--- 15 - The Void Gate ---
The locals missed a key part of Synch-Tech material creation. Something very dangerous to miss, but also something that said a whole lot about where they were coming from. As far as Helen was aware nobody had ever made a teleportation device using Synch-Tech attuned materials, at least not before now. However, the locals knew of the Void from interactions with Void Entities, and they mostly used it to travel between instances.
The problem the locals had was with how they tried to attune their Void Materials to be useful for transporting things, but that wasn't how it was working. A Void Base wasn't an actual place the same way an instance of reality was a place. Instead it was more an extension of a Void Entity, a place they could put things and a part of them that could interact with others like them. It was very hostile to local life, and even things like the Infected Creatures she could possibly produce couldn't survive in one the way a Void Entity could. Trying to take a living thing with you through your Void Rift was a quick way to get a corpse.
Synch-Tech needed a mind to connect to, and that was the biggest complication with making Synch-Tech. You couldn't go from machine to machine, everything had to be a direct connection with either a person or a fairly potent AI entity at one of the ends. With that in mind, it was fairly obvious how the Ancients made their gates without running into that part of the issue. Ancient tech was alive, so of course its 'computers' had minds to work with, and as a result it could use the same materials Helen used in order to function. It also meant that whatever an Ancient Computer actually was, you would find one at any working Ancient Gate.
Flamescale's problem there was that the locals did not have very good options for making their own gates, even if they had all the pieces to the puzzle. "I've worked out what happened with the duplicate researcher," she said to both of her companions. Yellow-Glow had just gotten down to the research floor, and was only starting to look at what the locals were doing himself. Sledge on the other hand had been with her the entire time, but clearly didn't have the background to have worked this out himself.
"Already? I didn't think you had that much insight from controlling the locals," Yellow-Glow noted uneasily, having clearly realized she wasn't going to give him good news.
"You haven't told him that this Void-Tech is Synch-Tech yet?" Sledge asked sympathetically.
"He's been working on your project instead of working out how I made the Void Materials," Flamescale confessed as she also refocused one of the researchers who clearly didn't believe her requirements for a device on the project of replacing everything instead of sticking with the current materials. "It was an attunement machine."
"You made it sound more important than something you can look up how to build," her friend once again focused on one of the less important bits. "How far off are they, and how much faster can we do things with this knowledge?"
"Very, and not very," Flamescale answered with a sigh, a complicated sound with four mouths. "They have the entirely wrong focus for what sort of materials they should be making, and the only reason this guy is here is because his team did something 'wrong' by their understanding. He also was the core link for the event, he connected to his counterpart to open the gate. It needs a mind, and it is much easier with the right materials. I need at least a day just to replace the Void Materials with the proper variants."
"We need to replace all of the Void Materials," Yellow-Glow more seriously realized.
"Dare I ask how much we need?" Sledge questioned with a look around the room. "Because I am uncertain of where we can get the raw materials for that without letting out the right things to use. That is more information than I want revealed here."
"There is all the equipment to forge the pieces here, that's honestly the longest part of-" Flamescale started to explain. "Leaving you guys with that one, the Leaf force is coming from the north," she cut off and pointed to an unfortunate former guard who she shoved the rest of the explanation into as she dove three of her bodies to join the fourth on the surface to use oversized bio-missiles as makeshift long range air defense. Hopefully with enough time for those missiles to reform from the trip.
A sensor cybernetic or skill would probably help, but a fair backup method was tracking with an infected's mind in the relatively limited radar system the facility featured. There was an anti-air missile system at the site originally, along with a more capable 319 laser defense array that meant the Leaf forces couldn't get too close, but both were made under the assumption that the facility would not be detected without that detection being noticed. The good news there was this attack probably wouldn't see the massive coating and outer constructions made of red infected goo before they were under attack.
The lockdown Yellow-Glow had them under prevented more forces from being deployed immediately, with the reasoning the infected were using to keep that up being that on site defenses could hold until a proper relief force arrived. Yellow-Glow had threaded that needle of conversation mostly by downplaying the size of the infiltration. The three medium dropships, or shuttles as it was currently a bit unclear what sort of ships were inbound, could represent a force capable of taking out the original defenses, but the rest of the 319 had the impression of just a single shuttle instead.
