Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 10B3 - : A wraith gets new gear

“I like the idea of something that can come back from the dead,” Jace said. “Something that implies I came back to life.”

“Dumb,” Quinn replied as she sipped something from a straw over the comms. “You just died in the eyes of everyone in The Cosmic System once Xera leaks the video. Saying “Oh, look, a new code named person came back to life!” would be a stupid way to tip your hand.”

Ollie raised his paw, “How about Revenant? It is a word for something that may or may not have returned from the grave.”

Jace nodded, “I like that.”

“I agree with Quinn,” Xera stated over the comms. “It is too on-the-nose. If I may suggest another option…Wraith.”

“What’s that?” Jace asked.

“A wraith,” Ollie stated, “Is a ghost. It would play well with your skill set, being all sneaky and stealthy. Plus, it does have the connotation of returning from the grave in some way, but is not as direct.”

Jace smiled, “I like that one. Wraith it is.” He looked down at his still-exposed, chiseled torso. “Well…I need new armor it looks like.” He took off his pack and let it sit on top of the snow, “And a new pack. This one got ripped.”

Xera’s voice came over the comms once more, “I would advise using the Legendary (Equipment) on new Armor, and the Rare (Variable) on a new pack. I think you’ll like what I’ve done.”

“Okay. Ollie? Let’s do that.”

“Yup!” The otter replied excitedly clapping his paws.

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[Using Boon: Rare (Equipment).]

[Manifesting.]

[Using Boon: Legendary (Equipment).]

[Manifesting.]

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The glittering light-blue starlight covered his body and the pack on the snow next to him. A moment later the glow vanished, and he was covered in articulated, black armor with heavy plates on the chest, forearms, thighs, shins: covering all places except his joints to allow for supreme mobility and protection.

It also had a helmet that covered his head entirely, with a visor that let him see out and overlaid a HUD that was dim, but as Ollie tapped the helmet with a paw, Jace saw an overlay that showed the NICIF spread throughout his body, his energy level: and as he looked over at a small set of squares, further menus appeared.

“This,” Ollie explained, “Is called Reaper Armor. Magitech, so it will work on any world. It is (Medium) in protectiveness, just as your prior armor. It kept the (Snowguard) and (Burnguard) Augmentations. It has the integrated HUD that links up to The Cosmic System, and Quinn.”

Quinn’s video feed appeared in the top-left corner of Jace’s vision. No, not his vision, the visor. “Hey there,” she said as she smiled and waved a bit from her station in her apartment. “I keep the feed off most of the time, but I can use this to let you look through any of my Celestial Observers.”

“Plus!” Ollie said as he got Jace’s attention once more. “It gives the once-per-day Skill called Reaper’s Shadowstep. You can teleport from a shadow you are touching: except your own shadow: to anywhere else within the shadow that you can see.”

Jace smiled as he played around with the various HUD features, “This is awesome! It’s like the one time I got to wear a VR headset my mentor stole.”

Ollie pointed at the pack on the ground which had also shifted form and turned into a satchel-sized backpack. “This is Xera’s special present.”

Xera’s face appeared in the small, square, camera feed. She was sitting in her chair at her ‘battlestation’, sipping a mug of steaming-hot coffee with her arms crossed; well, one pair. The other pair was clacking away on various consoles, and all but one of her purple irises was looking at those monitors. “I made a miniaturized version of my TPS. This is a Tetradimensional Pocket Storage Backpack. Or, to simplify on your readout, TPSB. You now can carry ten cubic feet of supplies. This functions off of its own internal energy supply, so it will work anywhere, even beyond the confines of The Cosmic System.”

Jace grabbed it, opened the top, and saw a dizzying spiral that he had to look away from. “Umm…how do I get stuff?”

“Just think about what you want, or state what you want, and it will be produced,” Xera replied. “I’ve got other matters to attend to.” The feed vanished.

Jace put his hand into the space, and felt an open void of nothing. “Okay…I want my canteen.” He felt it in his hand, and pulled his arm out. “Oh, that is cool!”

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Ollie nodded, “Yup!” he swam in circle around Jace, leaving glittering trails of starlight. “Now you have the means to store far more than you would normally be able to. And, unlike Xera’s TPS which would use your energy to fuel it, inside of the smaller TPS of your new pack is the power source. It will work even in that Complex.”

Jace put the pack on his back, and saw a display on the helmet’s visor asking him a question.

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[Do you wish to incorporate Equipment?]

[Yes / No]

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“Yes?” Jace replied. He felt an odd sucking motion against his whole body.

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[Confirmed. The following Equipment has been merged with (Medium) Reaper Armor.]

[Mind’s Eye Amulet, Breathing Unit, TPSB.]

[On your Readout, it will still list as individual items, and these items can be removed upon request.]

[To access the TPSB, reach into any slot on any of the armored plates.]

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Jace put his hand over his forearm, “Okay, survival meal.” One of the packages appeared in his hand, and he let out a laugh. “That is amazing!” He put the meal back against the forearm, “Okay, now take it back.” The meal vanished as if it was sucked into the forearm of the armor.

