Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 11B3 - : Delving into the facility even further

The skittering horde moved to Jace, and his instinct was to throw the sword, but he stopped himself. No, I don’t want to do that because I can’t recall it. He gripped it tightly, and saw that the creatures skittering towards him were also crackling with electricity. Damn, that might mess with the armor in some way. As if answering his question, a small screen popped up in the armor’s HUD.

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[Hi! We are the nanites inside you! Thanks for the armor, we can actually talk to you now!]

[Good news, the electricity won’t affect you. The armor is insulated. The pointy bits will pierce the armor though: same Tier material as the Reaper Armor.]

[Communicating via the HUD is energy intensive, hence we won’t do it often. But, it is great to finally talk to you! Super excited to be part of you! Please, survive, or else we all die!]

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Jace had to push aside the fact that the NICIF swarm that completely suffused his body was talking to him via the HUD. The skittering creatures were fast-approaching, and knowing that they could pierce the armor did not bring him any sense of comfort. But, the fact that the electricity wouldn’t be a problem was comforting.

He took up a ready stance and willed the blades on the Steelstalker Sabatons to extend. I might not be a master swordsman, he thought, but I think I have enough from body memory, and I can always kick.

The skittering creatures arrived, and he hacked horizontally at the one on the left wall. He carved it clean in half, and then brought the blade back to the other side, carving the one on the right in two. One along the ceiling jumped down at him, and he brought his offhand up, catching the thing and throwing it: wincing and letting out a yelp of pain as it stabbed down to hold itself in place.

A small saw came out of the bottom of the creature, and Jace stabbed through it, killing the thing as he shook it off. Another two came along the ground and jumped up to latch onto his legs, but a sweeping kick crushed them into the wall, and the blades that normally came out of the feet traveled up his leg to the shin, cutting into the robotic spiders with less ease than the sword. But, it got the job done, and skewered them nonetheless.

Three more rushed him from the walls and ceiling, respectively, and Jace pulled his leg back, took a step back to get some distance, and then lashed out with a series of three, rapid stabs: one to each of the creatures: as they fell to the ground. He was breathing smoothly but rapidly as he took stock of the injured armor. The HUD lit up and showed the slight damage to the forearm.

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[We can fix it! Give us a second to fix the Ghostlight Grapnel Arm, first.]

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Jace felt a warmth along his arm and then saw the grey goop surge up into the armor before receding, leaving a repaired surface. “Thanks…nanites. What do I call you?”

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[NICIF is fine! We live to serve!]

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“Thanks for all you do. Especially saving me from that sniper bullet.”

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[No problem! We are symbiotic with you, after all. You die, we die.] 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

[You are as much us as we are you. Granted, you’re the boss and in control! But still, self-preservation is a huge motivating factor.]

[We are bound to you by The Cosmic System, and Xera’s programming!]

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“Thanks,” Jace replied as he lowered his arm and went to the armory he had uncovered earlier. He began loading up the TPSB with all manner of weaponry that he might be able to sell. “How much energy does it take to talk to me?”

There was no response.

Ah, Jace thought, must be pretty intensive for them. He smiled and spoke again, “Well, thanks for all you do.”

After clearing out the armory he checked the remaining storage space via the incorporated HUD and saw that he had about three cubic feet of space remaining. Heading back to the main intersection, he went down the right-hallway from the entrance and found a set of stairs going down directly ahead of him, a path to the right, and a path to the left. Hugging the right wall and going down the hallway he came across a few more of the traps that he quickly disabled with a few cuts and slices.

He arrived in a small hub; a semicircle with two doors to either side, flush with the wall in the direction of the tunnel he came from, and five other doors along the circular arc. They were labeled with words, and as he looked, the HUD translated the language. Huh. I wonder if Quinn, Ollie, or Xera uploaded translation software like my Universal Translation Skill. The doors to either side were labeled as server rooms. Going to the first door, he tried to only to find it locked. Slicing away at the edges of the door, he was able to remove the door and saw a huge room; easily the size of a small warehouse all on its own. And there were dozens of racks of servers that were operating at low power, as the readout showed him.

I wonder if there is a way to get this data? Well, I mean, when the System can integrate this place, I would bet that I can come here with Ollie to extract whatever is on these racks. He went to the other server room, cut into it, and found more of the same. Turning his attention to the doors in the semi-circle, he went from room to room. An office space with terminals, a break room, a dormitory that opened to individual quarters that were all empty, some type of kitchen space, and a storage room. This must be where they lived while on-site.

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Heading back to the hallway, he elected to go down the stairs. He could feel the oppressive darkness around him. His magic prosthetic eyes were able to pierce through it with ease, but the faint low-power lighting was completely gone. If they didn’t light this area, it must not have been as important, Jace thought.

But, he also knew that with any new location, mapping out the exterior was important. Sticking to the left, first, until it looped back, and then the right, should mean that when he eventually went down the central corridor, he would arrive at some type of special security door guarding more important stuff. If this magitech world followed what the megacorps did in their facilities.

Which, the more he thought on, he realized that thinking that way might not be the best way to go about things. I’m on an alien world, he thought, why would they follow Earth-like notions of construction?

The stairs ended and he saw a long hallway stretching for hundreds of feet. On either side were enormous, clear, glass-like substance covered cells. He could see creatures of all types that were stored in the space. They looked to be in stasis just like the Portom he had found.