Her missiles were ready and had a vague lock soon enough, thankfully before the three ships set down to offload ground forces. Thirty two larger than normal bio-missiles streaked out, but at the current range only four of them actually found a target. The damage likely wasn't great, but that wasn't the point of the attempt. Instead the point was the spray of infected residue that splattered on top of all three space ships and a good sized chunk of empty wilderness.
Three of her four bodies dove into the coating they had emerged from just a short time before, and each emerged again on the outside of one of the ships. Or rather, two of them ended up on the outside of the two light shuttles, and the third ended up inside of the medium dropship that had taken a direct hit that managed to splatter the massive cargo bay inside. The armored units inside were clearly unprepared for that, but there was a problem Flamescale had also overlooked.
Like the fact that a light shuttle was 'only' thirty meters long, which was not very long when she was twenty herself. In fact they both sagged notably as she found herself wrapping around them entirely, and barely squeezed into the sixty meter long dropship. Just working out how to move when such a large vehicle was at a scale where she could reasonably fight it herself now seemed more complicated. In fact it was hard enough to keep on the shuttles that one of the two had time to fire its own powerful missiles in an attempt to get her off the other one.
Flamescale's body there lost a large chunk of her health, barely surviving because of the increased maximum from the increased size, and even then only until a followup barrage from electomagnetic projectile cannons reduced that body to just a mass of lifeless goo before she could sacrifice a head to restore some of the lost health. Admittedly while also sending the shuttle under her crashing into the ground, so she was still down a target, but now she needed to try replacing a body.
Although not yet, as she still needed to get inside of the remaining shuttle, clean up any survivors of the downed one, and stop the really small looking power armored Leafs from taking out the body inside the dropship without taking it down with her inside. Most of her focus went there for the moment, although she did move her final body to the wreck to check, and she found as they reloaded that her spine launchers hit at anti-vehicle levels more commonly seen with a bio-cannon instead of the basic infantry option. Without the explosive component that helped against many targets, but in this case it allowed her direct infection to take over a couple of the armored opponents by punching the enhanced residue inside. Those were sent to help against the rest as she filled the interior with vapors and hoped that the crew weren't in vacuum rated gear.
Then Flamescale was reminded that her vapors were Fire elemental, as the seals for those lighter vacuum rated suits were not up for the heat of the vapors, which was just as good as being without the suits. So she had control over the dropship even as the armored suits that weren't compromised managed to take enough health off to be worth the sacrifice of a head, although the decrease in size was honestly helpful for that fight as it was more of an issue of being hard to miss than not having enough health. Liquid Compression then allowed her to hide as a puddle behind a few she had already converted and some supply crates while she considered the situation.
The fourth body arrived at the crashed ship without resistance, in fact the few Leaf crew were only still alive because they were saved from death as they were taken over by the vapors from the residue of her former body. The fire that had started in the ruins of the shuttle was actually healing them at this point. There were only three of them, and her plan was to use all of them to replace the lost heads as much as she could. First by splitting off a former guard from the lab using Fusion to replace a body for the first time.
The result there was a reminder that most locals had a lot less health than a Void Entity, as Flamescale's new body was left with less than a quarter of her normal single headed health, and much worse for all of the other stats. A solid reason to use Reformation instead, but hopefully a rare enough event that she didn't need to give up her fourth body for the next major battle she ended up fighting. The now three headed body then regained a fourth from one of the Leaf crew, their mind also absorbed, and the new body added the other two to get up to a ten meter long three heads. Leaving her with two twenty meter bodies and two ten meter ones.
It also left her with the second shuttle as the last enemy target she didn't control, with the few ground units nearly eliminated. The smaller intact ship was distorting slightly from the heat of her body, residue, and vapors around it, but unless she wanted to crash it as well she needed to get inside before that took it down. So Flamescale got out her oversized laser rifle, and aimed it at an airlock with a very awkward angle needed to hang off the ship to target the barely visible seam.
The weapon's effect was about the same as a shuttle mounted version instead of the handheld model it normally was, burning through the vulnerable location's armor and dealing some damage to the inner door as well. It wasn't a true anti-warship shot, that would be larger still and past what this size of shuttle could even carry, and unfortunately the battery for the rifle was still charging at the very slow rate she expected. If needed she still had five batteries linked, and in the case there were more fights like this she might even get another chance for a better Power Link skill.
