@Broovian My problem is most of those are negative, and are a bit too random.
More like says hi to Batman before anyone else knows he's there, and only later realizes the strangeness. Same with always knowing how magic tricks are done.
Can see in the dark is an obvious one, but not being able to see shadows is a crazy disadvantage, like wandering around somewhere and forgetting to tune on the lights until someone else comes by. Same with drinking near boiling beverages because space has massive temperature swings, not because she makes things cold.
There's many possibilities, and I don't think this story has the time to explore them.
Less random, more slice of life. Something you'd see from an anime about her learning about her half god ancestry because her powers are randomly coming in and making her mundane life interesting. They're supposed to be that way, they're gags. They show she's still getting the hang of her powers, like Danny Fenton's pants going phasing through his belt, or Virgil having fight his way out of his blanket in the morning because static cling.
The planet of Rashashoon was an odd mix of mostly arid deserts with a large number of lush oases scattered across it. The largest of these hosted the planet's capitol, creatively named Raggashoon. It possessed the planet's largest spaceport, which was useful as it also happened to be one of the largest trade cities in the Vega system. And from my position sitting atop one of the taller buildings I was able to get a good look at it all.
Aside from the roads, there wasn't a single straight line to be seen in the city proper, the buildings all curving out or in, or framed in spires or arches. Tall as any building in New York, the skyscrapers matched this aesthetic with ample space between them to allow all the sky car traffic. They were made out of a sort of stone-ceramic composite that was an off white color. It gave them a sort of shimmer in the daylight sun, but it made the metropolis seem monochrome during the day.
But at night…
I watched the pastel blues and pinks rippled up the side of the nearby building, illuminated from lights at the base. The waves of color seamlessly flowed off the building and onto the next, the whole cityscape flowing like a luminescent canvas. Every building I could see held swirling patterns that mesmerized the mind. It reminded me of a less gaudy Las Vegas, to be honest. Which was appropriate, considering that in addition to being a major trade city it was also one that focused on entertainment. As a result, this was one of the few places in the Vega system that we didn't have to worry about the Citadel quite so much.
Ostensibly, the planet was a colony world of Euphorix, the last world in the Vega system that resisted Citadelian rule. I say ostensibly because 1. Rashashoon had been growing more and more independent ever since its first colonization, and 2. Euphorix had just sealed itself behind a completely impenetrable planetary shield some months prior, so it wasn't in a position to exert any kind of authority. As such, Rashashoon was quickly shaping up to be something like Casablanca in the 1940s; a pseudo-neutral territory that was mostly left alone so long as it kept providing services to all, and not interfering in greater politics.
Which wasn't to say there weren't backroom deals and the like going on in Raggashoon. After all, my crew was engaged in some of that right that moment.
While my eyes swept over the skyline most of my mental focus was on a set of video feeds streaming from the building beneath me, specifically from one of the hotel's better furnished lounges. The private room was finely carpeted with a few bare columns scattered about, and a pair of plush sofas in the center of the space facing each other. Said sofas each had an occupant with someone standing next to them.
Lounging back into one of the couches and wearing fine silk robes, Felicity was giving off an air of disinterest as she said "I trust that you find the terms of our deal acceptable." In spite of her tone, the pale-furred Karnian eyed the person across from her with a sharp glare. I didn't know her mother for very long, but she reminded me a lot of Namise as she continued "Otherwise this is a waste of all of our time."
Over the past few months the young woman had been helping out more and more with the Last Port, to the point where she started requesting to go on operations with us. She didn't have a particularly broad skillset, but she had been the daughter of a crime boss, so she invariably picked up some skills with management and negotiations. Which were quite useful in the current situation. Because as it turned out, for all their stereotype of being bruteish barbarians, not all Citadelians were uninterested in backroom deals.
"Bah, of course it is worthwhile!" The alien across from her said. The most succinct way I could describe them was 'blue space ogres'. Towering at about 9 feet tall and over half that wide, the humanoids aliens were massive bundles of lumpy muscle. They had a flat face on a dome-like head, which seemed to simply grow out of the torso with no neck to speak of. The suit the leading one wore was more of a padded jumper, as I doubted anything more fine could fit their frame.
And when they spoke, well, they sounded exactly as you'd expect them to. "Of course, seeing a delectable morsel like you in person makes it all the sweeter." The gravelly voice came from a face giving Felicity a nasty grin. "And to touch as well…" He said, reaching out with a meaty hand to touch her face.
Felicity managed to keep from flinching away as the hand got closer, though I could tell it was a hard thing for her. Fortunately, Felicity was not alone.
The man's hand was stopped as Felicity's bodyguard grabbed it. "If you want to keep that hand, keep it to yourself." Kori said, the mask over her lower face slightly distorting her voice and the fake servos in her armor humming to mask the source of her strength.
The Citadelian grunted, testing his strength against Kori's for a few moments before he finally relented. "Agh," He remarked, pulling hand back. "Fine. Business first." The Cidadelian's own bodyguard had mostly remained motionless at this byplay, though the armored figure had put a massive hand on the butt of his pistol, though.
"Indeed." Felicity said. "On that note, you said you would be bringing proof that you possessed confidential data obtained from the Gordanians."
The man looked back at his companion for a moment, a strange little twitch in his face before he addressed her again. "Yes. Just as you said that you had a stable of potential slaves to give us in return. You have this, yes?"
"Of course," Felicity said, and the two of them began hashing out the specifics of their deal. Through the feed I could see her (and Kori's) discomfort with the situation, and hoped that the Citadelians wouldn't notice it. Even with all this being an act, even playing along with slave traders was deeply uncomfortable for them. I wished all this wasn't needed either, but things hadn't quite worked out for us over the past few months.
The operation on the space train had gone as planned, at least at first. We had spread out on the train for the initial insertion, attempting to neutralize any chance of reinforcements. But it turned out the train had more security than our intel indicated. Not unmanageable between myself and Kori, but that had put us in a position where she was the first to reach the Psion starslip drive, and the Gordanian engineer looking over it panicked. He threatened to overload the drive if she didn't back off. Pressed for time as we were, Kori decided to call his bluff.
To be fair, she was right that he was bluffing, but the man was caught so off guard that he triggered it out of sheer surprise when she attacked. I managed to keep the drive from exploding completely when I arrived, but it ended up warping the gravity anchor that was pulling the space train enough that it massively accelerated it, causing it to be hurled towards the planet. I couldn't manage to shut off the drive before we all had to bail, and one cratered-base later we were back where we started.
So we ended up settling in with the Last Port over the next few months, waiting for our next chance at a way home. And we got it when another Citadelian courier ship entered this system, and this time we managed to intercept its command and redirect it to a point in empty space for us to ambush. And it would have worked… if a bunch of scavenger pirates from the planet Dredfahl hadn't also shown up. Long story short, everything ended up on fire and it wasn't my fault.
So when the next courier ship came some time later, we instead waited for it to reach the planet Hyn'xx before we made our move, intending to use tensions between the Citadelians and Gordanians there to cover our theft. Unfortunately, it turned out that said tensions were much stronger than we thought, so when our interference was noticed earlier than we intended, they both took it as a sign that the other double crossed them. And out came the guns. Needless to say, the ship was destroyed in the crossfire before we could even get to it.
On our last attempt to find a way home, I had ignored ships entirely to follow up on a rumor that Aello had a secret lab built by scientists with a computer of unparalleled processing power. If it was as good as the rumors claimed, there was a good chance I could repurpose it to make a functioning Zeta Catapult to launch us back to the Sol system without ending up inside a stellar body. And I had managed to find it… only to find out that it was actually a sort of secret base for a race of invading alien biomechanical spider people.
I ended up having to fight a small army of arachnid abominations before blowing the whole place up. It actually would have been quite cathartic, if it hadn't ruined yet another opportunity to get home, and introduce me to yet another thing I had to worry about later. Seriously, what the fuck is a 'Spider Guild'?
A comm brought me out of my thoughts. "I am in position," Demonia said. "It will be another hour before the maintenance workers return."
"Good," I replied to our infiltrator. "Just connect the dongle to the communication array and keep an eye on the wavelengths. If we do this right, we'll be able to trace the end point of any signal going out of the hotel." It was only a few seconds later before the connection was made, and another data stream entered my perception. This one required a little more of my attention as it was proper Citadelian infrastructure.
Citadelian systems were… strangely complex. Or at least they seemed to be, compared to the brutes that ran them. I supposed that it was possible there was a caste of Citadelian that were much smarter than the rest, but after interacting with their software… I had the distinct impression that the backend systems were created by AI. More a hunch than anything else, but I'd like to think I had enough experience with the subject to notice the signs.
The last member of our crew then spoke up. "And that's when we take off and intercept it, right?" Tigorr was a Karnan man that had joined up with the Last Port after Kori and I arrived, and had a burning desire to do anything that stuck it to the Citadel. I had never inquired just what his story was, but Doc had vetted him enough that just joined our team this time. "Assuming that time is of the essence." He continued after a beat.
"I'm hoping that won't be the case, but we haven't been that lucky yet." I replied flatly. "We've been 'lucky' enough that the Citadelians and the Gordanians have started squabbling." The data that these particular Citadelians had stolen was supposedly logistical-military info from the Gordanians. It only pertained to the Vega system, so it wasn't overly valuable to the Citadel which still had a firm grip over the space, but it was incredibly valuable to independent parties like the Last Port. And to a pair of lost souls looking to steal the next high speed ship that came into the system.
We knew that these Citdelains had their stolen data cache somewhere in the city, we just weren't sure where. Thus our current plan: pose as buyers and get them into a situation where they would have to have to contact where the data is stored, in order to offer us proof they had it. Then we use the compromised comm array to triangular the data cache's position to and go steal it. All we needed now was for them to make the call.
So it wasn't great when the lead Citadelian suddenly said "This talk is getting nowhere. You have made many promises, but you still haven't given us anything to show for it." He stood, looming over Felicity and Kori. "So, we will be taking some collateral to hold till the next round of negotiations."
Felicity's eyes narrowed. "That was not the deal."
"The deal's changed." He said, his nasty smile returning. "And I think the collateral I will be taking is you, my pale sweet thing. Maybe that will motivate the next of you who thinks they can waste my time." With that the alien lunged at Felicity and grabbed her.
Oh he would have, if a CNT reinforced staff didn't slam into his arm hard enough to shatter the limb with a crack. Eyes turned to Kori in time for her to twirl the staff and slam it into his center of mass, sending him hurtling across the room. There was a crash as the alien flew through an ottoman, and Kori stepped fully in front of Felicity. "It would seem the 'deal' now includes you losing that hand."
The second one tried pulling his pistol, but Kori raised her arm and the plates on the limb folded out to form an arm cannon. Or rather just the appearance of one, as the blast of green energy which destroyed the gun was simply a starbolt she fired from her hand. Another bit of mechanical obfuscation I had built into her armor. She wasted no time shooting forward and laying into the Citadelian with her staff.
On my end I held in a sigh before saying "Alright, Felicity, go to plan 2."
We had hoped to get the information out of them with little fuss, but since we were dealing with people even normal Citadelians considered scumbags, we made a few other plans. Plan 2 was both simple and classic: make them think you already knew the secret. "You utter imbeciles," Felicity said, quickly recovering and getting up off the sofa. "You might have lived if you just played along, but now you shall perish with the rest of your kin." The Karnan tilted her head back, inflecting a haughty tone. "We already know where you are keeping the data, of course. We have a team retrieving it now. This was merely a distraction to make our job a little easier."
Kori continued to absolutely trounce the two Citadelians, but she held back just enough to the negotiator to pull away from her and reach into his pocket to pull out a communicator. Kori made a show of firing a few starbolts his way, but let him dive behind some wrecked furniture so that he could make his call. "It was a trap!" The Citdelian yelled into his device. "They are closing on your position now! Move!"
A few moments later, Demonia commed "Got the signal. Tracking… tracking… got the location. It's- Wait, what? It's moving!"
Well, he would be messaging a person and not the data cache, so that makes sense, I thought. But as I scanned the telemetry she was sending over and overlaid it with a map of the city, I saw the signal endpoint rising into the air. With how quick it happened, that meant they were already on an air car of some kind. Which likely meant... "I think they're keeping the cache on a ship. And they're trying to pull a runner."
"Not going to happen!" Tigorr yelled, excited to get some action.. "I'll be there in thirty, get ready!"
Checking the feeds again told me that Kori and Felicity had their own situation well in hand. I had just enough time to get everyone up to speed and tell the others to rendezvous at the safehouse before I rolled off the side of the building. I had barely dropped before an air car came into view, rounding around the corner of the building. I landed with a heavy thud on the roof of the car, getting into a crouch. "Plotting a course, giving you the telemetry now." I commed Tigorr, and we shot off like a bullet.
To be honest I could probably fly faster than this car, but flying people weren't quite as common here as on Earth. Even if I tried to mask it with tech thrusters, at a distance people would assume I was Tamaranian, and I wanted to avoid the locals getting any undue attention.
It only took us 10 minutes to reach our target, as with Demonia on the comms array she could keep pinging the receiver and give us updates on where it was going. When we came into view we were towards the border of the city, and the air car turned out to be more of an air yacht. Or maybe air APC, as the large blocky craft was heavily plated. Even taking the size of Citadelians into account, that craft could hold about a dozen of them. "Alright, fly us over them. After I jump, pull back to a safe distance."
"By the sound of it, you're going in hot. Alone, too." Tigorr replied as he maneuvered around the craft, bringing us over it. "Are you sure you can handle this?"
Right, he hasn't worked with Kori and I yet."You act like this is the first time I've driven an air car into the ground." I said, before I jumped off.
Tigorr was already pulling away as I hit the hull, going low and climbing/crawling down the side towards the side hatch. There was no obvious way to open it from the outside, but that was hardly a problem for me. A high frequency blade extended from my arm and sliced into the door and hull, cutting away the locks. Moments later the door popped open (fell open more like) and I swung myself inside… and was greeted with a small squad of Citdelians with plasma weaponry.
