18th June
10:24 GMT -6
The door to the Hawks' hangar flashes as
something explodes on the other side. I know the Hawks haven't warded their property so the fact that my ring scans are being so unhelpful is decidedly irritating. I've been attacked twice more on my journey -negative impact on each side- and as I got closer the damage that the house has taken has become increasingly apparent. How did I not feel the
vibrations from this?
"Sirs, I'm outside of the door.
"
"Have you-?
Eh. Have you had any success in working out how to harm them?"
"Not really, sir.
" Hitting them is easy, but they generally just disappear afterwards. No idea why the one which died like it was supposed to didn't do that… I didn't hit a different location or use a different technique.
"My best suggestion would be to vary the type of assault until you find something they're
not immune to.
"
Infrared shows me nothing, because they
have designed this place to control heat transfers. I'm not going to risk sonic pulsing people with hearing as acute as theirs while they are actively engaged in combat. Gravity sensor shows me… Nothing much useful. The Nth metal stands out, but it stands out so much that it overshadows everything else.
Need to find time to
practise with that…
"I thought you-.
Hrah!" Ms Thal's still fighting then. Good to know that her injury isn't too debilitating. "I thought you had anti-magic weapons for things like this!"
"They appear and disappear too fast.
" The first slight hum from my railgun and they vanish from sight. I've never bothered with
melee anti-magic weapons. Possible oversight?
"Sir, do you need me-?
"
"Orange Lantern, search the house. Find the creature that is controlling the smaller ones. Destroy it."
I nod inside my armour.
"Sir.
" Put the directional magic sensor back on the 'want' pile. Maybe my next generation of power armour should be magic based? I turn away from the door, orange filaments radiating away in all directions. Assuming that the smaller ones are being continuously directed and not merely overseen, assimilating them is the best option for tracking their master.
Numbness, and for a moment I feel a powerful vertigo before the ring takes over from my clearly malfunctioning senses again. Proprioception and balance? Interesting.
"While you're doing
that, do you know anyone who would want to steal our ship?"
"Every technology company on the planet, sir.
" What sort of range would minion control have?
"Though of all of the names in my files, only Nylor Truggs is familiar with Thanagarian technology.
"
I start walking back through the house. Okay, minion control can have infinite range if the minions are bound closely to the caster, but the sensory deprivation effect doesn't appear to be coming from them. I didn't detect high levels of magic when I entered the building, so no one put some sort of ritual on the building in advance. That suggests proximity. I can't do Globe-Enshrouding Eyes without the Ophidian, but I should be able to fill a big enough volume of space with filaments to force whatever it is out of hiding. On the other hand, that Jizzer we ran into during the Star Conqueror incident could drain my power. Whoever set this up is considerably more intelligent than a drug-addled drop out. They would have seen that I was around before making this attack, and I doubt that they would have pressed on without some way to inconvenience me.
Or am I being too paranoid?
Everything goes dark again.
I add a construct psi-baffle. To no avail.
"Do you believe what he said about the future?"
"Yes. It's logical.
" I float upwards towards the first floor with my rune stone out.
"Given the Thanagarian Empire's rate of expansion and the time span involved, the Earth becoming a protectorate after getting stomped on by the Reach makes sense.
"
"As proud as I am of my people, I don't believe for a moment that we could force the Reach off their prize."
"We're a long way from Reach space. They might well have just taken what they wanted and left.
" Or
the Orange Lantern Corps killed so much of their Empire off they couldn't support the outpost any longer.
"How are you managing in the dark, sir?
"
"Sonic-" A tiny Demon twists itself through my filaments, stabbing at my head. "-sensors-" I shift the filaments, empowering them. "-in our-" It hits one. "-helmets."
Assimilate.
It evaporates before the ring can even report a connection. Properly dead. Well, as properly dead as Demons get.
"I have had little cause to
use it in this
fashion since training."
What changed? Filaments are
weak and
cheap. It's how I can afford to burn ring charge spreading them over such a large area. Vulnerability to orange light? Are they some kind of magic construct instead of being minor Demons, and the spells granting them existence got overloaded?
The lights come back on and… I can't smell anything. Odd…
Wait. Lights were off and it got hurt by orange light. Touch was gone and it got hurt by physical force.
…
How do I kill something with
smell?
A Demon flashes into existence and lunges at me, shattering my filaments. I fill the air between us with Skunk anal gland secretions, because if any smell can kill-. The Demon goes limp and then evaporates head to toe.
Ah. That wasn't so hard.
"Sirs, it appears that the Demons are vulnerable to attacks based on whatever sense is being blocked. Use sonics when you're deaf, lasers when you can't see and physical force when you can't feel.
"
It's Ms Thal who responds. "
Because of course we
have those things in easy
reach!"
Okay, I've filled the whole house with filaments now. That just leaves the immediate outside. I take a small phase-drone out of subspace, set it to rematerialise after ten seconds and send it upwards. Appearing inside a wall just once was plenty of times for me. I swing the rune stone a few times just in case… No. Return it to my pouch.
The drone reports no problem. I go invisible, phase and fly up after it, passing through the upper level of the Hawks' home, the loft and finally the roof before passing into the open air. Nothing
visible. Now, with a combination of phasing, invisibility and scry wards I'm reasonably confident that if there's anything here it can't detect me. Down side, I can't detect
them. The rune stone probably could, but it would become visible if I tried to use it. I turn slowly in the air, empathic vision turned up far enough that the dashes of colour I see from across the city actually start feeling… A little uncomfortable. Still nothing from my immediate environment. I turn in the air so that I can face downwards. The Hawks are clearly visible, moving around five-. Seven-. Four wisps of light I assume to be their attackers. Okay, that just means that there's a better ward on the boss Demon.
…
I'm not coming up with anything better than 'filaments everywhere'. Mass stealth drones with magic detection would work, as moving through the space the Demon occupied would trigger a response. But I don't have those and I don't think they'd be energy efficient…
Filaments it-. No, strong Demon and I've got plenty of power. Don't do something that would allow it to disengage.
An orange dome fifty metres in diameter appears around me as I drop invisibility and return to phase. The edge of the dome isn't a simple construct, it's shimmering and glowing with the orange light. Anything touches it, it gets an immediate burst of orange light and assimilation starts. It would take long enough that if someone is stupid enough to walk up to the outside they don't get turned into a construct immediately, but quickly enough that I don't think a Demon would want to fly through it.
Then I turn the dome's interior orange as well.
"Radiant Orange Presence!
"
If you absolutely must call your attacks, then
do so after you use them.
"Nothing, honey."