---
"I have a shuttle and a dropship that both probably won't get back up again when I land them," Flamescale said with a one headed body. She had worked out that she could transfer heads between bodies with a lot of tricky maneuvers, and that let her send the reduced health body to talk with the guys while fixing some last minute damage to her other bodies from the rest of the combat. "How did the explanation go?"
"I have had enough time to go over the requirements for the replacement parts. I take it we are tearing apart a couple of space craft for whatever gold we can get out of them?" Yellow-Glow sighed.
"I remember hauling gold back from the belt," Sledge said wistfully as he inspected what seemed to be a piece of the proper mixture that Flamescale had the locals making. "Father always hated cleaning out the byproduct bays of the mining rig. Reminded us every time that humans once hoarded the suff and now it was mostly just another metal that filled up the refinery too fast."
"You were from the belt?" Flamescale questioned carefully as she inspected the other Entity. He seemed calm enough, but that was not a topic she expected out of him anytime soon.
"Some days I wish the rest of my family joined me here," he said with a nod. "We were all on a trip back, and the return load of supplies came loose. I only had enough time to realize something went wrong before I was only here." He turned to the floor where replacements were already being made for the smaller test rigs. "You likely have enough here if you scrap some unneeded electronics. I'm more worried about the reality that these gates could possibly be made by humans. It seems a risk that could prove dangerous."
"Why haven't they made one already?" Yellow-Glow asked her directly. "Helen, this isn't that difficult when you have the materials."
"Yes, it is," Flamescale specified with a huff and moved over to the main test device, the actual prototype Void Gate itself. With some careful movements from the memories of her infected she opened the device and took out the Void Material Gate Core. A ten centimeter diameter sphere that made Yellow-Glow recoil in horror at the sight of it. "This is what it takes to pull this sort of thing off."
"I feel like I am missing some details here," Sledge noted with a cautious glance between the two of them.
"The largest known attempt to attune a piece of material was a six centimeter sphere," Yellow-Glow specified darkly. "It exploded rather spectacularly when they tried to use it from being improperly formed. There was no known use for something of that size at the time, and most current uses rarely need more than a three by three by three centimeter cube."
"Do you remember why nobody really was that concerned when the end-synch button didn't work?" Flamescale questioned Sledge seriously.
"Synch-Tech systems large enough can cause a permanent synch that needs the device to be destroyed to end the synch," Sledge answered thoughtfully. "Do I want to know what happens if you die while connected to one of those?"
"I think you already do," Flamescale admitted sadly. "But at the same time that is the limitation here. These gates need to either be able to be transferred, or needs the same mind at both ends of the gate. The first kind can open to any gate it can target in theory, but the second would be easier to pull off. At least from what the locals know about how to make one. I can fix the issues with how they are making the materials, and how to make a system that can be transferred, but the actual gate part needs what they found out to inspire them to make this thing."
"When will the replacement for that monster be ready?" Yellow-Glow asked, still sounding a bit horrified by a new technical development for once.
"This is the very last thing I am replacing," Flamescale specified as she put the sphere back. "I need to have the infected completely redo the shock absorption systems for the attunement device to handle the larger vibrations that proper source materials have, and even before that change making this one shook the entire building hard enough to register on seismic monitors. Once we start to replace this we are on a time limit, because every 319 facility on this planet is going to know we're making another one, and they are going to want to hear the results."
---
Hours later, in the middle of the night, a pop that wasn't a sound from one of the test rigs caught their somewhat distracted attention. The locals had not attacked or looked too closely yet, but the process of replacing and reworking all of the test equipment was slow going, and it was hard to keep focused over this long of a time. Thankfully Flamescale's infected didn't need to sleep, or at least could go without for a while.
"What was that?" Sledge asked, but Flamescale was too busy double checking what the device was supposed to be to answer just yet.
"I believe it was some kind of Void effect, but I am not seeing any changes," Yellow-Glow pointed out, before there was another not-sound pop.