But these animals looked very much like predators. I wish I had Ollie to consult, he thought as he walked the whole length of the space. I can bring him down here to rescue them like he did with the other animals, once I clear out the-

His thoughts were interrupted as a deep, red lighting illuminated the room when he reached the far end. A robotic, monotone, male voice said something, and a moment later he heard through the helmet’s speakers a translation. “Warning, intruder detected in predator-specimen bay. Initiating protection protocol. ERROR, low power detected, activating defensive units and sending to location.”

Shit! Jace thought as he ran back to the staircase. He heard noises coming from the main hallway. A loud thunk thunk thunk of some type of heavy treads: heavier than the mercenary’s chassis that tried to get him before. He ran back to the entry hall and peered down the main corridor.

A group of what he could only describe as tanks were heading down the hallway towards him. They were low to the ground, on treads, and had a bunch of those electricity turrets mounted on top. Oh, I can be mean, here, he thought as he put his hand to his armor. Okay, come on, bedroll. The material appeared in his hand, and he held it up in front of him as he turned the corner.

The tank-things immediately aimed at him, shot their arcing beams of electricity…and the shots fizzled out against the wool. Jace walked up and slashed around the outside edge of the bedroll, cutting the first of the tank-things in half. He repeated the process for the other ones who kept firing the beam of electricity at his center-mass and hitting the bedroll instead.

Jace laughed to himself. “Who ever thought that a bedroll would come in handy like this?” He glanced around the edge and saw that he had defeated all the tank-robot things. Putting the bedroll away, he returned to the staircase leading to the specimen containment area and went down the remaining hallway to his left.

It cut to the right, and he followed the hallway’s curve until he reached another door. This one had the words Archive on it and looked to be much heavier than the rest. Putting his sword to the edge, he pushed in: and had to saw it back and forth to cut. He was puffing with exertion, but got through the exterior and pushed in. The door was easily a foot thick and clattered with a tremendous crash into the floor.

The room he entered was full of books. Actual, paper books, contained in bookshelves covered with glass that was locked with small keypads that glowed dimly. There was a manual override requiring some sort of key. Jace perused the shelves. This, he thought, this looks like all of the knowledge they could collect. That, combined with the predator specimens, the cryo or stasis pods…this bunker was probably where they hoped to hold out.

He crossed his arms and walked back to the main hallway, thinking. I’m not just here to clear Complexes, but also to find the one that goes to this planet’s core. See if there is the device they were building to warm up their world. Going down the hallway with the destroyed tank robots, he reached a series of open niches along the walls. Must be where they were stored, he thought as he glanced back at the destroyed robots.

Another massive door stood in front of him that read Main Laboratory. Cutting away at the door, he had to saw back and forth once more before kicking it down. The chamber was a massive circle, and he could see clear across to the other side. Turrets instantly locked onto him, and he jumped backward as they shot out their arcing electricity. Well, time for the bedroll again. This thing is really coming in handy. He withdrew it from the TPSB held it up, and pushed it out into the doorway. The turrets discharged their current, and Jace found the problem with his plan. Two different directions. I can’t approach one without exposing myself to the other, he thought.

Stepping back into the hallway he considered his options. I could cut the bedroll in half to double the surface area, cover my whole body with it, and then go about it that way. I could still use it if I needed to stay warm while sleeping: just bundle it around me. With his mind made up, he quickly slashed along one of the sides and the bottom, wrapped it around himself, tucked his arms inside, and stepped into the room.

The electric turrets discharged and hit the protective covering, and Jace walked over to the first one. Keeping his back to the one behind him, he ensured that his arm with the sword would still be covered, and swiped up and through the turret. Cutting it in half. He knew he would not be able to recover the turret remains like before, as those ones he had smothered before cutting free from the ceiling.

He moved around the circular chamber, repeating the process until he had dealt with every single turret. With that done, he put the bedroll away and took a closer look at the circular chamber. It was a giant donut, with one door leading into an inner chamber. The outer ring he stood in looked to be some type of monitoring station, and there was a blast covering over the clear glass that looked into the main, central chamber.

Going to the door, he cut through the exterior edges and kicked it in. He had to squint as his eyes adjusted to the bright, piercing, white light. A large tube was upright in the center of the room, with all manner of machines hooked into it. They must have been experimenting with this thing as a power source, Jace thought. If the System sees it as a Class Reset Crystal: which I know are really valuable: then it must be really powerful. He walked forward, and cut into the protective casing before reaching forward and grabbing the glowing, blue square object.

There was a pulse around him as reality shook, and Ollie popped into place next to him. He felt all of his Skills reactivate. “Good job! You fixed the Glitch!”

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[Quest Completed: Disable the facility.]

[Time Limit: N/A.]

[Reward: Class Reset Crystal (equivalent).]

[Sender: The Cosmic System.]

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Jace held the crystal; the square white object felt slightly squishy in his grasp, but sprang back to shape when he did press and release. “This thing sells for a lot, right?”

“Yup!” Quinn said. “Hundreds of thousands of Stardust on the open market.”

“Or,” Xera said, “You could use it. Now that you’ve progressed Swordmage all the way through level 100, which no one had done and I couldn’t even simulate, we can have you use it, re-level up, and change the Class Expansion to other more viable alternatives to Wrathblade.”

Jace turned the crystal over in his hands. “I’ll think about it. A bunch of Stardust sounds neat…but being able to condense down my Skills and come up with different ones is nice.”