They didn't waste time before opening fire on me, though they only got off a few shots that splashed against my personal shield before the core in my chest activated. I pulled, and the guns simply flew out of their hands and towards me, none of them having expected it. The instant the weapons got in range they vanished into my Bleed Pocket.
With my mechanokinetic core inoperable, I had needed to innovate a bit to get that functionality back. And with all of the alien tech I had been acquiring over the past few months, it had been pretty straight forward to craft myself a magnetokinetic core as a replacement. I wasn't going to match a certain Marvel villain in terms of power, but it was more than enough for what I got up to these days.
Their confusion was surprisingly short, as the closest one to me pulled an ax from his belt and charged me with a roar. Magnesis had no effect on it, so I guessed whatever it was made of wasn't ferromagnetic. But, again, it didn't matter, and I charged the alien right back. The ax came in and hit the plate of my arm and stopped completely dead, all of the momentum lost in an instant. Upgrading my kinetic dampeners into full inertial manipulators had just made them even more effective, and the Citdelian got his own strike and extra reflected back at him,sending him flying.
The rest of the Citadelians didn't fare much better, opting to launch themselves at me as well. There were a few frantic seconds of punching, wrestling, and gratuitous amounts of electrical current, but eventually all of them were knocked out.
I quickly made my way through the ship, either hacking or ripping doors open as I came across them, eventually making my way to the cockpit. It was autopiloted, so it was easy work to set it to crash outside the city limits. As it altered course I swept through the rest of the ship, eventually locating a data terminal in depths of the large vessel. A quick once over let me know that the whole thing was security locked and encrypted, and advanced enough that it wouldn't be trivial for me to break.
I picked up the terminal and dropped the entire thing into my Bleed Pocket."Mission accomplished." I commed, jumping out of the craft before it crashed into the desert.
----------------------
Even two dozen light years from Earth, there was no escaping Mission Debrief.
Granted it was a pretty informal affair, and most of it was waiting on me to break into the data cache to see what we got. Turned out there were layers to the encryption, and I managed to crack all but the last one. Sure enough, the data contained all the info we were expecting; shipping schedules, troop orders, inventory assessment. Invaluable stuff for the Last Port. But it also came with a bit of unwanted info for me and Kori.
Since things had become more dangerous in the Vega System recently (no idea how that could have happened), both the Gordanians and the Citdelians were tightening their respective grips on the system. Which meant carrier ships would be used for shuttling importing personnel and information from now on. Which meant no more courier ships were coming.
Which meant we now had even less options for getting back to Earth.
It would be a while after that before we exited out of our safe room and went our separate ways. We had some time before the Last Port used the data to figure out their next move, and some downtime had been earned. Kori decided to spend the rest of the evening with Felicity, as the girl was a bit on edge from how violent things had turned out. Which was fine for me, as even as my internals grinded away at the last encryption, I had some business of my own to take care of.
I didn't have to go very far, as our safe room was in the city's entertainment district, a short distance from where we were being put up. The Madam's House was a mixture of a casino, burlesque house, and brothel. Fairly upscale, all things considered, and I was once again reminded of Las Vegas as I crossed the main show floor, gambling tables spaced out evenly in the middle while one wall was taken up by a massive stage with female dancers doing interesting things with ropes.
This place (much like Raggashoon itself) attracted all sorts, so my cloaked and armored form only got a few glances as I moved through the building. Past the main floor and onto the quieter hallways, I came to a more isolated spot with a series of doors, each locked to give their occupants… privacy. I came to one at the end of the hall and flicked out my keycard, the door opening and letting me inside.
The 'room' was an odd mix of a closed room and a terrace. It was circular in shape and the upper part was a transparent dome that offered a spectacular view of the night time city and sky. It was completely opaque from the outside, but it allowed those within to have an exotic setting to get 'comfortable'. As the large bed against the wall indicated. However, my attention was on the man sitting at the small table off to the side. "Sorry I'm late," I said, "Things came up."
The man stood, hands reaching up to push back the hood on the robes he wore. I was greeted by a red-orange face and nearly solid green eyes, save for some darker irises. "It is fine, you told me beforehand that this might happen." The man, Damrak, said as he shook out his curly auburn hair. "So long as you managed to fix the chemical synthesizer, I wouldn't have minded waiting all night."
While the vast majority of Tamaranians were still on their homeworld, there had been a number scattered throughout the Vega System (and beyond) when the planet fell. Rashasoon actually had the largest population in the system outside of Tamaran itself. And Damrak was one such Tamaranian I had happened to run into when I was exploring certain parts of the city.
I reached into my cloak, a gesture mostly for show as the item I pulled out had actually been stored in my Bleed Pocket. "I got it working," I said, placing the bulky device the size of a soccer ball down on the table. "It looked like a few of the more delicate components got fried due to material defects. It's amazing it ran for as long as it did. I had to custom make a few of the optical circuits, but it should mix the drugs in the right proportions now."
The Tamaranian was a doctor I had happened across when I was exploring the area, the man having been in the middle of dealing with some rather unsavory characters trying to shake down his clinic. I had intervened out of principle, which is how we got talking and he informed me of his current troubles. Namely, that some of his medical equipment for creating Tamaranian drugs had stopped working.
Cut off from his home planet, the doctor had to rely on complex medical machines to create drugs that would properly interact with Tamaranian physiology, and it was not like he could just order parts for them anymore. The goons had gotten involved as he started getting desperate and shopping around for less official channels that could help him. I managed to convince him that I was a fair hand at machines and to let me fix it. This whole 'meeting at a brothel' thing was a way to keep the criminals off my trail; the last thing I wanted was for more outside problems to pop up.
Damrak seemed relieved as he fiddled with some of the buttons and got the response he was looking for. "X'Hal bless you. Another month without this and we may have started losing people. Not many, but in these times every one of us counts. It is difficult keeping everyone's spirits up…"
I felt a slight tightness in my chest before I said "I've got something else for you too," and I pulled out a storage deck before handing it to him. "You said you wished your son could experience the Royal Symphonies, and I happened to have that in storage. Along with a few other things. So, I figured I'd make you a copy." It was a good thing I had ended up downloading all that Tamaranian media to my body after I had worked out how. It had mostly been so that I could look at it on the go when I had spare moments, but it was paying off now. "Make sure to share it with the rest of the community too."
Damrak looked between me and the storage deck, his expression lighting up. "T-truly? This is incredible, Stack! You have already refused payment, and now you give us this? How can I possibly repay this kindness?"
I shook my head. "Like I said, I don't need money or anything like that. For now, let's just say that it's useful for a man like you to owe me a favor-" I started to say.
The locked door behind us suddenly opened, and I turned in surprise. My arm was partway to forming an internal particle cannon before I saw who stepped into the room. "Mama Madam." I greeted.
Mama Madam was a heavyset woman with chalk white skin and a flat face, dressed in violet silk robes and adorned in jewelry. I wasn't quite sure what species she was, but she was the madam of this entertainment complex/brothel, and she was an old friend and mentor of Demonia. She primarily looked out for herself and her own, but the Last Port's smuggling operations frequently benefited her, so she put on her friendly face for us. "Terribly sorry for interrupting Stack, but you are a difficult man to pin down, and I was hoping to have a word." She said, her voice almost musical in how she spoke.
I looked from her back to the Damrak, putting out a hand to ward off his nervousness. "It's fine," I told him. "She's the proprietor. And she's discreet as a rule."
The doctor looked between us and said "I see… I shall take your word for it." He gathered up both the synthesizer and the storage deck into a bag and nodded to me. "If you ever have need of my services, you know where to find me."
I nodded back and sent him off, the man hurrying past Madam into the hall and out of sight. She had a bemused look on her face as she stepped towards me. "Hoping to reconnect with your people? Oh don't give me that look," she said, gesturing to my blank faceplate. She pulled out a bottle from… somewhere, and gestured to the table. "Come, sit, no need to be so stiff and formal on my account."
We both sat at the table and she poured me a drink, a sort of yellow-red fluid. I took it from her, my helmet folding back to reveal my Tamaranian face. With me and Kori living here for the past two weeks, the sharp woman had managed to figure out what Kori actually was pretty quickly, so I ended up 'revealing' myself as well. I was pretty sure she didn't know just who Kori was, but I wouldn't put it past her to figure it out if we weren't careful. Hence me pretending to be Tamarnian to throw her off a bit.
Of course, just because I looked like a Tarmaranian didn't mean I had their taste buds, and I was rather glad I had figured out how to dampen my sense of taste as I downed the liquid. So the flavor was only 'interesting' rather than 'retch-inducing.' "Not that I don't appreciate your company," I eventually said, "But why exactly are you here?"
"Just wondering how the mission went." She said, taking a seat next to me. I raised an eyebrow at her before she continued. "Yes, your compatriots gave me their report, but I wish to hear it from you as well. And as I said, you are rather elusive most of the time."
I looked back at her for a moment before I let out a breath."The mission was a success, though not without its bumps…" I started to tell her. Part of the deal the Last Port had with her was that in exchange for a place to lay low, she was kept informed of any intel we got from our operations, so I had no problems telling her this.
She listened to me give her the summary of what happened and our findings, nodding as I wrapped things up. "Good, good. Though it sounds like you didn't get everything you were looking for."
I made a vague gesture. "It's everything the Last Port could have hoped to gain-"
"I am not talking about the Last Port." She interrupted. "From the way you were talking about it, it seems to me you were looking for something more… personal."
I gave her an even look. I could already tell that the woman wasn't going to stop nosing in until she got an answer, and she had proven perceptive enough that an outright lie probably wouldn't work. I looked away for a moment in thought, and a few seconds later it came to me: she already had some preconceived notions about me that I could lean into. So, I might as well lean into something that she would believe… and which also mattered to me. "It's… foolish." I eventually said. "I was hoping for critical information. Something that might turn the tide. Something…" I trailed off.
"Something that would let you go home." Madam finished for me.
A statement that was both right and wrong on her part. Home was not where she thought it was, and I was letting her come to her own incorrect conclusion. I had never expected to find anything related to what she thought I was looking for.
And yet…
I looked past the skyline to the horizon, gaze focusing on stars just over the horizon line. Or rather, the particularly bright point of light that was in fact a nearby planet. Practically next door by space standards. But still very much out of reach, much to the distress of my Koriand'r.
Unbidden, the number came back to me. Citadelian ground forces estimated at 500 thousand, scattered across the planet at key points and augmented by mobile armor. Transportation infrastructure entirely maintained by Citadelian authorities. Planet orbited by 15 orbital platforms, each armed with kinetic weaponry pointed downwards. Citdaelain vessels in orbit range from one to three dozen depending on schedule-
I shook my head before I went down yet another spiral of useless calculations. Ever since I managed to get the info from Doc, I had gone back to it over and over, trying to see the weaknesses in the forces, see if there was a thread I could pull at. And I kept coming back to the same non-answer. I reached out with my hand towards the planet, its light twinkling between my fingers before I closed my fist around it with a sigh. "I've just been hoping… I'd find a way to take Tamaran back."
To put it simply, the infrastructure just wasn't there. In the years since its conquest, the Citadel turned Tamaran into its personal bread basket, and stripped away pretty much everything else. There was no Tarmaranian military, weapons manufacturer... even transportation was gutted. Even if the whole populace rallied and managed to take control of the surface, there were plenty of guns in orbit pointed downward that would stop that.
And even if Tarmaranians managed to flawlessly capture all of the guns and ships and stations… the planet was still the local Citadel bread basket. The blue space ogres wouldn't just let that go, and the Citadel Empire spanned over a dozen star systems. They had the numbers to just crush any resistance, especially one that was trying to use their own tech against them.
When it came down to it, I couldn't fix this. Machina the Superhero couldn't fix this. Hell, even assuming I could bring all the power of the Silver with me, Machina the Avatar couldn't fix this, at least not for long. The only real solution I could see was 'Destroy the Citadel Empire', and that was too big for one man to do. I didn't even know if my powers had a ceiling to them, but waiting around until I went full apotheosis, if that ever happened, was not a satisfying answer.
I grunted and dropped my hand. "I'm nigh unstoppable in the field, I can engineer just about any damn thing that exists, and I've got tricks you haven't even seen yet... and none of it means a damn thing for kicking the Citadel out."
Madam hummed. "A warrior staring down a war bigger than themselves. An old story."
I gave her the side eye. "My problem not being unique is a bit of a cold comfort."
She waved a placating hand at me. "Apologies, I didn't mean to sound callous. To be honest, I am a little surprised at just how astute you are of the broader situation. Most Tamaranian warriors I have met would respond to such situations by simply throwing themselves at it until the problem, or more likely themselves, were destroyed."
"That's pretty much what happened when Tamaran fell." I pointed out. "The ones like me are the only ones left."
She hummed again, though this time the tone had a strange mixture of both amusement and sympathy. She stared at me for a moment long before she said "Citadelian cyphers tend to rotate according to certain algorithms. Said rotation takes place over the course of months to years, but if you have been paying attention long enough, you can start to see the pattern."
I blinked at the sudden change in subject. "Ah, I see? That's good to know, but I was hoping to get this last cypher cracked sometime soon."
"Then it is a good thing that I have already done all the leg-work," She said, reaching into her dress and pulling out a small data stick. "This should provide you some heuristics that will make your job much easier."
I hesitated for a moment before I took the stick from her. "I… the Last Port didn't tell me you had this."
"The Last Port has occasionally relied on me to break the cyphers they obtain, but they never asked how I did it. The fact that they believed you could handle it this time speaks of how highly they think of you." She clarified. "Or they just wanted to see if they could avoid my usual fee."
"Ah," I replied."So much is this going to cost me?"
"This time… I will waive my normal price." Madam said, standing up from her seat. "I was curious as to what kind of man the Last Port had fallen in with, and you have not disappointed. So, let's just say… I think it will be useful to be owed a favor from a man like you." She gave me a knowing smile before she turned and left the room.
I stared after her for a few seconds, her last comment making me wonder just how much of my conversation with Damrak she had been listening to. In the end I just shook my head and scanned the data stick, adding the heuristics contained within to my ongoing decryption. And sure enough, it only took a few more minutes of computation before the cypher cracked open and the data revealed itself.