"I've found your Void Rift Disruptor," Flamescale admitted with a grumble, now completely without a way to get any of this gear back to her base if they needed it out quick. "Although if you two haven't noticed that part then we can tell there is a max range. Hopefully we have enough raw materials, because I was planning on using my own resources if we ran short on anything before this."
"Already? I did not think they would be able to create one until after we had a working gate," Yellow-Glow said with concern. "Do you recognize how it was done?"
"Yes, it's an over engineered Synch-Beacon?" she said with surprise as she double checked the design from a researcher's mind. "That- We put those things everywhere, not to mention we build them to target things. I know it sends out pulses that can be detected easily, but I didn't think Void Rifts were that easy to disrupt."
"So the good news is we can track them relatively easily?" Sledge questioned with a nod. "That is a better case scenario if we work out the gate part. Knowing what to destroy to get out again will help a lot."
"Helen, I know I can't usually feel a Synch-Beacon," Yellow-Glow complained but they both followed her as she started towards the test rig.
"Most don't have this much Void Material in them," she admitted as she went through all the knowledge of the experiment itself. "Maybe the military models, but this was supposed to be a device to track Void Rifts, not disrupt them. I think the locals are just caught up with trying to make really big stuff instead of knowing they can pull stuff off with smaller pieces."
"I am starting to get concerned with what the locals will do if they discover Synch-Tech as well," Sledge pointed out. "Will they also make themselves like us? Can they?"
"If they keep trying with this size of stuff they might," Flamescale admitted, possibly with a bit too much annoyance but she was starting to get the impression that the device was still overbuilt for even closing Rifts. "I'm still halfway convinced that Void Strike was actually supposed to be a game, and they just got things that wrong."
"It is unlikely that this was not done on purpose, Flamescale," Yellow-Glow grumbled. "I for one doubt the locals will manage the same transformation due to us not knowing what exactly creates Void Entities in the first place. We know the game is part of it, but that does not say how."
It was an old argument, and one of the reasons they typically just ignored the issue. Flamescale personally thought that Yellow-Glow mostly wanted it to have been done to everyone on purpose, instead of just another accident that went too far, but she admittedly did not have proof for her thoughts on the matter yet. Sledge seemed to just think about those options silently while the both of them silently avoided getting into a fight about the topic again.
The device they were after had not stopped giving off not-sound pops, Flamescale didn't want to break it by stopping it early when it wasn't stressed, and turned out to be considerably larger than even she expected. "That is not man portable," she admitted about the half meter tall rather awkward shaped experimental device that was literally wired into the local grid with some rather large cables.
"I was honestly expecting to find this after we could re-open and move Void Rifts," Yellow-Glow sighed at the size of the device. "Now I will probably need to move this somewhere else to test that, and that will risk losing it somewhere."
"Guys, what is the plan for making sure they don't get anything out of this place?" Flamescale asked now that she was faced with the device they were trying to delay the development of, and that she was fairly sure they would be seeing fairly soon given how easily this was made. Delay possibly wasn't an option in reality, but she did not want this instance getting the results if they could stop at least that much.
"A good point, we should get it ready now to make sure they cannot get this," Sledge agreed with the idea, and then there was a thump as a large object appeared next to him.
"Sledge, did you make a fifty megaton fusion bomb into a piece of Linked Gear?" Flamescale had to ask with considerable concern.
"Where exactly did you get a fifty megaton fusion bomb?" Yellow-Glow questioned a bit less concerned, but from the way her friend was inspecting the warship grade munition Flamescale was fairly sure he was at least as worried by this turn of events as she was.
"I was fairly certain I would find enough Void Materials to make up for it," Sledge answered her question first. "I have found that there are occasionally times where you need a way to cause a place to cease to exist, and some of my local contacts agree with that assessment. They are quite happy that I don't need to use the more intimidating way to carry one anymore, and my back is happier as well."
"And you two were saying that I needed to grow giant to become a fleet killer," Flamescale said dully as she considered just how much of the stuff present might possibly survive such a blast. "I hate to say it, but we might still want to use some secondary charges on anything particularly important. Just in case the materials that let them make a ten centimeter attuned sphere can actually survive that thing somehow."
---
"The security force is four hours out," Yellow-Glow warned as Flamescale kept an eye on the gate prototype.
