Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 24B3 - : The journey to the core

Troxanir felt the vibrations as his fellow Astral Demons died. Every time they were slain whilst on the same layer of reality. Another Incursion was just defeated: but more importantly, the twenty that were summoned forth from the Astral Verge, submitted to his command, and went to Poltor Six…all of them were slain.

Unfortunate, he thought as he contemplated the vast cosmos laid out before him as he stood on the still-being-constructed ringworld surrounding Oblivion. They were all defeated, probably by the same person who slew my expedition force. This unknown Star and Gigastar Aspirant. Troxanir sighed: or as much as an entity like him could sigh: and faced Oblivion.

I have several options, he thought. I could draw forth more Astral Demons, but eventually one may answer the call that would try to dislodge me and challenge my power. It is a risk that I do not think I am willing to take. I do have a lot of these Boons saved up for rewards and incentives…but Poltor Six appears to be a lost cause.

Turning to his System screen, he began to pull up various listings of worlds that were nearing the universe’s center. Nothing, unfortunately, was near, and his efforts to obtain Universal Matter appeared to be stymied for the time being. He sighed and shook his head, the tentacles bobbing gently through the silence of space. Other options, he thought. I need to gain my next level as soon as possible. Some Skill from my Astral Class that allows me to open and close entrances to and from The Cosmic Corridor.

The other option was waiting hundreds of years for his ringworld to be created, which would then count as a world for Cosmogenic Merging purposes, and would enable him to have a portal to The Cosmic Corridor: a means to send his Signers to and from Oblivion right into Khrox; drawing on the power of The Cosmic System to make them new bodies. Guaranteed second-chances at life for all of his Signers, devotees, and those who had pledged service to him. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

And…he hoped…his avatar would be able to walk in that vaunted place. But if he gained a new Skill that let him slip into Khrox, then he would not have to wait.

I need a lot of souls, he thought, knowing that getting those was far easier than trying to pull whole planets into Oblivion. I just have to stoke some cataclysmic events on various worlds.

With that idea in his mind, he began sending off messages to his various Civilian-based operators to begin researching worlds where if an annihilation level event occurred, billions of Souls: or more: would travel to him.

Jace woke up with a yawn and Ollie appeared almost instantly with a pop. “Hey,” Jace muttered as he scratched his head; the helmet having retracted at some point while he slept. “How’s everyone else doing?” he asked having had a nightmare the night prior about Priam, Greg, and Dee’s team of three.

Ollie swam around him in small circles, splashing through the astral waves he generated in the air. “They just got back to the apartment building. A few mercenaries tried to ambush them on their last Astral Incursion mission, and Greg kept them all safe while Xera warped them home. She is trying to get Deckard to call off the bounties: at least until the Incursions are all dealt with.” He frowned and crossed his little paws as he came to a slow in front of Jace and bobbed in place. “Going to Deckard’s world is going to be on the list soon enough here. Xera is upset that he’s threatening the whole System with his antics, and she recently learned about transactions between him and Troxanir.”

Jace pulled out some survival meals and began showing them down, ripping more open as he kept super loading his caloric count for the day, in case the NICIF needed to use any of the excess, stockpiled nutrients to make repairs to his body or armor. “So,” he said in between pouches, “we go there and do what? Just wreck some shit?”

Ollie shook his head, “Xera says killing Deckard is the best way to send a message. Don’t deal with the Conclave, keep bounties off of Dark Between Stars Signers…and you can keep doing your business. The Nebula Alliance is all about profits: so they’ll see the wisdom in listening to the warning, and she is sure their next leader will be more…suited to keeping to the rules. No one helps the Conclave with their desire to have Oblivion consume everything.”

Jace frowned as he finished off the last survival meal he planned on eating, and then washed the goop down with some water. “How are Conclave members interfacing with the System? I thought they didn’t have Wayfinders.”

“Remember that lady you fought back at Pheracorp? The one who had Troxanir’s shadow take over her body?” Jace nodded, and Ollie continued, “Well, that is someone who made a Pact with him. It is some unknown Skill: not from The Cosmic System, maybe from his Astral System: that lets him strike bargains much like Quinn’s contracts. But in exchange for whatever he gives them, the person promises him their Soul which he claims goes to this ‘paradise’.”

“But we know that he’s collecting them to use as currency in this Astral System. It’s all a giant scam.”

“Correct,” Ollie replied. “Civilians who signed Pacts with him: normally those who still cling to an idea of religious influence: those are the people who work for him, and interface with The Cosmic System from here in Khrox. Xera can’t exclude Civilians from certain operations: she is tech support alone, after all, and not a true administrator.”

Jace nodded and packed up his bedroll, the tent, and his helmet automatically protruded from the armor to cover his head as the HUD activated. “Well, we are still prioritizing the core Complex, yes?” Ollie nodded, and Jace left the building he had taken refuge in. Boarding his Sliver Arc, he began making progress over the snowy wastes: back through a jungle: and out onto the plains.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Xera’s voice came over the comms, “I’m going to un-restrict The Cosmic Corridor portal as you’ve dealt with all Astral signatures on the world. I’ll apprise you of anyone new who is traveling there. Focus on getting to that core, investigate whatever they were working on, and Ollie will feed me the information. Once that’s done, you can spend time on Poltor Six cleaning up any Complexes you want to: not a lot of Stardust, but plenty of Boons. Plus, those Class Reset Crystals: those can sell for a pretty penny. Or you could use one yourself.”