There wasn't too much, but the reason for the high level of encryption was apparent a few lines in. 'Anti-Psion encryption'? I thought as I read through the data. What would the Gordanians know that they didn't want the Psions to-
I stopped when I got to the last report, detailing preliminary plans for an assault operation. The location of said operation is what gave me pause. As I read further, the target of the operation caused my eyes to go wide. But it was as I read the details for how they came to learn of this location that I went completely still.
I… might have just found a way home. In more ways than one.
----------------------
The room Kori and I had at The Madam's House was the most comfortable living situation we had since we came to the system. The use of pastel colors on the walls, carpets, and drapes may have been a bit much, but there was no denying that the mass of pillow and sheets that served as our bed was incredibly comfy. To be honest it reminded me of the stereotypical 'harem' room from Earth media, the one where you would see a dozen scantily clad women lounging about in.
Our room only had one such woman in the form of Kori as I walked in, splayed out over the cushions in rest from the night before. It was morning by the time I had returned, as I had needed some time to myself to think, so she gave a small start as she woke up. "Mmm, you know how I feel when you don't come to bed with me," She grumbled, though there was no real heat in it.
"True, but how else can I surprise you with breakfast as soon as you wake up?" I pointed out, holding up a tray full of breads, meats, and various bowls full of dipping sauces. "It is very hard to slip out of your arms, after all."
She didn't bother refuting my logic, instead pulling herself out of the pile of pillows to drift over to me. We settled onto the floor with the tray between us, Kori tearing into the food while I went at a more sedate pace. For a few minutes we didn't speak, just silently enjoying each other's company.
As the last of the foodstuffs were consumed, I spoke up."I cracked the last layer of encryption. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I've got a lead to get us home… of a sort."
Kori perked up, though she tilted her head at my tone. "It sounds like the others don't know yet."
"They don't, I wanted to run it by you first." I said. "The last bit of data was on high level operations against the Psions, including intel that was gained from spies and interrogation. According to their sources, the Psions recently found that Lantern that's supposedly been buzzing around the system… and captured them."
Her eyes went wide. "Really? I knew the Psions were advanced, but I didn't think they were advanced enough to best a Green Lantern, even if it is in their own territory."
I shrugged. "That's what the reports say. Unfortunately, there's nothing on how they did it or what the Lantern was doing when they found them. The Lantern could have been looking for us, but it doesn't even say where they were captured." I let out a breath, pausing a moment before I continued. "Still, the data did contain where the Lantern's being kept. It's in-system, at a Psion mobile research station."
"Between their mobility and stealth systems, those are notoriously difficult to track," Kori remarked. "If the Gordanians have the location of one, they are not going to sit on it."
"Right, so if we want to take advantage of this, we can't sit on it for too long either." I said. "The way I figure it, there's three reasons why we'd want to go after it. The first being that there's a good chance we can swipe another scout ship, which will get us back to Earth in no time. The second, more dangerous reason is so that we can try to get some answers out of the Lantern. They're bound to know something about why the Guardians have it out for me. And there's an outside chance I could get a hold of their ring and get us home that way." I didn't have very high hopes for that, as my brief encounter with the Lantern's armor on Earth told me just how complicated Power Ring technology was. But the first reason was compelling enough to go.
However, Kori knew me too well, and noticed me hesitating to continue. She floated over and settled down next to my shoulder, leaning against mine as she asked "And what's the third reason?"
I breathed in deeply. "This mobile station… It's the station. The one we met each other on. The one I woke up in this universe on."
To be honest, I had almost put thoughts of returning back to my home universe completely aside. Even once I had found myself in the Vega System I only had vague thoughts of tracking that station down; I didn't have the means or information to do so, and I had so much to get back to in this universe's Earth that it was just… easier not to think about it. But now, a golden opportunity had been dropped into my lap.
I could learn how I got here.
I could learn how to see my family again.
"So obviously, I have ulterior motives for suggesting this," I continued. "This is the only place in this universe which might still have a connection to my old one, or even just information on how they brought me here. I know this might get in the way of us getting back to Earth, but I-"
Kori cut me off by placing her hand over my mouth. "Jacob, yes."
My brow furrowed and I pulled her hand down. "...Yes?"
"Yes, of course we'll go." She said, "Even if this didn't give us an opportunity to get back to Earth, you deserve to find a way back home." Her hand slid around to cradle the side of my face, and I saw a hint of worry cross her own. "But… when you find it… what will you do?"
I looked back into those eyes, the first thing I had truly seen in this reality, before turning to face her fully. "I'll tell you what I won't do: No matter what happens, no matter what I find, I will not leave you. I'm hoping to find some way to freely travel to or even just contact my home. But if it comes down to it…" I hesitated for a moment, before I said what I had known in my heart for a while now. "I won't leave this life I've made. I won't leave you."
Kori's smile was both full of joy and tinged with a little sadness at my words, and she touched her forehead to mine. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get planning."
"Stack is 'secretly' Tamaranian" does answer a lot of questions to people wondering "what the fuck is his deal" in a way that doesn't need to worry them much more. For the casual observer, it explains why his partner is Tamaranian and why he's friendly with them, and to those more knowledgeable, he's clearly imitating their cultural hero, and has the data stack and his girlfriend available if more complex cultural questions come up.
Now it's time for the Sci-Fi classic, going back to the beginner level with new gear and the lore to understand what's really going on.
I'd say the level up matters more than the gear, but they do have both. Another classic is having a big heavy weapon that's saved right until the last boss. Being able to cheese a fight makes all the grinding worth it.
One thing I'm happy about is we aren't seeing the video game classic of enemies that always scale to the protagonist's level. Doesn't matter what level it is, random goons should not be powerful enough to one-shot what were world ending threats. Too many hours of Oblivion, FFXIV, and Fallout 3...
I watched the pastel blues and pinks rippled up the side of the nearby building, illuminated from lights at the base. The waves of color seamlessly flowed off the building and onto the next, the whole cityscape flowing like a luminescent canvas. Every building I could see held swirling patterns that mesmerized the mind. It reminded me of a less gaudy Las Vegas, to be honest. Which was appropriate, considering that in addition to being a major trade city it was also one that focused on entertainment. As a result, this was one of the few places in the Vega system that we didn't have to worry about the Citadel quite so much.
You know, based on the ceramic they use for their buildings on this planet, the so called Vegas of it's system? I bet used for some china or decorative bowls, they'd have an incredible colorshifting effect on their pottery.
I fact, I'd bet Vases from Vega's Vegas are very varied, but many vacillate a variety of variations, from violet to Vermillion to a vibrant viridian.
To be fair, the Vega system does have a higher average 'level' compared to Earth. It's just that Earth has wild difficulty spikes, and Machina's leveled way past that average.
To be fair, the Vega system does have a higher average 'level' compared to Earth. It's just that Earth has wild difficulty spikes, and Machina's leveled way past that average.
Through the power of friendship and teamwork (tm). Plus not being an edgelord.
A few other thoughts.
First I love the callback to Stack and dropping in on Aircars. I wonder if Jacob ever told Kori about that.
Second, I think it would be pretty neat if the Psions had developed a weapon to counter Machina's assimilation ability or otherwise try to hack him only for it to fail because Jacob doesn't use that technique any more or his own research into his base code lets him easily stop the hack.
Third, I had a thought about that scene with Troia wondering how Jacob swaps between roles. What it reminds me of is work. There are many people who work in secure facilities who can't say anything about what they do. They have co-workers who are friends, but explicitly are not allowed to "talk shop" outside of a SCIF. Even for those of us without that restriction, our friends and family might know almost nothing about what we do just because they aren't coders.
It's experience, and shows how Troia is still young. Not in a bad way, she just is. Dealing with a professional/personal dynamic is a skill, and people do it differently.
It's experience, and shows how Troia is still young. Not in a bad way, she just is. Dealing with a professional/personal dynamic is a skill, and people do it differently.
Donna is a classic case of 'stuck between two worlds', but the problem is that one of those worlds is 'Secret divine empowered superhero'. Not a lot of people around that can help with that specific issue, as she reflected in her part. Your comparison to work/life separation is apt, though her case is a bit more dramatic than most.
When I announced a while back that I was trying to close in on the end of the fic (something I wish I had made more progress on than I have) it was suggested that I list out the plot ideas and arcs that ended up on the cutting room floor. After suddenly remembering that comment, I decided to write this out before I forgot it again.
So, here are some ideas that never made it in:
The Girl of Tomorrow
Having his Amazo android destroyed down to the last bits by a complete unknown, Doctor Ivo decides that a different tactic is needed. He needed to study this foe first, and reaching out to the few contacts he has, the man discovers the existence of the Team. Machina would have to be dealt with first before he would make another Amazo bot to take on the League, and that would require a bit more subtly. So, with some reluctance, he contacts his old mentor T. O. Morrow so that they could finish an old joint project of theirs: An android so life-like that it could fool all tests and scans, one capable of incredible telekinesis and telepathy. The Tomorrow Girl.
This would be a sort of play on the Judas Contract, with an infiltrator joining the team. Jacob would know nothing of Tomorrow Girl, as I didn't before I did the research and found out about Tomorrow Woman. The arc would focus on her internal conflict of her naturally heroic personality vs her subconscious programming, much like Red Tornado before her. In this case though Ivo would be giving her more active reinforcement to keep her on task, and eventually her arc would play into the rise of the Silver and her own actualization as a person.
This arc didn't happen because I didn't have enough of Tomorrow Girl's personality down to really want to do anything with her. It was a neat idea, but I didn't want to add a character to the already large roster just for the hell of it. That said, this decision also led to me adding Donna, because I just couldn't help myself.
Failure State
This would have been my take on the Failsafe episode in the show, where the team goes through the psychic no-win training exercise that goes wrong and they forget that it's not real. Jacob wouldn't actually be a part of the training event due to his robotic nature, the League trying to figure out what to do with him. The part would open with him walking in just as their scenario ends… and none of the team wants to talk to him. Kori would look at him in horror and run away from him. The rest of the arc would have a very distraught Jacob trying to figure out just what the hell happened to his team (and being absolutely livid with the League).
He would eventually piece together that the psychic scenario went wrong, with the twist being it starred Dream!Jacob being corrupted by the Dream!Imperium and turned into the main antagonist of the scenario. As the scenario spiraled out of control, Dream!Jacob picked off the team one by one, culminating in a fight between him and Starfire that takes both of them out before M'gann finally wakes up. It would be a pretty emotionally heavy arc.
This one got axed because the timing didn't really work out. Things progressed fast enough so that the Titans formed before the training scenario happened, plus Jacob got his psychic ansible form which would have made it awkward to write around. Also… not sure if I would have enjoyed putting Kori and Jacob through that much of an emotional ringer.
Just Some Guy
This is the arc that would be part of the non-canon chapter of the same name. There would be sporadic extra-dimensional incursions all over the world by bug-like aliens intent on terraforming the planet. But while they are a problem, the good guys note that they didn't bring nearly enough to actually be a global threat, and sometimes they came out of their portals horribly disfigured. On top of that there a mystery figure shows up, a humanoid black void with a white mark on its face. It never communicated with them, just annihilated any of the bugs it found.
Due to clues it leaves behind though, Jacob pieces together what they are and confronts them, confirming the truth: It's himself from the future. Specifically, a future where the bug aliens had wiped out most of the Earth and his team along with it. After years of gaining power he traveled back in time to sabotage the aliens efforts and save his team. His mission done, Future!Jacob has only a few minutes to talk with his past self before casualty catches up with him and he disappears.
A Fair Child
This was a rough arc focusing on Superboy I came up early on, delving into exactly how Superboy was made. While investigating Connor's biology, Jacob realizes that while he got his human DNA from Luthor, that didn't explain his human mitochondria (POWERHOUSE OF THE CELL), as that come from the mother. More specifically, the ovum. The two of them do some more digging into Cadmus and its connections to find out just who it came from. The answer would be one of the scientists who worked on the project before being booted off, one Caitlin Fairchild.
Even in my own head, this one never really got off the ground. There were too many questions of how they would actually track Caitlin down, what they would do when they found her, and what the lasting impact would be for it to be more than just an idea. In the end I found a different way to develop Connor, and Caitlin made an appearance in the Variant sidestory.
Bit Rot
This would have been an arc for a potential '4th' book of the story, after the Silver had properly established itself in the world. Either because someone inevitably went looking for someone to counter the Silver, or perhaps simply in response to their sudden rise, the Black (aka the Rot) would respond. In this story, the Black would be framed as a sort of cancer; less a 'natural' elemental kingdom and more something that feeds ravenously on all the others. The Rot can take animals, plants, even fungi and bacteria can be subject to viruses and entropy… so why not machines as well?
Data corruption, digital viruses, even rust and hardware failure would be free game, though that would just be the physical problem. Rot elementals aping machines would be the most horrifying version of 'gears greased with blood'. The machines must be fed, production must be ceaseless, and all those that work will be part of the machine in the end. It would be an ongoing problem for Jacob and the Silver to hunt down any Rot infections that popped up.
Spirit of Self-Determination
Another arc for the 4th book, Darksied takes notice of his efforts on Earth being thwarted more than he anticipated, and interference from Apokolips starts to go up. Things start to shift from backing criminals and the Light to more direct terrorist actions, specifically to draw out the heroes that have been causing so many problems. The Silver has progressed enough that with their help Jacob takes point, finding meaningful ways to counteract Apokolips's tech advantage. On Earth at least.
This would be a bit of a slow burn that would dive into 4th World politics / metaphysics, and Jacob's growing place in it. The entire time this is happening, Jacob keeps expecting for Darksied to come after Superman; after all Superman was the natural figure to oppose the Despot, and in the comics Superman's status as the Spirit of Hope / Freedom may have actually been created by that conflict. But by the end of things, Jacob realizes that through his own actions he's the one who has become Darksied's nemesis on Earth. He's become the Spirit of Self-Determination.