"I know, but we might only have this chance anyway," she pointed out, operating the test herself to make sure they didn't lose any infected researchers to an accident. If it wasn't too bad then her body could be replaced, the locals who might be able to fix it in time couldn't.
"Are we certain that it was made correctly?" Sledge questioned reasonably, as the sphere had still shaken the attunement device so badly as to effectively destroy the machine during its creation.
"I am," Flamescale declared, because she was used to attuned materials that were made for specific things. "The sphere feels right. I've used enough for that. The only problem at this point is the targeting, and we don't have the time or safety to test linking to another instance. We need this stuff out too, the gate itself if we can manage. So I'm going to use this to open a Rift, maybe all three of our Rifts if this wasn't as stable as I expected."
Yellow-Glow had actually been the one to propose it, hours ago when the initial testing of the various other experimental rigs reached the end of the things they could do in the time frame before they were discovered. It was well over a day after they arrived at the site, they were lucky enough that the Leaf team was not followed up on with a second wave. They couldn't really afford any more time now for full testing if it didn't work, and the guys still needed time to get out. Everything was rigged to either be taken or destroyed, whichever was possible after this.
There was a hum that was not a sound. Helen was very used to things like that, it was a sign you were working with experimental Synch-Tech. Mark was not used to experimental models, and she could see Yellow-Glow grow slightly nervous as a result. Sledge she didn't know enough about before he was Sledge to be sure he hadn't encountered any before, but he seemed at least to know that it was a property of the Void-Tech they were using by this point.
Then there was a crack that still was not a sound, but one that was more familiar to Flamescale than to Helen. Open Instances didn't start the Entities all at the same time, so it was quite possible to be close enough to the formation of a Void Rift to sense it. "Gate device is still intact," she said firmly as she started to power it down. "My Rift is open again, what about you two?"
"Mine has been moved," Sledge said simply. "We need to get started. Collect the infected, I can deal with them while the two of you start to move the stuff we want to take."
"No, I have the infected covered," Flamescale countered, and sighed at what she was thinking of doing. "We need the knowledge they have, and fusing them with me lets me keep that." The guards and the Leaf attack force were easier to think about, she needed the firepower and they would die anyway. This though was too important to avoid.
"It what?" Yellow-Glow said sharply. "None of those I've questioned with such skills have mentioned that sort of thing."
"It appears there's lots of things that don't get mentioned about the mind part of these skills," Flamescale admitted as she started that process anyway. The infected were ordered to her bodies even as she started to just entirely absorb the extra heads. "I'm going to double check when I get back, but we need the details they have. I can put up with eating these local's minds as well as their bodies." Even if she didn't like being able to handle that.
"Hm, I am not sure what to think about that," Sledge admitted. "But you are right about the knowledge, and I would have argued for other, possibly worse, methods of getting it if I had known of any, but then again I didn't know of this one. I'll start on the heavier items then."
Adding an entire research facility's staff to that place in the back of her mind didn't take long, in fact she ended up done in time to help with the removal of some of the experimental rigs that Yellow-Glow wanted to keep. Then she was the last out of the base before the bombs went off. The sudden loss of the infected materials that had coated the facility was a mixture of uneasy and relief to Flamescale, but more than anything she wanted to rest after the long and tiring mission.
The rewards were notable, however, with an unbelievable thirty points just for her skill tree. The bigger reward, and the one that had her discussing what exactly Yellow-Glow had been trying to do after it appeared, was an overall announcement of a new feature unlocked by community research. A new device that could be made with the Linked Gear interface, the Void Rift Generator. A device that was only ever Linked Gear, and allowed Entities to move or reopen their Void Rifts as long as they had one.
Along with the downside of the development, a proper announcement of Void Rift Disruptors being a possible thing to encounter. With warnings about how they would be a new hazard, and a forum thread already complaining about how this was an annoying way to balance out the Linked Gear. Flamescale wasn't sure what to make of the many posts who said they said it was coming. The links to proof were rather annoying, but the idea that it was "obvious" from the perspective of this being a game felt strange knowing it wasn't.
---
[Author's Note]
So, the big help with cliffhanger chapters in a web serial is you can still edit part 2 after feedback from part 1. That is something I've apparently not considered in the past, where I usually tried to release multi-chapter plots all at once instead.
