi round the corner to a motel that the GPS led them to. The Umbral Star sends a wave of excitement to Raeth. Another Warden of the Grand Stair is near.

,,

The presence of another warden makes Raeth somewhat curious and after a moment xhe decides to enter the building.

URIEL & RAETH

,,

Just as Uriel gets the pain in his gut, Raeth enters the motel that Darmi led them to. Both the wardens instantly recognize each other for what they are without ever meeting before. Halstead is twirling his car keys on his index finger and whistles out loud as he passes Raeth.

,,

“Demur colony?” Halstead’s attempt to flirt with Raeth, “you’re insane to have gone out there with any protection from the Simitre. If you got a death wish, I’m the man of your dreams just ask Jonna over there?”

,,

“Get the car ready, you ape!” Jonna is sweating and leaning on the wall next to Uriel.

,,

Darmi steps all the way into the building taking her helmet off, “she doesn’t look so good and neither does this hallway.” Darmi toes a severed arm out of her way.

,,

Raeth can see the Simitre working its way through Jonna’s blood. The Simitre is so similar to Eidolon, but corrupted and weird. The order that the Simitre is fixing in the Azman woman’s genetics is causing chaos not only out in the streets, but within the Azmani as well. Two halves of a single species fighting for their place to exist in the same body. One half trying to complete the bloodline’s predestined path, the other trying to remain imperfect and growing.

,,

The only thing that takes Raeth’s attention from the infected Azman is Uriel taking Jonna’s arm and moving down the hall. The two wardens’ eyes meet as if asking an unspoken question of what now.

[SalmonMax]

"Yes. A moment please," Smax replied. A small metal boom extended vertically out of his left shoulder about ten inches. It had small lenses and emission ports in it. A combination of instruments was housed within, but Smax was most interested in the highly accurate radar and lidar systems. Quickly all incoming mutants were labeled, tagged, and their relative velocities measured.

,,

If they couldn't propel themselves, then their point of origin would be a simple matter of extrapolating it from the convergence of their past courses.

,,

As he performed the calculations, he diverted power from the laser of the Omniblaster to the electromagnetic accelerator. Though the recoil might require some course correction from the pilot, the impact of the rounds would slow and deflect the creatures...making full kills unnecessary.

,,

He began taking shots at approaching simitre mutants until the location of their origin point flashed in his field of vision.

,,

"I have coordinates."

[JoeChuck]

SMAX

Smax relays the coordinates to the Hypewire's navigation system. Malik looks them over and sends out a general SOS ping.

,,

"Holy fuck! Its coming from a commercial Herc transporting civilians from Centrus to Namit. They got caught in the same Simitre cloud that followed us to Centrus," Malik reports, "the Herc is split in two with survivors and mutants in both halves. Looks like we're making a detour afterall. That is if those Bolkers on the underside of the ship don't tear us apart first. I still can't turn the Hypewire's weapons on and we'll have to coast as much as possible to the wrecked Herc."

[Raeth]

"This is completely wrong." Raeth spoke as xhe looked around, the Umbra and the Eidolon were mixing in ways that xhe had never seen before, they shouldn't be interacting in this way. "Of course it's wrong, is the Simitre, or did you mean something else?" Darmi as they moved though the streets avoiding the mutants and making their way to their destination. Raeth considered her for a moment before responding, once xhe had been shaman, before becoming D'xhir, and one of the duties of the shaman had been to teach. "This isn't the best time or place to explain this, but Eidolon and Umbra are the right and left hands of creation, they are both nessary, if one existed without the other, either all existence would calcify into stasis, or entropy would destroy all. Your Simitre has way more of the Eidolon within it then I was expecting... I shall have to look into that."

,,

As xhe finished talking them came upon the motel and Raeth sensed the presence of the other Warden, moving to take the lead as they entered, and then encountering the other Warden and allies. For the first time, Raeth got a full glimpse of someone infected, but not yet changed by the Simitre, and even as xhe was looking, Halstead started to flirt with xhir, no doubt because of xhirs present rather attractive female form, and xhe turned to look at him a moment, before turning xhirs gaze back to Joanna and Uriel.