Forever Jacob
I'll be honest, I'm still debating if I will actually write this one or not. It would slot in right before the final arc of the story, but I'm worried that it will take away from the ending I'm building towards. So we'll just have to see.
As for what it would be about, well, I'm sure between the arc's name and certain bits I've written, you can figure it out.
Appreciate you putting those down. Anyone who's done any major project knows that we can't do everything. Every story has things that are cut for one reason or another.
It does feel like you have a few dangling plot threads. Like the whole Helm Of Fate thing. But that's also not surprising. Especially in a format like this where you aren't doing a whole book at once to then have an editor look over everything at once.
You know I realized one of the reasons I really like this story and will be sad to see it finished. I've mentioned before how I like that Jacob acts like a well adjusted adult. One thrown in an absolutely crazy situation, but still an adult.
The last 30 years have mostly had grim and edgy super hero stories. Even when they aren't, most of the heroes act like teenagers, or the general plot sucks. See many of the Marvel movies. For example, Tony stark is a great inventor hero, but is also deliberately flawed. Many of his movies are good, but you can't argue that most of the tension in half of them are caused by him.
You're portraying Jacob and most of the Justice Leage as my ideal superheroes. Not perfect but real people never are. Which is very different from Batman fighting Superman for stupid reasons. Plus everyone is actually competent.
People can say that tension in fights makes a story interesting, and it does. On the other hand, look at Machining and maker channels on YouTube. Sometimes they fail, but we know from the start that these are competent people who know their craft and will likely succeed. Not having the fake drama of TV is one of the things people enjoy.
Same with what you've written. There are excellent emotional scenes and things don't always turn out as expected or even well. It's just they exist for a reason. Even if it's a certain roboticist being an idiot. I'm sure that's never going to bite her...
Not to say any of these arcs feel bad... but I don't feel like we're missing out not having them if I'm honest. They all seem to edge a bit further into the darkness then the story has so far and I'm quite fine staying away.
Huh? I don't feel like that at all. Jacob's story has had some pretty dark and nasty moments in it. I mean, waking up as a science experiment and will likely never go home is literally Chapter 1. Oh, and there was the whole not having taste or a normal sense of touch and smell on top of it.
How everyone reacts like well adjusted adults is exactly what I was just talking about. Bad things happen to all of us. Maybe not on this level, but still. They aren't robots, but still deal. Heck, even the robots deal with it!
Overall, not being able to even get back to Earth is an issue and a challenge, but I don't consider the Vega system itself to be any darker than it was at the start of the story or any other time it was mentioned. Yes it's more in our face, but we also see the heroes doing something that is having am empire wide impact.
Plus they're occasionally having a good time while doing it!
…I bet other people don't have to deal with this sort of thing this early in the morning, Noah thought to himself. He had just finished breakfast and started checking on various things in his workshop when his 'roommate' suddenly barged in, slammed her hands against the wall next to his head, and effectively pinned him there as she made her (nonsensical) proclamation. He was even still holding his coffee mug, for god's sake. And yet somehow, beyond all that, Komand'r had an additional way to make his morning more annoying. "Woman, you're getting water all over my floor."
Noah could only guess that she had some sort of Eureka moment in the shower as, somewhat apropos, the woman was both soaking wet and completely naked.
"Never mind that." Komand'r waved him off, the water dripping from her hand splattering him a bit. "It's been too long since my sister has actually done anything. It's all been brief appearances and talks in front of crowds, but no reports of her engaging in combat. The Koriand'r I remember was not broken enough to be this passive, and her history on this world before I arrived proves she hasn't changed."
Noah took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. A large part of his 'job' hosting Komand'r was to keep the woman from going stir crazy. He had managed to delegate a few target liquidation missions that the Light handed down to him off to her, ones where he knew he could keep traces of her hidden. But it looked like he might have waited a little too long this time. "Are you going somewhere with this?" He said with a sigh, thinking about how he was going to have to mop up the woman's water trail.
"And I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, " Komand'r remarked. "Koriand'r is not on this planet. I am certain of it."
Noah arched an eyebrow. "That's a pretty bold guess, considering all those public appearances she's made."
"It is not a guess, it is a deduction." She countered back. "There is no other explanation for the woman's passivity. Whatever they are touting in front of the people of this planet, that is not her."
Noah held back another sigh, but as he looked at her he couldn't deny the conviction in her words. Komand'r was a drama queen, but for all of her borderline delusions of grandeur, living with her had taught Noah that she had good instincts. He had watched her expertly ferret out targets on those elimination missions, and she was even helpful in managing the Envoy (as the alien who had been sending the signal the found called himself) whenever they decided they wanted to talk. Komand'r might not know what specifically is happening, but if she felt something was wrong… she was probably on to something.
And he had to admit, things had been feeling a bit… off lately with regards to how the heroes were operating. There had been more of the kiddies for one, and more of the robots for another. Sure, they could have just been scaling up in response to 'losing' some of their own to the Genomorph/Silver situation… but now that Komand'r mentioned it, it felt more like they were covering for something. "If that is the case," Noah said slowly. "and that's a big if… I have a feeling the same might be true for Machina too."
"I suppose. He does seem like the type of person Koriand'r would keep." Komand'r mulled, looking away in thought (while still invading Noah's personal space). "But he was also on my ship as it exploded. How do you know that he's not simply dead and they are covering it up?"
"How do you know Koriand'r wasn't killed in the clusterfuck in Washington?" He shot back.
"...Fair enough."
Noah snorted. "Regardless, if we assume this is true it begs the question… Where the hell are they?"
"How should I know? This is your planet." Komand'r retorted, finally pulling away from Noah to half sit/half lean on a nearby table. "This world seems to get more absurd the longer I stay here. The last time that demented spirit Klarion decided to 'help', I ended up chasing my target through an upside down city where everyone spoke in backwards rhyme. You're the one with the information network, you find them."
"You know, if you weren't so adverse to doing your own legwork, maybe you'd be something other than a freeloading bum right now." Noah said pointedly. Komand'r, of course, didn't care and just stared at him expectantly. Rather typical of the bitch to make him do the hard work when she didn't feel like making an effort. Adding to this annoyance was the fact she had still made no effort to cover herself, probably in some childish attempt at manipulation. And with the short distance between the two Noah could see every perfectly sculpted part of her body that most men would kill for. Fortunately, Noah was more tempered than most men, so he was able to keep his gaze on her face.
'In the 4 times she blinked while talking, your eyes flicked downward', his passenger said.
Go fuck yourself! Noah thought back vehemently. And that was another problem he was dealing with lately. His passenger should not have been able to read his thoughts like that, at least not since he put on the control collar. But ever since Komand'r had almost crushed his throat and Noah had to activate the broken scarab, things had started to… shift.
It was almost a subtle thing at first, or at least his passenger's attempt at being so. But Noah had been more attentive to his own thoughts since he first collared himself, so he easily spotted when some odd thoughts popped up. He quickly figured out that it had started after the strangling incident. And unfortunately, it didn't stop after he fixed it. And more unfortunately, he was quite certain his passenger had 'leaked out' into the nanite battlesuit that partially covered his body. It would certainly explain why he couldn't retract the damn thing.
But this was all a guess, and if his passenger was making an attempt at taking over his body it was a damn slow one. Just another thing to worry about, in the end. Putting that aside for later, he sighed. "If they really are off-world, this is going to make dealing with the Envoy awkward," He eventually muttered.
Things between himself and the Envoy had been touch and go since their first contact. The alien was very distrustful of Noah (especially after he managed to contact them unexpectedly), but they managed to create the polite fiction between the two of them that they the Envoy was hiding in the system as part of a 'discrete survey of primitive civilizations', and Noah was giving him inside info in exchange for access to the Envoy's scanner data. It was bullshit, they knew it was bullshit, but it worked so long as neither knew exactly what the other wanted.
That said, between their sporadic bits of contact, Noah had managed to piece a few things together. Given the signal they had sent before they arrived and some not too subtle questions about powerful individuals, it was clear that the Envoy was looking for Machina. Noah could only assume that this 'Reach' they belonged to was the origin of Machina's nanomachines, and they wanted them back.
The exact 'why' still eluded him though. As well as what their connection was to the piece of twisted tech he had found his passenger in, which he was sure was related as well somehow .
Komand'r knew all this (about the Envoy, in any case), so she just waved her hand. "It's not like we haven't been stringing them along already. But yes, they've gotten anxious. We should make some visible effort to find the pair."
Komand'r's desire to flush out the missing superheros may have been personally motivated, but Noah agreed it was worth doing with those two. They in particular had a nasty habit of turning up exactly when they weren't wanted. And without any other leads, that left him with a simple course of action: target their allies instead. "Well, we don't know where they are, but we do have a pretty good idea who does. After all, they're the ones who have been organizing the pair's 'public appearances'."
Komand'r looked skeptical. "You haven't had the best luck with the Silver thus far."
"I know," Noah replied with a growl. "But I need to take care of them at some point anyway. I just need to find the angle… and make sure to stay undetected… and be able to counteract any defenses I don't know about… and actually figure out where they're centered..." He wasn't used to being on this side of the equation; typically he had far more data on his opposition to work with, but even months later the Silver remained frustratingly impenetrable. He supposed that he shouldn't be surprised that a group of magical AIs practiced good data security, but it wasn't any less infuriating.
Komand'r stared at him for a moment before she rolled her eyes. "You're overthinking it again. If you don't have a clever plan that works, use a simple one. We know where the Titans make their nest, and how they are allied with the Silver. And I'm sure you have something of sufficient destructive power in this lab. Just smash their base of operations open, watch them panic and flail, and then pick your opportunity to raid the Silver when they are distracted."
Noah stared back at her flatly. "And bring a shitstorm back down on our heads too, while we're at it. Our biggest asset right now is that as far as they know, we're not their most immediate problem. Along with them not knowing where we are. Something they are definitely going to work on if we attack them so blatantly. Not to mention that place is a veritable death trap."
Komand'r closed her eyes and rolled her head back, letting out a suffering moan. "Urgh, may whatever gods exist on this world save me from your pathetic, indecisive whinging!" She brought her head around to fix him with a glare. "I would have thought you'd have grown more of an actual backbone by now, but if you had it your way, all you would do is sit in your hole and plan and worry. Stop enumerating all of the problems and start coming up with actual solutions, you simpering peasant! You have an informant in the Titan's ranks! Use them!"
"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize the princess was getting bored again." Noah growled back. "Do you want me to jangle my keys in front of you, so you don't go wandering off? Because otherwise you'll probably get everyone around you killed, like you always do, you inept kakapo of a woman! That informant doesn't even know that those two are missing, you think they can actually learn anything useful?! And if we brute force this, it will just end like all the operations you command have! The only way that would work for us is if we got someone else entirely to-!"
Noah stopped, blinking as his brain caught up to his mouth. "If we got someone else to do it for us… that might work. A layer of separation, letting them take all the attention and possible failure." Noah's mind started spinning as facts and ideas clicked into place. Komand'r mention of the informant reminded him of a little fact they learned recently, from a careless comment made by one of the Titans. "I just need to find a patsy and give them the right motivation. And I doubt Klarion reads all of Light's information reports. If I tell him that-"
Noah's head rocked to the side, and there was some ringing in his ears. He shook his head to clear it, and he found Komand'r once again in his personal space, her violet eyes staring into his. "You said to slap you if you ever considered asking that little chaos grelk for help." She said.
He reached up and touched the side of his mouth, his hand coming away with a few drops of blood. He looked back at her with a bloodstained grin. "Aw, you pulled your hit compared to last time. You gettin' soft on me?"
She loomed over him, but her voice had lost the slightest bit of edge as she said. "You sounded like you were on to something. I hit you just hard enough to remind you that you were about to make a foolish mistake. You are more useful fully intact, after all."
"Heh, how… practical of you. Anyway, don't worry. I've already got someone else in mind."
She gave him a look before a smirk crossed her face, and she leaned in close enough that he could feel her breath on his face. "Good. Make your plans. But just remember… I have plenty more ways to correct you should you act foolish again." She said, before she finally turned and walked away.
…is she deliberately swaying her hips- No, focus.
Draining the rest of his coffee (and ignoring the taste of blood mixing with it), Noah walked over to the closest console and opened the Light's database of contacts. While Klarion was a bad idea, using someone more focused on magic was the smart play. Anything technological that went into that mountain (that wasn't under his direct control) would be immediately compromised. And Noah knew someone else who didn't know about the Helmet of Fate's location, but would take a crack at it if they did.
He found what he was looking for and was slightly surprised that there was a phone number attached. How modern of him, he thought before he started the call, settling in to wait. The phone rang for several minutes before someone finally picked up on the other end. "Hello?" Responded a deep male voice.
"In the Wolf's Glen at midnight, seven bullets are forged." Noah said, reading off the passphrase to let him know who was calling.
Well, let him know in general at least, as after a moment the man on the other end hummed and said "I don't recognize this voice. Who gave you my telephone number?"
"The Light has it on file, Wotan." Noah replied. "Though to be honest I'm surprised an immortal sorcerer has one in the first place."
"Much of modern invention is frivolous, but easy communication not reliant on magic is always useful. That said, should you be wasting my time, I will have no trouble tracking you down through this wire and impaling you on a tree like a shrike for your insolence."
"Oh don't worry, this is most definitely worth your time." Noah said with a grin. "I have access to some privileged information that's being kept in the Light's inner circle for the moment, but I'm willing to give it to you for the promise of a little discretion. Tell me: how would you like to know where the Helmet of Fate is being kept?"
"...I'm listening."
----------------------
Aliens, Robots, and Superheros, Oh my! Should the Genomorphs and AIs be considered for Citizenship?
Artemis snorted when she saw the newspaper title on the newsstand before she just kept walking down the street. And yet somehow the Gotham Gazette is one of the less sensationalized rags in the city, she mulled to herself. Her home city was no stranger to the weird and unusual, but that just meant it was met with a healthy amount of fear and suspicion. And the last couple of months of the Genomorphs and Silver taking the national stage hadn't helped that one bit.