Ollie nodded, “Very neat.”

“Oh, right. I also got a bunch of metal. Mind taking a look at that?”

“I got it,” Quinn replied. “I can see what’s inside your pack…oh, wow. Sixty pounds of Starheart Steel. That’s a Tier 9 material. Has to be forged in the outer corona of a Type O, B, or A star. I see something else…a microchip from a ST41K3R chassis.”

“That’s from the weird tread thing I fought. Some type of robot,” Jace replied as he double checked his hypercycle was still intact under the snow. Wait a second, this could totally fit inside ten cubic feet. He dug through the snow, put his forearm to the vehicle, and whispered, “Go ahead and store this for me.”

The hypercycle got sucked in, and he grinned. That’s cool! If I got a mech suit that was small enough, I could fit that in there, too!”

Quinn’s voice came back, “I think you got a version of that Tonda sniper guy’s upload chip. Cosmic Power and Ascended Power users cannot do uploads like what Xera did for herself or our Civilian loved ones, but this person was already fully ‘borged up.”

“Sorry, ‘borged up’?”

“Ah, someone who fully replaced their body with cybernetics, including uploading their mind to an external source.” She giggled, “Kind of neat, that when this Tonda fellow’s world hit Cosmogenic Merging, he was even given the option of choosing the Aspirant Trial.”

Ollie frowned, crossing his arms. “Which means that he got to bypass one of the rules because Cosmogenic Merging trumps almost all other subroutines in The Cosmic System. One thing that Xera wants to fix in the framework, but cannot, because it requires…something. She has not told me what.”

Jace shrugged, “Well, not something I can think or worry about right now.” He put the Lightning Rifle into the TPSB, and held his sword in his right hand. “I’m heading back into that Complex. Going to clear it out and get that Class Reset Crystal.”

“Good luck!” Ollie said as he patted Jace’s head. “Not that you need it.”

Jace smiled and walked down into the facility once more. Flicker was dead, and Wraith had risen to take his place.

Deckard Stonewall, leader of the Nebula Alliance, was absolutely ecstatic. Flicker was dead, and the other three Signers, well, they were not causing any undue problems.

He chortled and picked up a tablet with a pair of his tentacles and began performing the usual business duties he would attend to. There was a ‘ping’ as his office’s door notification was triggered. “Enter,” he said with a smug voice of satisfaction.

The door opened and Tyul, his recruitment specialist, walked in and nodded. “Deckard, I see you are in quite the good mood.”

“I am,” Deckard replied as he put the tablet down. “What can I do for you?”

“The Black Hole Conclave had a request for trade, and I knew you would want to see the request.” Tyul handed Deckard a tablet.

After scanning it Deckard nodded, “We can afford to ship those materials. Rebuilding a ring world is not easy, especially around a black hole. Especially a black hole as big as the one at the universe’s center. Just make sure we upcharge them on the Stardust.”

“Of course.” Tyul took the tablet back and began tapping it. “Oh, you’ll also be pleased to hear that we have poached a few Signers from other factions. Pulsar Coalition is stretched thin, so we might be able to insert some operatives on their worlds and slowly push the Citizens towards a new vote to get more worlds under our control.”

Deckard smiled as much as a tentacle-creature with a hidden mouth could smile. “Excellent. I shall helm that effort personally.”

“One last thing. You had fortified our single Cosmic Corridor portal. Why?”

“Ah, this Flicker fellow that could infiltrate. But, he is dead, so it does not matter. We can loosen the restrictions a bit, but I do like having this very fortified entrance. In retrospect, it is something we should have done a long time ago.”

Tyul smiled, “Thank you for indulging me. I will be visiting my home world for my quarterly vacation in about a week, and will be out of contact range.”

Deckard nodded, “Go enjoy your bonus.” He turned back to his consoles and began working whilst Tyul left. No more Flicker, he thought. No more assassin gunning for me. It is nice to be on top of the worlds.

Jace descended and went down the left-side tunnel from the four-way intersection, intent on looting more of the items in the armor now that he had the storage space for it. But he stopped, as the fleshy mass that was blocking the hallway before was gone. And the traps had been repaired. The heck did that? He brought the sword up and cut through the traps again, heading further down the passage, and focusing on his hearing.

He could hear a metallic skittering noise. A faint tink tink tink of something crawling. Then, a zap noise that was sustained and emitted a low buzz. Making his way forward, he peeked around the corner to the right, towards the larger and well-stocked cryogenic or stasis room. He saw a dog-sized, metal spider that seemed to be repairing the trap he had previously disabled.

He put his open hand over his forearm, and whispered, “Lightning Rifle.” The rifle appeared in his hand, and he pointed it at the thing. Pulling the trigger, a beam of electricity lanced out, slammed into the robotic spider.

It wheeled around seemingly unphased, and charged toward him. Slicing down with his sword, he bisected it and the thing clattered in two halves. “That wasn’t so bad,” he whispered to himself.

Then, he heard more. Far more. The tink tink tink from the tunnel behind him. Putting the rifle away and turning, he saw a large group of the creatures heading towards him along all of the surfaces. Well, shit.