,,

"One who has mastered the Umbra can not be altered without allowing it, I am better protected then you are in your suit, Azmani." It no doubt would make little sense to Halstead, but the one of them who was a warden should have some degree of understanding of what xhir was saying. "Besides, you are traveling with one already infected.. " Raeth's gaze was focused on Joanna, but seemed more like xhe was looking through her then at her.. which was correct, Raeth was tracking the influence of the Umbra in the woman as xhe began to speak again.

,,

Raeth met Uriels eyes as xhe made xhirs next offer. "It's risky, but I may be able to put a stop to part of the change that is flowing though her, drawing out the effects of the Umbra, which would allow the Eidolon to work without the influence of the Umbra within her body. In theory I could also put a stop to the Eidolon shifts, but that would make it even more risky, sense I would be trying to do two things at once, stopping the Umbra shifts and countering the Eidolon at the same time. It could also kill you, or accelerate the change, I've never seen the twin forces of existence work together this way."

,,

Darmi spoke up at that point even as the other two Azmani were looking at Raeth like xhe was made. "I know it sounds crazy, but I've already seen her do things that are impossible, if she says she might be able to do this, she might actually be able to do it."

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel kept shepherding Jonna along. He had a cover to maintain, and this new Warden had little sense of subtlety. "No thank you...." It was quick, as if, leave the potentially odd pair alone. Secretly, his fingers caressed his hidden G-Mobile, as Uriel focused magic silently to connect their minds, his and Raeth.

,,

*Can't you handle a simple thing like discretion?* The after-feeling was annoyed and irritated. *Thank you for the information, but I'm not assuming anything unlike you. There's someone else, potentially. SMAX with Ares on Mariz. Perhaps he can at least keep something on the down low, unlike you. Now, I'm off to Mariz.*

,,

OOC

Hanging Spell List: Bolt, Replicate Object, Immobility, Invisibility, Weaken, Physical Ward, Barrier, Magic Drain, Psychic Ward, Material Ward, Teleport, SLOT EMPTY

[Raeth]

Taken aback Raeth nevertheless responded quickly *Discretion?! These people need action, not discretion. In these circumstances, discretion serves only you, it is selfish, not compassionate. As to someone else? Are you certain you can reach them in time to be capable of action? Because it is folly to certain help for potential help, but so be it, if you fail to reach them in time, their blood is on your hands, because you were too proud to accept help without it being in your terms.* There was surprise and anger in the mental response, and it was ended with a sort of snap as Raeth cut off further contact, refusing to hear anything further across the mental link.

,,

OOC

Was going to wait for Joe, but he said to go ahead and respond to Uriel whenever in PM's

[JoeChuck]

Uriel

"Who the hell does that bitch think she is? Immotus incarnate?" Jonna spits out as Uriel ushers her out the door of the safe-house motel, "there's no cure for Simitre."

,,

Uriel's head actually hurts a tiny bit from Raeth cutting off the mindlink so abruptly. Nothing that makes him lose focus on the situation at hand, but enough to know not to trespass in the female Warden's mind again. Outside the motel, Uriel catches Halstead snapping a cellphone shut quickly inside their transportation.

,,

It's a boxy looking vehicle littered with several toggles and switches on the inside. Halstead flips one and a door in the back of the vehicle slides out with room for Jonna to lay on it. Uriel places her down and the door slides back into place with Jonna inside looking sedated. Halstead flips another switch and a door opens on the passenger side of Uriel.

,,

Uriel pauses to debate whether to get in or heed the advice of the indiscreet Warden.

,,

"One who has mastered the Umbra? What the fuck was that bitch talking about?" Halstead snorts, "Fucking freaks come out during Simitre falls. Gettin' in or what?"

[JoeChuck]

Raeth

Darmi walks down the hall following the navigation in her helmet display. Raeth stares at the other Warden as he leaves with his companions. Raeth shakes xhir's head at a missed chance to learn more about the Simitre's effects before a completed mutation. Too high of a risk to expose Darmi to the Simitre, if xhe couldn't remove it based off xhir's theories.

,,

"Bongo!" Darmi stops at a plain looking door and starts feeling around after the knob doesn't seem to work, "G-agents usually have pretty sophisticated locks to their safe-houses. I don't know if we'll be able to get in."