Admittedly, Artemis hadn't really been keeping up with the two groups' public efforts. Since… Jacob wasn't there as a point of contact for her, she mostly had just let Calculus handle things. She had asked Superboy about it once or twice, him being the Titan with the most active involvement in the whole affair, but her superhero work had kept her busy enough that she never really got involved herself. It was a wonder that she even got personal time these days.
Of course, when she got a text from her mother that she wanted her to come home because they 'needed to talk', Artemis managed to make an opening in her schedule. Her mother was rather vague as to what she wanted to talk about, so Artemis was a little on edge as she rounded the corner to her home street.
So naturally, she nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a voice speak up behind her. "Hey!"
She spun, half ready to punch whoever had snuck up on her, only for her face to scrunch up in surprise when she saw who it was. "Wally? What are you- wait are you following me?"
Leaning on a lamppost, Wally gave her a wave and a grin. It was almost odd seeing him out of the Mountain in civilian clothes. She couldn't remember the last time she saw him like this."What? No, I was, uh, you know, just in the neighborhood. Funny seeing you here and all." Wally replied.
Artemis narrowed her eyes. It was obviously bullshit, but more than that Wally was looking… off. There were some dark lines under his eyes, and he looked like he was a bit out of breath. "Uh huh. Tell me why you're actually here."
"Hey, can't I just be around places-" Wally stopped when Artemis simply turned and started walking away, not wanting to deal with right now. "Alright, wait." He called out, getting her to turn back. "Look, I just wanted to… check in, you know? I've barely seen you outside of missions."
Artemis tilted her head in confusion. "I'm fine. Things are fine. My mom wanted to talk, so…" she drifted off. She couldn't remember if she had ever told him where she lived, but now it seemed a bit moot.
"Ah, gotcha, ok, sure." Wally nodded, his face somber. "Not a good time then. I guess I'll catch you later."
Artemis stared at her… ok, her friend for a few seconds before her tone softened. "...Are you alright? You look terrible."
Well, she softened it a little bit.
"What? Of course I am! I'm just… It's…" Wally struggled for words for a moment before he let out a sigh, almost deflating in front of her. "...I don't know." He finally said, sitting down on the curb. "I just… things feel off, you know?"
Artemis was silent for a few seconds before she sighed as well, rubbing the back of her head. "Yeah, I do." On the surface, the Titans were doing fine. They were taking down minor villains left and right, they had more support than ever due to the Silver's involvement… hell even their roster got expanded a bit. But like Wally said, it just didn't feel quite right. And the reason why was obvious. "It's just not the same without them, huh?"
Without looking at her, Wally nodded. "Came here 'casue I remembered something Robin said. 'It feels like we're on two different teams sometimes.' I don't know but… it feels like that's gotten worse?"
Artemis had a hard time refuting that. By this point the Titans had existed without Jacob and Kori for longer than they had with them, but they had been the core of the group. Those two weren't just leaders, they were kind of the heart of it. The Titans weren't falling apart without them or anything, but there was a fracture of sorts which hadn't gone away. Artemis turned her mind away from those morose thoughts to say "I didn't realize it was bothering you that much."
Wally made a vague gesture. "I guess. This superhero thing used to be a lot more fun. Now it's just… work. I don't really get it either. I'm not doing anything different now, just more. But I feel like I'm hitting my limit here."
Artemis frowned. "Not to be a downer, but I don't think being a superhero is supposed to be 'fun'."
Wally scowled back at her and for a moment looked like he was about to argue. But then, he stopped. "Yeah, you're probably right. You know, sometimes I wonder what I'm even doing-" Wally cut himself off and bolted up, getting up from his sitting position. "Ah, never mind. I'll see you later Artemis, I've gotta… yeah." Without saying another word, Wally turned into a blur of motion and was gone.
"...What was that about?" Artemis wondered, staring at where her teammate was a moment ago. She wasn't used to seeing Wally like this, and it made her deeply uneasy. She'd have to check in on him later herself, though she didn't know what she would even do when she did. And in any case, she had more immediate concerns. She resumed walking towards her mother's house, and a minute later she was walking through the door. "Mom! I'm home!"
"Artemis!" A happy voice called out from deeper inside the home. There was a pause before her mother emerged from around the corner, wheelchair squeaking as she rolled to a stop in front of her. "I feel like I barely see you these days." She chided, though she still reached out and wrapped her in a hug.
"I know, I'm sorry." Artemis said as she returned the hug. In spite of her mother's insistence, Artemis still felt a bit bad about leaving her mother alone so much. The spinal injury had made her life that much harder, and while she often said otherwise her mom still needed assistance from time to time. The two broke apart and Artemis placed her hands on her hips. "So, what's this we need to talk about?"
Her mother blinked. "What? What do you mean?"
Artemis quirked an eyebrow. "You know, you messaged me saying 'Come home, we need to talk'." She pulled out her phone and showed it to her, said message on display.
"...Artemis, I didn't send this." Her mother said after a beat. She pulled out her own phone and checked, and Artemis could see that she was telling the truth. "Wait, you didn't respond back did you? Did you tell them anything?"
A pit of paranoia started to form in Artemis's gut, and she pulled back her phone. The message definitely read as coming from her mother's number. That wasn't impossible to spoof, but it was a lot more effort than scammers usually put it. "No, I just came here."
"Hmm. Well, I'm sure it's nothing, just a scammer or some such." Her mother said, her cheerful tone not matching her eyes. Her mother then wheeled herself around and headed towards the closest. "Actually, while you're here, could you get something out of the basement for me? Just a box of old things next to the boiler." As she said this, she pulled a shotgun out of the closet and began quietly loading it, her eyes flickering to Artemis and then the stairs leading to the second floor rather than the basement.
Retired or not, her mother had led an 'interesting' life, and those instincts hadn't gone away.
"Sure thing, mom."Artemis said, and moved up the stairs as quietly as she could. As she climbed, Artemis's hand slipped behind her, pulling out the concealed hand crossbow she had on her person. Slowly and carefully she cleared the second floor, going room by room until she got to her own. She stood back as she opened the door, revealing nothing-
In the corner of her eye, there was a slight movement, seen through the gap between the opening door and the frame.
Artemis rolled forward, sliding across the floor until she was in a crouch facing back towards the door. In one smooth motion she had her weapon leveled at the figure crouched atop the dresser. But she just barely managed to stop herself from firing when she saw who it was.
"Reflexes are still too slow. But you are getting faster." The woman said, a slight grin on her face. She was dressed in simple jeans and green jacket with a matching hat, dark hair spilling out from underneath it. And while it had been years, there was no mistaking her sister's smug smirk anywhere.
Artemis stared back at the woman incredulously, though she didn't drop her crossbow. "Jade? What the hell are you doing here? Shouldn't you be rotting in a Rhelasian prison?"
"As far as any government is concerned, yes." Jade said coyly, hopping down off the dresser. "So, how have things on the other side of the law been?"
The arm holding the hand crossbow dropped, and the other one rose up to put a hand over her face. "You can not seriously be doing this… Does mom know you're-"
"No, she doesn't." Jade interrupted, her tone more serious. "And she won't find out either."
Artemis just gave her sister a flat look as she stood up. "I'm sure she has a different opinion on that. And you can't stop me from calling out to her right now."
"Maybe," Jade said, her stance widening a bit. "But then this friendly visit will get a lot less friendly. And that's not something you want to happen, dear sister."
Artemis wasn't cowed, however. "Yeah, well, maybe I'm fine with that. Maybe I'll try to bring you in myself. I've gotten more tricks you haven't seen yet. And if that doesn't impress you, you know I've got the guy who captured you last time on speed dial." She threatened. No need to let her sister know what was happening with Jacob.
Jade actually chuckled."Oh, little kitten's grown out some claws. Well, as much fun as that might be, I'm not sure you'd actually want to win that little tussle either. After all, once I'm in custody, I'd have some interesting things to tell your new friends about you."
"...Go right ahead. They already know." Artemis replied. That… wasn't entirely true. Aside from Jacob, she had only told Donna about her family. But, if it came down to it… Artemis was ready to pull off that band-aid.
Jade was actually surprised by her response, and for a moment studied Artemis carefully. Then, slowly, her posture relaxed, and her expression went from playful to something more serious. "Look," Jade said, her tone matching her now exasperated expression. "We've done our little song and dance, but I'm not just here for fun. I'm here to tell you to stay on your toes."
Artemis snorted. "What, now? I've been a superheroes for months and now you're concerned enough to-"
"Artemis, I'm serious." Jade said, cutting her off. "Things are… starting to escalate on the other side of the fence. The Titans have made some powerful people mad, and said people are running out of options to deal with you. You can choose who you spend your time with, but you should know better than to get hitched too tightly to them. You need to have an exit planned."
Artemis paused before she narrowed her eyes. "...Where's this coming from? Is something about to happen?"
"That's all you're getting from me." Her sister said firmly. "I'm taking enough of a risk just telling you this. I'm sure you don't think much of me, but I don't want you getting yourself killed either."
Artemis let out something between a groan and a sigh. Figures her sister would pop back into her life just to tell her to abandon what she's currently doing. Even if it was, in theory, good intentioned. "Jade, you know I can't actually do anything if you're that vague. I like where my life is at and I'm willing to fight to keep it."
"Oh come on, Artemis." Jade replied, actually sounding frustrated. "You were raised smarter than that, we both were. Dad was a piece of shit, but he trained us well. Taught us to know when something's hopeless and cut our losses. Your life might be good, but it's not worth dying for." She took a step forward, her eyes hard. "We don't get attached. We get out."
Artemis felt her own frustration build at Jade's words, and when her sister was done a sudden impulse took hold of her. "And what about you?"
Jade leaned in confusion. "What?"
"What's your plan to get out? You can't tell me that everything with your 'job' is looking safe either."
Jade scoffed. "Of course I have an exit plan, who do you think I am?"
"Then take it." Artemis took a step forward, staring defiantly at the other woman. "You can't possibly tell me actually like the people you're working with. Or that the 'work' you're doing for them is meaningful or useful. Hell, I'd say getting put in a Rhelasian prison is a good sign for you to change careers."
Jade arched an eyebrow. "Just because I have an exit doesn't mean it is simple or easy. One doesn't just walk away from this life." Her eyes flickered downward, to where their mother waited, before continuing. "And besides, even if I do get away clean… What then? What do I do with myself? Do you want me to become a hero like you?"
"No, just… anything else." Artemis replied. "There's plenty of other stuff you can do with your life that's not terrorism!"
The thin lipped smile that Jade gave her had a hint of bitterness in it. "You really think that, don't you? It's almost sweet… but I know what I am. I know what our father turned me into. There isn't a different kind of life for me."
"That's the thing Jade: that's what he told you." Artemis pressed. "That's what dad hammered into our heads every time he trained us, to make us more like him. He can't leave that life… but that's not true for you."
The words were spilling out of Artemis, from a place she had been holding onto for months. Ever since she had listened to the message that Jacob had left her since his and Kori's disappearance.
"Artemis, like I told you, I'd never heard about you till I met you. So you know this all comes from me personally: You are better than your father. Even though he 'raised' you, that doesn't mean you're doomed to follow in his footsteps. You can choose who you want to be, and I know you'll choose to be great."
Jacob believed in her. And maybe it was foolish, but she wanted to believe in her sister too.
Jade stared back at her, the silence heavy between. Artemis thought she saw doubt behind her sister's eyes, actual consideration for what she said. Finally, Jade opened her mouth-
"Artemis!" Her mother called from downstairs. "Is everything alright?"
The moment passed as they both looked at the open door and then back at each other. Jade pulled back from her sister. "...See you around Artemis." she said, and before Artemis could say anything the other woman leapt out the open window and out of sight.
Artemis started at the window for a long second before she closed her eyes, feeling a weight settle on her shoulders. "Clear!" She called downstairs. Did I get to her? She wondered as she headed back to the ground floor. I guess I just have to see.
She didn't get too long to think about it though, as her phone rang a few seconds later. She pulled it out and scowled when she saw that it was Calculus calling. It was a bit unfair, but she couldn't keep the growl out of her voice as she answered. "This had better be important."
"Artemis, return to the Mountain immediately. It has been attacked."
---------------------
The golden light of the Zeta Tube faded as Artemis rushed into the main Mountain chamber, expecting the worst. She had been here when the androids had assaulted the Mountain, saw the damage they had been able to inflict even with all the defenses. Said defenses were even beefier than they were before, so she was dreading whatever aftermath she'd find from something that managed to get through that.
But as she looked around… it wasn't too bad. Yes, there was a hole in the ceiling through which she could see the sky, and a few bits of slagged metal where she knew the hidden turret emplacements were, but she had expected everything to be on fire. The few turrets that were still functional briefly locked on to her before resuming their sweep. She frowned and looked around, trying to find the reason she had been called so urgently, but all she heard were people arguing at the end of one of the connecting tunnels.
With nothing else for it, she hustled towards the voices, and found Robin, Kaldur, and the cloudy form of Calculus yelling at one another. Well, really it was just Robin yelling at Calculus, and she only partially caught what he was saying. "-how?! The thing was in a random service shaft behind a fake wall! How could he-"
"Hey!" Artemis called out, causing them to turn as she approached. "What the hell happened?!"
"Artemis," Kaldur greeted her, taking a step forward before he winced. She noticed the bandages running up his leg, but he ignored it to say "The Mountain was attacked. The defenses were able to repel the invader, but not before he penetrated into the service shafts."
"The invader gained entry to the Mountain via slipping in through some form of shadow dimension." Calculus's voice came from the nano swarm. "We apologize that we were not able to repel the invader sooner. We have some practice in suppressing the magic of others, but it is mostly focused on other Kingdoms. We were able to keep him away from critical areas, but that is not what he was after. Rest assured, we have analyzed the method of entry, and will have countermeasures in place soon."
"Wait, magic?" Artemis asked in confusion. "Just who hit us? Was it Klarion?" The list of magical entities that had the power to punch a hole in the Mountain was very small, and as far as she knew the Witch Boy was the only one who'd have the desire to.