,,

Raeth takes xhir's gaze off the door leading outside and goes to Darmi. Time for Darmi to find out that little gets in a Warden's way. Raeth disables the locks in short order. The locks were mostly electronic making them easy to foil.

,,

Inside the all white safe-house, Raeth is somewhat please by the look of it. Darmi re-calibrates the inner door to the safe-house to open with a command from her wrist-cpu and locks the door. She also takes off her modified spacesuit with a sigh of relief.

,,

"I hate wearing that thing," Darmi eyeballs the gun cabinet, "oh! goodies!"

,,

She rifles through the cabinet picking out a sidearm similar to the one Fukhed had back at the Pish bunker. Darmi also grabs a face-mask like the ones the trio were wearing out in the hallway.

,,

"No more Simitresuit," Darmi muses, "Awesome!"

,,

Darmi is almost running around the safe-house fiddling with all the gadgets and tech left behind by the G-agents. She isn't worried about the agents coming back feeling completely safe in the presence of Raeth. Darmi reveals the coffee table to be a high sophisticated computer much more powerful than Fafrel's back at the bunker.

,,

"Okay, so we are here, " Darmi says without looking away from the table display, "what now?"

,,

ooc

your post was perfect and gave some more to play off. With the new posting format, you guys can post as many times as you want. Any questions about how things would play out with rankings or NPCs just pm me before posting and I'll let you know or you could stop your post after the action and I'll post the outcome.

[JoeChuck]

Smax

"Nolo! Smax! Seriously do something about those fucking mutants on the underside of the Hypewire!" Malik shouts over the ship's communicator, "they're getting close to the oxygen emitters!"

[Uriel Arcadia]

Uriel got in, but then rapped the door holding Jonna in. "Let me in the back." Halstead gave him a look, but Uriel's adamant expression cowed any opposition and Uriel took his seating there. He watched her, sedated as he ruminated on the unnecessarily irate response of the other Warden.

,,

She didn't seem to understand the importance of keeping low-key, much less being able to work things out with others without running into the obvious suspension of disbelief issues. Uriel's own credibility lay in not being overtly recognized into adhering with such craziness as it was perceived.

,,

Besides, she seemed to miss the wider ramifications of her own words. The Eidolon 'doing its work', if that, the perfect, orderly force of reality was behind the Simitre... that had.... concerning implications, though what and why was not clear. If it was changing Jonna....

,,

Uriel sat, legs crossed in the lotus, as he began to work on his mystic weaving. What he wanted was, as a test, a spell that could halt the change of the Eidolon, focused enough for that merely. If he could do this during the drive without any observation, and it worked... then nobody would tell the difference yet for a bit.

,,

And until Mariz, at least.

,,

OOC

Crafting a custom spell, slightly modified version of Physical Ward. Instead of protecting against damage, it halts changes in the body, and with the Linchpin to specialize on the Eidolon to hold it back.

Call it: Transformational Ward?

[SalmonMax]

Smax experimentally placed its hand on the external surface of the ship and tried to magnetize strongly enough to cling to it. As he suspected though, the vessel's armor was some kind of composite material. There was enough ferrous metal to get some 'stickiness,' but not enough to compensate for manuevers.

,,

"Nolo," he said, "Do you wish to hold the anchor line, or to go under the ship yourself? Either of us should be well capable of clearing the hostiles away."

[Raeth]

Regret for a moment filled Raeth as the other warden continued on his way, regret for missed possibilities and opportunities, but xhe let it go after a moment more, there would be other chances and other wardens in xhirs future, and maybe xhe would meet this one again, after all. Xhe was still somewhat irritated by being chastised by the other warden too, over something that was really a unimportant matter from xhirs viewpoint.

,,

When they got to the safehouse and Darmi began to get worried about getting in, xhe smiled slightly. "This is a simple matter for me, doors and keys are natural to one who is attuned as I am." Xhe said even as xhe opened the door and let both of them in, pausing a moment to watch as Darmi seals the door from the inside, and turns to look though the room, finding everything here was quite useful. Xhe glanced at Darmi as she moved though the safehouse and let her do whatever she had too to feel safer and more at home, not saying too much until Darmi asked her question.