But Robin shook his head. "Nah, it was Wotan. Big time immortal sorcerer that's tangled with the League before."
Artemis blinked. She knew of Wotan, Kori had made them all at least skim the League's database for major threats. That said…"But we've never even run into him. Why would he come after us?"
Robin just growled. "Oh no, it wasn't us he was after."
Kaldur gave her a pained look. "The Helmet of Fate. It's gone."
=====A=====
First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who have been keeping the TvTropes page up to date, I really appreciate it.
Secondly, a kakapo is a dumb flightless parrot. Noah's basically calling Komand'r a stupid cripple. And yes, that is his pet name for her, and yes, he had made sure she knows what a kakapo is.
Thirdly, you're probably all wondering where I've been this time. Well, I don't have any new information for you, just confirmation of an unfortunate fact: I've crossed that threshold in my thirties where I start loosing mental power in the late evening. This is a problem here because 1. writing has always taken a lot of mental effort for me to do, and 2. I've always done most of my writing just before I go to bed. And that just... doesn't really work anymore. I can still kind of do it, but the last several months proved it's a much slower process.
So, I'm trying to figure out if there's a lifestyle change or something to fix this, because I want my late evenings back. If that doesn't work, I'll have to sacrifice a different hobby I do during the day to keep writing at any kind of speed. Not something I'm looking forward to.
@Satire Swift
Middle age slowdown is real and frustrating. The only thing I can say to try is exercising in the morning, hydrating at night, and sleeping 8 hours.
A lot of that slowdown comes down to fatigue or burnout as well. Make sure you're relaxed enough that writing is something you look forward to not a chore and you'll have an easier time.
Besides that tho, thanks for the chapter! It's interesting seeing how things are developing without Jacob and Kori- it's clear their presence is greatly missed.
Secondly, a kakapo is a dumb flightless parrot. Noah's basically calling Komand'r a stupid cripple. And yes, that is his pet name for her, and yes, he had made sure she knows what a kakapo is.
And yet somehow still less toxic than Harley Quinn and the Joker.
That said, I may have gotten some brain rot in that direction considering that's how I fixed my block for this chapter.
Me: Dammit, I need Noah to go through these issues of the Main Pair being missing and how he's gonna stage an attack on the Titans, but the scene is so boring I can't even finish it. My Muse: Hmm... what if you had Komand'r naked, wet, and hate flirting with him the entire time? Me: What? How could that possibly help- and now the scene just wrote itself.
The ship's interior was cramped, bodies pressed together in what amounted to little more than a cargo hold. All of the occupants were chained up in some way or another, shackled to the floors or walls, with cables attached to manacles and collars that could deliver debilitating eclectic shocks. The various prisoners were silent, but an air of despair weighed heavily on them all.
Though an exception, of course, was sitting right next to me. Holding in a sigh, I leaned close and whispered "You're sitting too straight."
Kori turned her head to look at me, most of her features obscured by the hood of her slightly ragged robes. "Hmm?"
"We're supposed to be beaten-down prisoners." I explained, my own tattered robes shifting as I gestured to everyone else. "You're sitting too straight for that."
"Well I can't exactly relax." she whispered back stiffly. "How am I supposed to sit?"
"Try slouching a bit, like the weight of the world is on your shoulders."
She paused for a moment before she slowly started to hunch forwards, setting into an awkward slouch. "How's this?"
I stared for a long moment before I, again, had to hold in a sigh. "Just… just lean against me like you're tired."
This she could do convincingly, shifting her weight so that she leaned against me, her head resting on my shoulder. No one seemed to notice our little byplay, most of them more focused on their own dread and impending fates. Which made sense; these people were being traded from one slaver to another after all.
Finding a shipment of slaves that was headed to this specific Psion station wasn't as hard as I would have thought. The information gained from the data terminal let us narrow the field of when and where the station would be next hunting for resources, and the Last Port made a point of tracking the slave trade throughout the system. Add that to the fact that the Psions relied too much on their tech to hide themselves and forgot that some money can loosen lips, it wasn't too long before Kori and I had snuck in with the rest of the slaves.
That said, we weren't the only ones. I spared a glance around the cramped cabin to check in on the team that had come with us. While Kori and I were willing to do this on our own, the Last Port did owe us for all the operations we helped them carry out over the past few months, so some of their members volunteered to come with and help us get what we were looking for. It wasn't entirely altruistic; they were also looking to steal any equipment or rescue any prisoners they could from the Pison station, but Doc had insisted that our mission took priority.
I counted the three heads of those who had come with us and made sure to note their positions relative to me. If my calculations were right, based on the speed of the transport ship and approximate location of the station, we would be arriving just about-
Sure enough, I felt the subtle shift in momentum though the ship's inertial dampeners, feeling the ship slow down. A small shift in my posture let Kori know what was happening, and it wasn't much longer before I felt the ship settle to a stop. And not much longer after that the door to the compartment opened, the bright light outside the ship briefly blinding most everyone inside and silhouetting the boxy robot standing in the opening. "MOVE." It commanded flatly, and all of the slaves felt the hi-tech collars and manacles drag them to their feet by some invisible force.
We half shuffled, half were dragged off the ship into a wide open hangar, a number of different models of Psion vessels lining space and a clear view of the empty void through the force field covered opening. I couldn't tell if it was the exact same one I had exited the station from the first time; that was close to a year ago and I was in a bit of a rush back then. But, the layout was vaguely familiar to me, and I was able to pinpoint the area where they kept the smaller ships with a glance.
Sure enough, I spotted what I was looking for, all the way on the other side of the hangar past some larger ships: A Psion Scout-class vessel. An ugly looking cylinder surrounded in concentric rings that would be Kori and I's ticket back to Earth. Of course we couldn't just go and grab it right there, we had to make sure it wouldn't be shot down on its way out first. Not to mention the other things I needed from this station.
Our group was led through the hangar towards the interior wall by the boxy robot, the machine rolling ahead of us on stubby treads while its dome head looked straight forward. Passing through a door into a wide corridor, we were led through a gate with more robots splitting the slaves into groups. Myself, Kori, and our three compatriots were led straight through by the first one, rounding a corner until we came to a more narrow hallway. To the right of us there was a large window looking into a room full of monitors, with a pair of Psions stationed inside. One of them noticed our approach and stepped out, stopping the robot. "Hold! Where are you taking these subjects?" The lizard alien barked out. I noted that he was armed with one of those stick-like laser rifles, just like the one standing in the threshold of the doorway.
"SPECIAL PROJECTS." The robot said. "ULTRAVIOLET CLEARANCE."
The Psion scrunched up their face. "What? I wasn't told about this." They turned back to their partner. "Did you know-"
The moment the two Psions had one another's attention, the wide EM spectrum jammer in my chest activated and I let out a low whistle. In an instant everyone moved, rushing towards the two guards as all of their restraints suddenly unlocked. The one closest to me barely turned back in my direction before one of my hands was clamped around its muzzle and the other was ripping its weapon out of its hand. Kori did much the same to the one in the doorway, barreling into the much smaller alien and pinning it. The machine that had escorted us here did nothing, as I had hacked it long before we had even set foot on the transport ship.
It was over in a matter of seconds, no alarms raised. A few swift blows and the Psions were taken care of, and the lot of us hustled into the security station. The door closed behind us and a command polarized the glass. I tossed off my rags and placed a hand on the computer console, a finger melding with an open port and cracking into their systems. As I got to work, I looked back at the others. "Comm check."
Kori also threw off her tattered robes, revealing her Karnian disguise underneath. "Orchid, check." She said, using the alias she had adopted with her disguise.
"Tigorr, check." The Karnian man said as he likewise devised himself of his rags. Next to him Demonia hissed out "Demonia, check." Felicity wasn't here with us this time, her skills weren't suited to this sort of infiltration. Instead, we had someone else rounding out the party.
"Primus, check." The Euphprian man with flowing orange hair and broad physique said as he stood back the door, his whole body tense. He was one of the newer additions to the Last Port. Normally he wouldn't have been considered for this, but the man had some knowledge of Psion systems and protocols… somehow. He wasn't forthcoming on exactly why, but both Doc and Maddie had vouched for him, so I had let it slide. In the now, he looked back at the rest of us. "As far as I know we should have about half an hour before anyone will come to check in on them. Are you sure you know what you have to do?"
The last question was directed towards me, so I answered "Break into the station's main computer core, compromise it so that we can disable security and create a distraction, and then get us onto a scout ship to fly away. And in the middle of all that, look into their project logs and see if we can't bring that Lantern with us."
Primus frowned slightly. "I have some trepidation about trying to secure the Lantern… but I agree that we should rescue any prisoners we can."
"And steal everything that isn't nailed down." I added.
He rolled his eyes. "Yes, that too."
I felt a sort of 'click' in the back of my mind as my instruction into the security system was successful. The first time around I had managed this with brute force (and partially eating the hardware), but my skill and knowledge was orders of magnitude greater now. As such, it was a simple matter to set up several backdoors along with a direct connection with my nanites. "I'm in." I said, withdrawing my hand from the console. "This will keep us covered for a bit. Stay here while I make my way to the main computer core. Once we've got that, we'll have a much easier time moving around the station."
"And you're sure you can do it?" Primus asked. "Not to gainsay your abilities, but I imagine it will be much more difficult than cracking a simple security station."
"He can." Kori spoke for me, placing a hand on my shoulder. "He can do anything."
I didn't quite manage to hold in my helpless sigh, placing a hand over her own and giving her a look. In spite of our respective mask, we both knew we were smirking at one another.
I stayed like that for a moment before I pulled away, and the light around me rippled as I covered myself in an optical cloak. Jumping up to the ceiling, my body shifted to my xenomorph form before I crawled to a service junction panel nestled in the top corner of the room, popping it open and slipping inside within moments. The inside of the chute was cramped and full of exposed tubing and wires, clearly meant for service drones rather than people to move through, but my form managed it easily enough. With the aid of my connection to the security network, I wasn't completely blind as to where I was going. There was a list of security sensors in these ducts I could follow that would take me right to my goal.
Man. their internal security is crap, I found myself thinking as I moved, spoofing each sensor node I came across with surprising ease. Granted, compromising the security network made this easier, but I was pretty sure I could have done it without if I had to.. The Psions most likely relied on the fact that no one was supposed to find this station in the first place, let alone sneak their way inside. Well, their lack of foresight was my gain, and in short order I navigated through what felt like a kilometer of service ducts and a dozen junctions before slipping into a (comparatively) more cavernous space.
It was a tall room dominated by three pillars, made out of some kind of green and yellow metals. Arranged in a triangular pattern, they were numerous cables and struts interwoven between the pillars, along with plenty of ports, hatches, and blinking lights of all kinds. The room was noticeably colder than the rest of the station I had been through, and the only reason the entire space wasn't covered in frost was that the air was dry as a bone.
What is it with Vega technology and techno-pillars? I mulled, circling around the outside of the room as I double checked for any unaccounted for sensor equipment. Finding none, I opted for the simple approach and moved into the middle of the pillars, climbing up halfway before I 'spread out'. Most of my mass turned into mechadendrites and connected to various ports and cables in range. In short order, my entire body had turned into a sort of spider web that covered the interior space of the computer core, and connecting to the system showed me what I was working with.
Ah, Trimavarite Executive Processing, I thought. These were three separate cores that worked in tandem to double check each other's work and provide redundancies. A decent design for a scientific research station, and provides a good measure of security against outside hacks… but is significantly more vulnerable to inside hacks if you're dumb enough to put all three right next to each other. With almost all of my nanite mass focused on it, it wasn't long before I deciphered the error checking messages running between the cores and started spoofing them, altering the data so as to build myself a way in. After a few minutes of this I had complete control of the check system, and a few minutes after that I had my entrance into the cores, effectively establishing myself as a fourth 'authoritative' core.
I still had to be a little careful to not unbalance the whole system, but it was more than enough to start peeling back the layers of code and see what I could access. I had picked out this chamber when I was searching security as it looked to be the nerve center of the entire station, but I hadn't been entirely certain. Sure enough, sorting through the cores' functions told me that this was the center of the station's operational systems; things like life support, power management, ect. But, to my annoyance, it wasn't directly connected to certain other systems I was looking for. Like wherever they were keeping their R&D data.
But I could work on that in a moment. "I've got access to main engineering," I commed the others, accessing a more detailed map of the station. "Between it and my security access, I should be able to find you a safe spot to relocate to if we time it right…" That security station would be checked up on eventually, and the Psions finding empty would be a lot less problematic than if they found my team in it. I analyzed the station map for a moment before I grunted. "Looks like the Containment level isn't too far away from your position, and it has a direct path to the hangar. There's a storage room that should be safe to regroup at."
"Is the Lantern on the Containment level?" Kori asked.
"Don't know, need to do some more digging first. But still need to figure out where they're keeping the experiment data, and it's as good a place as any to start." I replied, accessing several doors and elevators while loading a 'routine' diagnostic program into main security. "Alright, ready when you are."
"Understood, on your mark." Kori responded.
"...Mark." I said, setting the security system into diagnostic mode while unlocking the doors and elevators.
"Moving." Kori said, and my team hustled out of the security room and to the nearest lift. Half of my attention was watching/covering them on the various sensors and causing 'glitches' to divert any nearby Psions' attention away from them, but the other half was focusing on digging more information out of the station's systems. There had to be some way to get something on what happened here all those months ago…
It was then that my search gave me something to work with: internal messages between terminals. I couldn't access project files or prisoner rosters directly from where I was, but I could scour their emails for anything about them. I set up a system to search by keyword in short order, and quickly found something interesting.
Terminal-38562 => Terminal-72431
[The Lantern has been secured and separated from their power ring. Base species is unexceptional, currently being held in general Containment. Experiments to test species's potential changes from long term power ring use are pending, as the original species needs to be studied first for a baseline.]
Wasn't sure what that 'base species' stuff was about, but at least I now knew the team was headed in the right direction. But, while it would make interrogating them easier, them not having their Ring was a bit of a complication if I wanted it for myself. Not critical if we could swipe that scout ship, but something to keep in mind. It was around this time that my team reached the storage room, so I waited until they were behind the closed door before I commed "Just confirmed that the Lantern is in fact being held in Containment, and without their ring. Lucky us."
"Do you know what happened to their ring?" Kori asked.
"Not yet, but so long as we can secure the scout ship I'm willing to settle for just them and leave. After I find the info I'm looking for." I replied. "In the meantime, hang tight. That spot should be safe for the moment, and it shouldn't be long before I've compromised everything I can from here. I'll have more information for you then."
While I couldn't see them inside that storage room due to the lack of cameras, I could still hear Primus and Tigor start work-shopping how they were going to take the Containment level. A bit premature maybe, but there was nothing else for them to do at the moment so I let them talk. I got back to searching internal messages, looking for an event I was sure the Psions had something to say about. I tried a few variations of the key phrase 'containment breach' before I found what I was looking for.
Terminal-38562 => Terminal-34438
[Damage reports are still being compiled, but the initial assessment is that we lost 13 personnel in the escape. The older Tamaranian was recaptured, but the younger one escaped, along with specimen 82-Bal. The procedural failure of the Tamaranian Energy Infusion experiment has been cataloged, and those responsible have been terminated.]
Looked like Kommand'r must have made her own way off the station later somehow, but I was far more focused on the designation the Psions gave me. I added '82-Bal' to my search params, and got a new list of internal messages, all of them about me. Most were mundane things about my handling and observations about how I was adapting to the 'Bleed-Resonant Nanomaterial' as they called it. One of the earlier dated ones caught my attention though: it was someone on the science staff asking where I had come from.
Terminal-72431 => Terminal-Prime-1
[I was attempting to get confirmation on 82-Bal's species, but I have been unable to find any acquisition reports involving it. In fact, there is no record of the subject being brought aboard the station at all. So far I've had to cross reference the xenobiological database to make my best guess. I cannot make accurate predictions of the Bleed-Resonant Nanomaterial's progression without having a baseline to work with. Where exactly was 82-Bal acquired?]
And things only got stranger with the reply. From the overseer of the station no less.
Terminal-Prime-1 => Terminal-72431
[That is restricted information. All information on subject 82-Bal is to be removed from research servers and stored on my personal server. All experiments and data derived from said experiments are to be given to me first.]
What did that mean? I definitely showed up on this station by extra-normal means, but why was that information being kept secret? Whatever the case, it looked like I needed to find the overseer's office if I wanted my answers (assuming that's where they kept their personal server). That… complicated things, but I wasn't leaving without finding out what happened to me that day. I just had to dig a little deeper.
Such was my focus, that I barely noticed it. A slight power drain brought my attention to an external communication dish, which sent out a signal into space before shutting off again. I had more important things to worry about, so I just filed that away and refocused on what I was doing.
Except that about 30 seconds later, a minor alert came from the station's gravimetric sensors, indicating a slight disturbance sunward. It was a little hard to spot amid all the other sensory reading coming from the star, but that quickly changed as the reading grew stronger and stronger. My focus was pulled towards it as the alerts turned into warnings and the reading multiplied, space starting to warp in several places a few dozen miles from the station. A few moments later several starships materialized out of those rents in space.
The last alert told me what I already knew, just as the klaxons started sounding. [Multiple Starslip Signatures Detected]
I had seen enough of them over the past few months to recognize the ships. Gordanians.
…I didn't have lungs at the moment, so I had to settle for only mentally letting out a sigh.
Before any of my team could start panicking, I commed all of them. "Team, a small Gordanian fleet just starsliped next to the station. I can only assume it's an attack force."
"What?! Now?!" Tigorr shouted. "Now of all times they decided to act on that information?!"
"A signal was sent out from the station about a minute ago." I did a quick check of the system. "And whatever it was erased itself after it was sent. I'm guessing there's a mole on the station." Awfully coincidental that it happened right after we arrived. Almost like… well, just have to keep that in mind. "In any case, I estimate we've got-"
I was cut off as the first barrage of projectiles reached the station, and a curving shield flared to life to stop it. It must not have been a very effective shield, as the whole station shook slightly at the impact. Connected as I was, I could see the drain that put on the station's systems, and the Gords were already firing off another salvo. "...Very little time." I said, looking past them to see the follow up. "We're going to have boarding parties very soon." Following in the wake of the wave of shells was a cluster of smaller ships headed for the station, a mix of transports and fightercraft.
Primus's voice was tight as he said "...We may have to accept that the mission is impossible now."
Demonia disagreed. "Cowardice! We will never have this opportunity again! We must take the risk!"
This quickly spiraled into a heated argument between the 3 members of Last Port, though Kori remained silent. Because we both knew that we weren't leaving until we got what we came for, regardless of what the others thought about it. "Give me a minute…" I whispered to her, before I turned out the conversation and withdrew into the ship's systems, taking stock.
Our operation now had a time limit at best, and at worst we were going to have armed soldiers to deal with shortly. Well, no, at worst the station gets blown up with us on it, but whatever the case I needed a way to deal with this. And find the station overseer's personal server. I was not leaving without that data.
Accessing the station's systems, I scanned for anything that could be useful. The station did have some point defense lasers, but I didn't have direct access to them and they were already firing anyway (for what little use they were). The station did have its own starslip drive, but would take time to fire up, and the approaching ships would probably tear the station apart before we could manage it. I could try disengaging the safeties and charging it faster, but the station wasn't built to handle that kind of stress. It's just as likely tear itself apart as work, just how Komand'r's ship would have if-
…Hmm. That could work.
I dove into the power sub system and found the list of station systems, quickly latching on to a particular one: Gravity wave emitters. Unlike the single massive emitter that Komand'r's ship had, the station had a complex network of smaller ones, most likely meant for handling space debris rather than anything larger. But like Komand'r's ship, they could directly draw gravitational energy directly from the station's core. So long as you disabled a dozen safeties. And didn't care about the station slowly tearing itself apart.
And I could handle both of those.
Abandoning any pretense of digital stealth, all the safeties were disengaged in sequence, and gravitational energy was rerouted to the emitters on the side of the advancing attack force. As several small fighter craft drew close to the station, several of the emitters near them focused and unleashed gravity waves an order of magnitude or two stronger than they should have been. The shields on the fighters had already been tested against the station's inadequate point defenses, but when the wave hit them their fronts crumpled like tin cans. Each flattened for a moment before exploding into shrapnel, forcing the transport ships near it to swerve away.
At the same time, the whole station shuddered as gravitational backlash rippled through the structure. It was different enough from the rumbling caused by the Gordanian attack that Primus stopped bickering with the others to ask "What was that?"
"That was me overclocking the station's gravitational emitters into a proper weapon." I replied, locking out the Psion techs who were desperately trying to re-enable the safeties. "The good news is that it will slow the Gordanian's advance. The bad news is that the more I do it the station will tear itself apart."
"Then we have time to rescue the Psion's prisoners?"
I paused. "Maybe. Depends on how willing the Gords are to push their own through a meat grinder."
"Then we should at least try. They won't fare any better under the Gordanian than the Psions, assuming they bother to let them live at all."
He wasn't wrong. Those prisoners were going to be caught in the middle of all this if we did nothing. Trying to save them would make accomplishing my own objective more difficult… but even 24 light years away from home, I was still a superhero. I had to at least try.
I quickly processed all the info I had for a few moments before I responded. "Alright, here's the plan: time is short, so we're going loud. I'm taking power away from the defense systems on the far side of the station, which will draw both the Gords and the Pisons away from you. Then I'm blacking out the Containment Level; the moment emergency power kicks in, that's your signal to go in fast and hard, I'll open up a path from you to the hangar, and with the ongoing assault no one should notice. Of course that just means we'll have to worry about the Gordanian fighters shooting us down rather than station point defenses, but one thing at a time."
"And your own objective?" Demonia asked.
"I have a lead. Sort of. I'll meet you in the Containment Level before heading after my own target. Now get ready."
20 seconds later, the advancing Gordanian ships noticed the weakened defenses and moved to take advantage. 20 seconds after that I cut the main power to the Containment Level. A fraction of a second later the emergency power kicked in. "Now!" I commanded, and the rest of my Team burst out of the storage closet and rushed down the surprised Psion security guards nearby.
I opened up the passages and lifts between the Containment Level and the hangar, and set up an algorithm for the defenses to prioritize attacking any Gordanian ships that targeted Pison vessels. I then disentangled myself from the main computers and moved out. As stealth was a secondary concern by that point, I exited back into corridors at the first opportunity. As such, my trip to the Containment Level was a lot faster and less subtle than my movements thus far. Alarms were blaring and covering most of the sound of my movements, so I only ran into one or two random Psions that happened to be in my way. I took them down without issue before continuing on.
By the time I reached my destination, my team had already taken down what security staff was left in their section of the Level, though I found them standing outside of a large metal door adjacent to a console. They spun with their weapons raised as I sprinted towards them, but paused when they saw it was me. "The prisoners are through here," Kori said, "But the doors are on a local subsystem. Can you-"
She was cut off as I simply speared my hand into the console next to her, spikes unfurling and manually bypassing the security protocols.
"...fair enough." She finished, and moments later the massive door slid open with a groan.
Past the opening door we were greeted with a long hallway, with yet more metal doors lining each side. I felt an odd bit of nostalgia, as I recognized the layout from when I was first imprisoned here, though I quickly shook it off and moved forward. "Supposedly the Lantern is being held here, but I don't know who or what they are. We don't have time to properly question everyone, so just take them all and we'll ask questions later."
Prisoner information wasn't directly connected to the main network and we didn't have time to go looking for it, so we simply ran down the hall and checked door by door. The identifier plates had serial numbers rather than names, but they did also have specific details on species and planet of origin. This let us skip over the obviously animal and monstrous experiments for the actual people. Though a few of the latter were still a bit 'modified', but I was in no position to judge.
One after another we pulled confused Psion prisoners out of their cells, some getting with the program quicker than others. We were most of the way down the row when the gaggle of captives had started to become unruly, and the rest of my team had to step back to manage them. This is more than I expected, we're not gonna be able to take them all on the Scout ship, I thought as I moved to the next door. I couldn't exactly stop with the time crunch we were under (those gravitational backlashes were getting stronger), so I opened the door and stepped inside.
The room was bathed in deep red light, and in the center was a Tamaranian man, of all things. His hands and forearms were enclosed in thick manacles, which were attached to the ground with a chain. Dressed in rather minimal robes, the man himself was slumped forward on his knees and only barely managed to lift his head to look at me. To my eyes, I could barely see any ultraviolet patterns beneath his skin. Sun starvation.
I strode forward and grabbed onto the manacles, simply crushing them in my grip. The man looked at me in tired confusion, and then in worry as my other hand came around and an aperture formed in my palm. He then relaxed as ultraviolet light emitted from my palm and washed over him, the man letting out a moan of relief. He didn't resist as I half supported/half carried him out of the room. "Primus, how are things looking?" I shouted as I exited the room.
"We've only got 3 more to check." He replied. "You, me, and Tigorr can handle that and get the hell out of here."
I looked past him to see most of the crowd we had collected hustling away from us. "And is that where they're all going?"
"Orchid is leading them to the hangar, she said that the Scout ship we planned on stealing wouldn't be large enough. She's going to try to repurpose the ship we came in on. She also managed to get all the prisons to listen to her… the woman has an impressive ability to get people to do as she asks."
I hummed. "That's my Kori," I muttered under my breath. The man I was carrying let out a confused groan, and I half handed/half tossed the man at Demonia. "Get him with the others, go!"
Demonia looked a bit annoyed at being ordered around, but she did as I asked, allowing me to go all the way down to the end of the row. The problem was, which I realized as I hurriedly hit the switch to open the door, that I was in such a rush I forgot to actually check the identification plate on the door. I held back a curse and raised my arms, ready to hold back any monstrosity that might have been waiting for me.
The door opened upwards, and I stared into the mostly empty cell. After a few seconds, my head tilted downwards.
Sitting at my feet, like it had been waiting for me to come home from a long day at work, was a pale-fured corgi. The dog stared up at me with its mouth hanging open and tail wagging happily, as if it wasn't sitting inside of an alien prison cell.
I blinked dumbly. I then looked at the identification tag.
243-Max
Species: Unknown
Planet of Origin: Unknown
I looked back at the dog and ran several scans on it, but everything came back with the same result: this was a perfectly normal Earth dog. After several long seconds I reached down and picked it up, the corgi not resisting as I cradled it in my arms. It did however let out a small noise and titled its head at me.
"...Welp. I guess I have to love you forever now." I said in resignation.
The dog barked at me happily in response, before trying to lick my face.
The station shook beneath my feet violently, enough to make a normal person stumble. Mentally checking the station's status caused me to scowl; one of the auxiliary generators was just torn apart by all the backlash, and the Gordanians that managed to get on board were already pushing deeper into the station. We had even less time than I wanted.
I hustled back to the others, who were shepherding the few remaining prisoners down the hall. Tigorr looked between me and the dog in my arms. "I did not like the feel of that last rumble. Are we good to go?"
"Yep." I opened comms to the rest of the team. "Everyone, this is Stack. We've cleared Containment of everyone we could rescue, but the station is falling apart and we don't have long before the Gordanian's run into us. More than that, Orchid and I still haven't accomplished our objective. With that in mind, Primus, Tigorr, Demonia: Take the cargo ship with all of the prisoners and bug out the first chance you can get without being shot at. Orchid: That scout ship in the same hangar, see if you can grab it. I'm going to need you to pick me up."
"From where?" Kori asked.
"About 200 meters up the main spire, the station Overseer's office. I'll be making my own exit."
"Understood. And the Lantern?"
"Unknown. If one of the prisoners is the Lantern, they're not giving it away." I paused for a moment, looking down at the dog in my arms with narrowed eyes "You're not secretly a Green Lantern, are you?"