,,

"Now, we make it official. We exchange blood, then seal the wounds with fire. It is ritual, I am be last of my clan, both chief and shaman, and now D'xhir to all Daeva, the ritual of binding is important. I shall summon the fire, then we shall carry out the ritual." The spell to summon the fire took a bit of time, time that Darmi used to ask a few more questions and then watch as Raeth began to work out the details of the spell, ending with a flame hovering in the kitchen of the safehouse, one without smoke, sense Darmi had explained about the fire prevention systems.

,,

Xhe got out a knife from the kitchen area and cut open xhirs hand, so that dark blood began to well up, then gave it to Darmi, waiting until she did the same, then held out her hand to let their blood combine. "By blood we are joined, by fire we are bound." As xhe ended the words, xhe directed the flame to her own hands and Darmi's, cauterizing the wound a leaving a scar on both hands, though the one on xhirs was voluntary and always would be.

,,

"Now, we are bound." Raeth gave Darmi a smile even as xhe continued to speak. "You took that fairly well for someone of a more sophisticated society then the one I came from." Taking Darmi's hand in xhirs own, and banishing the flame, carefully working healing into the hand to insure that the pain passed quickly. "The next stage is going to involve rebuilding you on the cellular level, it will work best if you get yourself cleaned up and then sleep, this is going to take hours, during which you will need to stay mostly still, much like posing for a painting, sleep is the best way to insure that, I can insure that you remain asleep for the duration."

[JoeChuck]

URIEL

The drive to Gark's took a total of 4 and a half hours. Simitre continued to fall on to Centrus the entire time. Halstead proved to be an exceptionally capable driver. He weaved their way out of the city with only a few close calls with mutants chasing them or jumping in front of the car. Unlike in the hallway back at the motel, Halstead never broke a sweat while driving. Mutants kept Halstead busy enough that he never noticed Uriel drawing in raw magically energy to attempt crafting a spell to slow the Simitre.

,,

Once out in open country, Halstead flips on the radio and stops on a news broadcast about a distress call from a commercial-passenger Herc that got caught in the Simitre cloud:

"Early reports have an estimated 200 dead or infected. The Herc was transporting civilians to Mariz, Capro, Bolari, and Vecna. An estimated 100 survivors are still fighting for their lives in the separate halves of the destroyed ship. More recent reports are saying that High Cleric Gerard Hulivon and a band of Clout monks are making their way to the wreckage to save the 100 survivors and destroy the mutant threat. Immotus be with them."

Halstead turns the dial to a station playing some Azmani pop boy-band and he looks in the back. Uriel and Jonna seem to be asleep for the moment. Halstead takes out his cell phone and beings texting. Uriel is in fact mediating and crafting the an experimental spell. The other Warden said that the Simitre was the result of the Eidolon and Umbra reacting to each other in unexpected way. The Eidolon is bring about the changes and Umbra is fighting that change which is entirely backwards. The Simitre is either a type of magic brought about by Eidolon and Umbra or a completely new power that is able to switch Eidolon/Umbra characteristics. At any rate, Uriel is going to craft a spell similar to one he already knows and focus it on preventing change rather than injury.

,,

Crafting the spell took up most of Uriel's concentration, but was able to over hear the parts of the radio broadcast and pick up on Halstead's change in concentration from the road to his cellphone. The spell took the entire car ride to Gark's, but it was well-made and should serve as a temporary solution once cast on Jonna.

,,

Halstead puts his cellphone back in his jacket pocket and continues the drive. The car slows down as Uriel opens his eyes. He sees a large hangar-like building surrounded by massive fences with barbed wire. Halstead drives up to the gate and yells at the guard to open it. They drive through and Uriel notices the sweat on Halstead's cheeks. There are four vehicles similar to Halstead's parked with several men standing outside them. Uriel counts twelve in all.

,,

Halstead flips another toggle and Uriel hears a click noise, "you and that crazy bitch back at the motel knew each other or in the very least work in the same circles. What's the Umbra and how are they working on a cure?"

,,

Halstead flips another switch and the compartment with Jonna and Uriel fills with a cloud of gas, "Sleep on it, prick! I'm going to make my career out of your secrets."

,,

Uriel fights to stay awake, but the cloud of gas is unrelenting and everything goes dark fast.