The good boy let out a confused whine at my question, so I just shook my head. I'm pretty sure Stewart would have mentioned if the Green Lantern Corps had a corgi Lantern. I handed the dog to Tigorr (who whined some more and squirmed in the Karnian's arms) and commed Kori again. "Stick close the station, I'll comm you when I'm ready."
"I'll be ready."
I closed comms and nodded to Tigorr. "See you on the other side." With that, I formed a magnetokinectic core in my chest, pushed off the metallic flooring to float upward, and then shot myself down the corridor.
The Overseer was the one lead I had for what happened to me all those months ago, and I didn't have any more time for investigating any further. The layout of the station I had gotten earlier gave me a path to get to their office; I just had to hope the Pison or his personal server was there. Either way, the trip upwards was an even shorter one than previous, as I used my effectors and the metal corridors to simply propel myself through the station like a bullet through a barrel. I may have also gone through a floor or two in the name of speed. Which meant that it wasn't too long before I was in front of a slightly fancier set of doors, ripping them open with my claws.
Inside was a large office with a long window across the back of it, lights and explosions flicking just past it as the Gordanians threw themselves at the station. Sitting behind a large desk was a Psion, who had just been in the middle of typing something before I ripped his door open. We both paused as we saw each other, and I noted the epaulets on his jumpsuit; This was the Overseer.
The Psion then reached for something under the desk, but I wasn't having it. I cleared the distance in blur, grabbing them by the throat and pinning them to the wall. "Hello there," I said, grabbing the gun they had managed to grab and consuming it in a flurry of assimilation spikes."Remember me?"
The Psion struggled uselessly in my grip, and when they spoke it was in a sort of high pitched warble. "N-no!" They barked out. "Who are you, some mercenary those Gordanians brought with them?!"
"...I suppose I looked a bit different back then," I muttered. "Maybe this will jog your memory." My head twisted and expanded, and in moments the alien was staring at the face of the xenomorph form I first had when they forced the nanomachines on me.
Their panic didn't exactly lessen, but they did stop struggling as recognition set it. "Y-you! Subject 82-Bal!"
I changed my head back, giving him a face to look at. "I've got a few questions, and neither of us have much time, so let's keep this brief. How did you bring me here?"
"Bring… you?" They asked, their tone something close to confusion. "I don't-"
I pulled them back and slammed them against the wall again, more to refocus them than anything else. "Nearly a year ago. One second I was on my home planet, the next I'm on a slab in this station. How?"
"I don't know!" It choked out. "No one brought you here! It-it was an anomaly!"
"...Explain."
"There was an unknown energy signature in the High Energy Lab. When we came to investigate, we found your meat body on the floor unconscious. We had no records of anyone bringing you aboard the station, or any experiments that would bring you here!"
There were a number of emotions trying to well up, but I crushed them down and asked "So I just… appeared? No explanation, no trace?"
"None!" The Psion insisted, before hesitating. "That is, not at first glance. We kept your meat body sedated for study, and we found your atoms were vibrating at an-an irregular frequency! You weren't from this universe!"
"...You're talking about Bleed frequency." I said. Matter from every universe vibrated at a slightly different frequency, and said frequency resonated in the Bleed. If you had the frequency… you could find the universe. "Did you write that frequency down?"
"We recorded what we could, but it was too erratic, shifting from moment to moment." The Psion shook their head. They had calmed down somewhat, perhaps realizing that talking was stopping me from getting more violent. "We were to research you for some time… until one of my more treacherous apprentices discovered that one of his projects reacted to you: a cluster of alien nanomachines he retrieved on an expedition. None of his experiments could get a reaction from them… but there was a reaction to you."
The lizard alien started to rant. "He took you out of containment and tossed those blasted nanomachines at you, resulting in whatever you have become. He was punished for his transgression, and perhaps things could have been salvaged… if the Tamaranians hadn't broken out of containment, if only-"
My grip around the alien's throat tightened slightly, cutting them off. I didn't have time to listen to them ramble. "Focus. If you don't keep talking about that Bleed frequency I'm going to start squeezing."
"Y-yes, there's more!" They said frantically. "There was a moment during the bonding process your Bleed frequency stabilized! We attempted to probe the frequency with a Bleed Agitator to gain insight on you or the nanomachines, and some… material manifested in our lab. It's contained in my personal storage!" The Pison pointed to the wall behind it, and I could see the barely visible seam running along the bulkhead. "I can show you how to access it, but first I'm going to need-"
Using my magnetokinetic core, I tore several bits of metal off the paneling around the room and had it fly at the psion's limbs, forming manacles that anchored them to the wall spread eagle with a final piece clamping their mouth shut. The alien struggled as I moved towards the seam in the wall and thrust my hand into it. The material the wall was made of was tough, but it fell apart all the same as my nanites spread and ripped the metals apart. It took less than a minute to find the internal release, and the door slid/screeched open. Past the doorway was a relatively small room, lined with sealed cubbies marked with serial numbers.
My time inside their computers had given me a basic understanding of the Psion's filing system, so I wasted no time in finding one that was marked for data storage. Inside was a set of storage decks, which I quickly connected to and started downloading everything they had. And I ignored all of it save for a single piece of data, marked under the directory of 'Subject 82-Bal': An equation representing a specific oscillation in Bleed space, recorded a few days after my arrival.
I let out a small breath as I internalized the frequency, a small bit of tension leaving me. This wasn't quite what I had been looking for, but it was enough. If I was right, this frequency was the 'address' to my home universe. I knew travel through the Bleed was possible, and now I had the guiding star for where I needed to go. I had to figure out exactly how, but now I knew what to do.
A whining sound broke me out of my musings, and I looked down to see a familiar corgi pawing at one of the lower cubbies. "...Max?!" I said incredulously, using the name on the serial number in lieu of anything else. "The hell are you doing here?! You're supposed to be heading off the station!" The dog looked up at me and barked, before once again pawing at the drawer and looking back at me. I scowled "No I'm not opening up that drawer of dangerous hyper tech for you!"
Max whined again and a few moments later the station shook, reminding me that I really didn't have time to waste. Still, it reminded me there was still that 'extra material' that was created by their experiments that I needed to grab. I wanted every last scrap I could get before I left. Going back to the files I just downloaded, I found the serial number given to the cubby holding physical material for my file, and used that to find the cubby. It was even smaller than I expected, little more than an actually drawer, but I opened it up and-
I stared. Slowly, I reached in and pulled the sole object out, smooth pages rustling ever so slightly in my grip.
It was a comic book. Bold letting at the top named it 'THE NEW TEEN TITANS' with a '#1' in a small box next to it. On the cover was a familiar piece of artwork, all the Teen Titans in their 80's costumes running/flying towards the reader in dynamic poses. It had been a while since I had seen this cover art, but it looked just like I remembered it.
With one exception. Cyborg wasn't there.
I was.
I stared for a long moment. It wasn't exact, but it was what my armored form might look like if it was drawn by George Perez back in the 80's. Smooth plate broken up by exaggerated ridges, a mostly featureless head save for a nearly invisible mouth and a pair of small, round eyes, one arm shifted into a cannon of sorts.
I received the alert just as the station started to rumble and I felt the floor tilt.
[Critical structural damage suffered by Primary Spine-]
There was a loud screech followed by a crunching sound, and I felt gravity fluctuate. I turned to see the floor back in the office start to bulge and buckle, and the air hissed as it started slipping out of the room. I had just enough time to form some Psion hard shields and form a seal on the doorway before the room ruptured. I briefly heard the Director scream before all the air vanished and I was struck with raw force. The shields held but everything started to tumble, and the walls around me groaned and buckled as well. Electricity surged through the walls as there was a sudden kick, and the room past the shield started to… drift away,
The whole thing only took a couple of seconds, but by the end of it I found myself floating off the ground and the walls around me coming apart. As the room fell to pieces I saw a hole on the outer wall of the Psion station… because I was now on the outside of the station.The various drawers around me twitched and opened at random, with their contents floating upwards now that the station's gravity wasn't affecting them.
It took a moment or two to piece together what had happened: The sudden structural failure of the Overseer's room triggered some kind of ejection mechanism of the secret vault, though it didn't quite do it fast enough to be unscathed. Most of the electronics I hadn't scooped up already were fried, and the walls themselves were breaking apart and slowly drifting away. Not that it was much of an immediate problem, I could survive hard vacuum just fine, but-
The dog! I spun around a few times before I finally spotted the ball of white fur, or at least it's behind. It seemed that the drawer he had been pawing at was one of the ones fried open, and it somehow managed to get itself partway buried in its contents. The way his feet were kicking told me he was alive, but I only had seconds before the hard vacuum started doing real damage. As I jetted over and pulled the dog out, I saw that he had managed to get something metallic wrapped around him, but I ignored it for the moment as my hand shaped into a mask for his face and turned-
I stopped once the dog was fully turned to face me, and I got a better look at what was around his neck. I could see that it wasn't just some random piece of metal, but a blue collar with a circular part at the throat. But most of my attention was focused on the symbol on that circular part; a center circle with lines coming from the top and bottom connecting to horizontal lines, and two more that came from the sides and curved back in, almost like wings.
I was much more familiar with a different version of that symbol, but I recognized a Lantern when I saw one. It just didn't belong to the Green one.
[Don't worry Jacob!] A light tenor voice came from the collar as a blue aura surrounded the dog, floating out of my arms. [Everything's gonna be ok!]
I stared at the Blue Lantern for several long seconds. [...What.] I meant to ask how he knew my name, but that's all I managed to get out. Or at least tried to, with the lack of atmosphere.
Apparently I had broadcast my incredulous statement, as the dog replied [Those mean guys took my collar while I was zooping about, but you helped me get it back! I should pay you back somehow!] A pause. [Do you like snacks?]
By this point the safe room around us had broken apart enough for me to see the rest of the psion Station, and the terrible shape it was currently in. Much of the top part had been blown off into spiraling shrapnel, and the lower bits were pockmarked with smaller bits of destruction caused by Gordanian weaponry. Though the Gordanians themselves were in rough shape too, smashed to bits or crushed together; even one of the larger vessels that had hung back seemed to have a massive rent across its dorsal side, though I didn't know what could have caused it.
That was enough to snap me out of my confusion. [Uh, yeah, sure, but we have bigger issues right now.] I opened my comms and subvocalized "Stack to team, come in. Did you clear the station? What's your stat-"
A Gordanian fighter suddenly rounded around the side of the partially destroyed station, apparently doing a sweep of the debris. I didn't have time to move as the ship's nose pointed towards me and it began accelerating. I bit back a curse as I formed a hardlight shield to give myself and Max some cover, just as I saw the cannons on its underside start to glow.
But before it could fire, the fighter was suddenly rocked by a streak of brilliant green light spearing through it. There was a beat before the craft simply exploded from the inside out, a few bits of metal bouncing off my shield. I looked towards the streak of light as it curved around and headed back towards me, the energy dissipating to reveal my Kori flying toward me.
"Jacob!" Kori commed me as she flew to my side though she stopped as she noticed the blue-glowing dog next to me, giving me a questioning look.
"Seems like the Psions did cause themselves a Lantern, just not a Green one. Blue Lantern, long story, pretty sure we can trust him." I said, before giving her a concerned look. Her mask contained a small supply of air, and she was tough enough to endure hard vacuum as well, but... "What happened to the Scout ship?"
"I had to sacrifice it as a distraction to allow the transport to escape."
I slowly looked back at the large damaged Gordanian ship, making note of the Scout ship wide gouge it had in it. "...I see." I replied, before reopening the comm. "I repeat, Stack to team, how are you making out?"
"Still alive, much like you apparently." I heard Primus reply with a chuckle. "Guess I should have believed her. But we might not be for much longer. The Gordainians are picking off every ship trying to escape, and while Orchid bought us the time… I don't think we can come back and pick you up. Not without all of us getting killed."
A quick glance at the space around us proved him right; the station's defenses had completely shut down, and the Gordanian ships were closing in to tighten the noose. Normally having our means to get back to Earth taken from us yet again would have been very stressful, but this time… [Can you get us out of here?] I asked the Blue Lantern, patching Kori into the conversation.
[Yes!] The dog replied. [I know a safe place! We can go there!]
"Wait, Jacob, did you-?" Kori started to ask.
"Yes," I answered, giving her a smile. "I'll explain later… but I got what I came for." I didn't quite understand it, but it was more than I had before.
I could feel Kori smile behind the mask, and she nodded in turn. With that, I reconnected with the rest of the fleeing team. "Don't worry about it. The station's core is already unstable. I just need to give it a nudge and the whole thing will blow. That should distract them enough so they can't even think about coming after you."
Tigorr's voice cut in "What?! What about you and -?!"
"Don't worry about us, we've found our own way out. We're not dying here." I said, looking back at the dog. A thought suddenly occurred to me, and I continued. "And it looks like it might be our ticket out of the system too."
There was a pause on the other end before Primus said "So, this is goodbye then."
"Seems like. I hope we get back someday, but if we never meet again… tell Doc 'thanks for everything'."
"And do not forget," Koriand'r cut in, "While you may do what you have to in order to survive, you are more than the refuse the Citadel claims you to be. You are all the sons and daughters of Roshak, and I believe that you can bring an end to their oppression!"
There was a long pause on the other end, before Primus finally said "You're the strangest freelancers I've ever met… but maybe you're on to something. So, no goodbyes. We will see each other again." And with that, the comm closed.
I took stock of the Gordanian ships around us (including the few that seemed to be heading in our direction), and I sent a command to the station's core. Through the torn apart superstructure of the station, I could see an intense light start to build in the center of it. [Alright, if we're gonna go, now's the time!] I told the dog.
[Sure thing!] With that, the blue glow around Max intensified. A construct sphere formed around the three of us, similar to the ones Green Lanterns used when they traveled through space. The difference here was that around the sphere there seemed to be marks of some kind. No, more like a single line that looped while curving in at one spot. And the sphere itself looked kind of… fuzzy?
It took me a few seconds before it clicked. [...Is this a tennis-]
[BALL!]
An instant later we were launched into the depths of space.
=====A=====
Blue Lantern Pupper is to precious not to be real.