,,

The cool air once outside of the car wakes Uriel up as two men drag him across the gravel lot. A third man is carrying Jonna over his shoulder and copping perverted feels as the rest laugh. Halstead seems to be talking to someone in one of the other vehicles.

,,

Uriel contemplates playing possum or going to war on these assholes. The one feeling up Jonna is almost making the decision all too simple.

[JoeChuck]

SMAX

"I'm bigger. You go," Nolo grunts as he fires off several more shots at the approaching floaters. He also toss a cable from his hip with a clip at the end over to Smax.

,,

Malik yells over the intercom, "Fuck! They just took out one of our stabilizer jets! Fuck those assholes up, NOW!

[Uriel Arcadia]

Almost too easy, but Uriel resisted the temptation. Halstead got the drop on him this once, but it was a stupid mistake. He'd announced exactly what was going on, that he'd play any side of the fence without qualms, and now Uriel could deal with him without any remorse or harm to the operation.

,,

And that the new friends of Halstead would seek what he knew. As if they could pry it from him. Not that it would get that far, but it gave Uriel and hopefully Jonna some breathing space before the Warden's next move. But more information, on the who, what, when, where and why, and also Halstead's possessions that could be appropriated from his corpse.

[SalmonMax]

,,

SMAX

"I'm bigger. You go," Nolo grunts as he fires off several more shots at the approaching floaters. He also toss a cable from his hip with a clip at the end over to Smax.

,,

Malik yells over the intercom, "Fuck! They just took out one of our stabilizer jets! Fuck those assholes up, NOW!

,,

,,

Smax catches the cable and holds onto it with his non-weapon arm hand as he leaves the protective embrace of the cupola and manuevers himself around to the ventral side of the spacecraft with quick, careful touches to the outer hull and tugs on the tether.

,,

He surveys the situation there for a moment before deciding on a course of action, then gives himself a shove towards the mutants who are gathering there; protected by the bulk of the ship from the gunner position, and clawing and chewing at the armored panels to get at the sensitive systems underneath. One of the attitude thrusters is indeed rent open and venting oxygen. Another isn't far from such a fate as the composite plates are bending apart.

,,

Omniblaster extended, Smax sets the electromagnetic coils to a containment funnel, and begins shunting bursts of plasma from his fusion core out through the weapon. The magnetic fields keep the incredibly hot ionized gasses from vaporizing the weapon systems, and help keep the plasma from spreading out too quickly. What emerges from the weapon is a superheated plume of raw atomic material. It quickly attenuates beyond the muzzle of the blaster, but it has sufficient range and spread to encompass entire groups of mutants at a time.

,,

Each blast also gives Smax a propulsive impulse, so he pairs each one with a mirroring blast behind him. This effect becomes useful as the mutants register his threat, and begin bounding across the hull plates towards him. Like a deadly squid, he uses his plasma blast both to keep his distance as well as immolating his pursuers.

,,

Finally his voice came back, "The threat on the undercarriage is neutralized. One moment while I effect repairs."

,,

The ship was not the ship. Smax understood this in a way very few other beings in this world would as he prepared his noetic interface. In the space between his hands a holographic spread of symbols and displays unfolded in whorls of fractals and mathematically precise iterations; an alien construct by a computer intelligence, for a computer intelligence. Strange and beautiful and incomprehensible to anything else.

,,

Smax lacked the processessing capacity to resolve the full characteristics of noetic templates. He was aware they existed...that the data that organized iterative successive universes had a source...but they were still outside his reach. However, like any universe, the data here was corrupted by a thousand successions of random chance dating back to the formation of the cosmos. This ship was just one expression of 'shipness,' one of many.

,,

It was far less precise of a representation of the original dataset than Smax could concieve of, which meant there was substantial room for improvement.

,,

The noetic interface was something Smax wasn't entirely sure if he had created, or discovered. The data streaming from the noosphere could be accessed in a kind of substrate, and the fluctuations in it caused by entropy could be compensated for. Not COMPLETELY. The processing power required for that approached infinite as the level of corruption approached zero. But Smax had found a point just above where the returns started diminishing where the results were generally quite sufficient.

,,

His hands moved, the noetic data began to change...and the reality of the universe shuddered and changed along with it.