Jace nodded, “I would want to keep one in my back pocket: just in case. But otherwise? Unless one of the other Signers wants to use it, we should sell them to take advantage of Quinn’s Broker Skill.”

“A wise choice,” Xera stated. “I am busy, good luck with the core. I would anticipate heavy defenses, backups, contingencies, and all manner of obstacles. If this was really their last hope, they would have fortified it as much as possible.”

Jace raced off across the tundra, following the line to the Complex that would lead to the core of the world.

A few hours passed in silence, and Jace made sure to do what his mentor had taught him: replay every single event over in his head to see if it could have played out from other angles. A means to ensure that he would not make the same mistakes, consider other approaches, and in the case of injury, know exactly what to not do next time.

As he replayed the events of the last few hours, he could not find any real flaw in what he had done. Given the unknown threats he was facing off against, and the amount of enemies he was facing off against, his use of Skills, energy management, and decisions were solid. The only thing he thought would have been an improvement was somehow rounding those Astral Demon copies of himself up into a single location, then eliminating all of them with the Void Beam [Horizon-Splitter] before they could react.

If I had stockpiled my energy, Jace thought, and used up all of it, after getting them to group up by…slowly circling? Trying to…what’s the term Chroma used after playing with some of the other street kids… “Ollie,” he said, “What’s the word for when you run away from something, keeping them in sight, but get them to follow you while slowly controlling their movement?”

“The earth term I believe you are referring to is a one used in those virtual reality video games. The technique is called ‘kiting’ opponents.”

“Thanks,” Jace said before sinking back into his thoughts. Right. So if I had kited the pursuers in a big, looping circle: I might have been able to gather them all into a tighter grouping, then gone into a Complex, and dealt with them all in one blow. Something to keep in mind if I end up in a situation like that again.

There was not a real sense of time passing as the environment looked the same: white upon grey upon blues. Jace ended up making camp a total of five times, covering, according to Ollie, about a quarter of the planet’s surface as he made for the core Complex. Every day he just rocketed forward, messaged Shhiv and his friends, and kept traveling.

The other Signers, according to each of them he separately spoke to, were doing well and recovering from their multiple back-to-back missions. But, Astral Incursions had wound down to a stop, and they were going to be on standby for another few days to ensure the ‘aftershocks’ as Greg called them had faded away.

Shhiv was doing well, and now that he had dealt with all possible duplicates, she seemed to be very communicative. They were practically messaging during all waking hours, except when Shhiv had a particularly demanding order.

Jace started to notice a shift in the environment: he started slowly sloping downward, and pulling up the topographical map, he saw that he was entering an enormous depression in the ground. Almost like a crater, but not jagged. It had been meticulously dug out. And the Complex was at the center.

Ollie began speaking as he flew next to Jace, “There will be a weird shift as we approach the planet’s core, as gravity is based upon the mass of the planetoid. Gravity will slowly decrease the deeper we go on a tapering scale.”

“Just keep navigating with the grappling hook,” Jace stated. “Easy enough.” He kept moving down, but then saw signs of…something off in the crater. Bumps under the ice and snow. Coming to a stop near one of them, he cut away with the ice and found a frozen-over vehicle. A bulbous pod with some type of once-inflatable bottom that would have allowed it to hover over water or flat surfaces alike: perfect for a swap environment.

There was no one seated in the open-topped vehicle. “Must have gotten out with Cosmogenic Merging hitting,” Jace stated as he kept moving. “What happens when Merging hits and someone is asleep?”

Ollie replied, “The person is woken up and roused to full consciousness. The Cosmic System would never do something as barbaric as subject an integration and not allow people a conscious decision regarding Aspirant or Civilian.”

“Why can’t people choose after the fact? Go from a Civilian to an Aspirant? Or vice versa?”

“It’s just how people are encoded into The Cosmic System upon Cosmogenic Merging,” Ollie replied. “One thing Xera wishes to fix.”

Jace kept moving towards the Complex and could make out the exterior walls of a facility. The walls were fifty feet tall, with several chunks that spanned up to a mile apiece taken out of it. Checking the topographic view, the hole was enormous: easily a five-mile diameter with the same ‘lip’ around it with the walls and entry-notches. Moving closer, he finally received the message he was anticipating and dreading.

-----

[SYSTEM ERROR: UNMERGED LOCATION IDENTIFIED]

[Emergency Message dispatched: You have come across a location on a world that The Cosmic System was not able to fully assimilate through Cosmogenic Merging. Because of this, you may lose access to your Cosmic Power and Class Skills. Now that the System has been notified, it may take up to a minute to integrate. Please stand by.]

[…]

[ERROR!]

[System cannot merge the location. Localized force is preventing Cosmogenic Merging.]

-----

Ollie looked over at Jace and frowned, “Looks like you’re on your own for this one also.”

Jace looked at the enormous walls and felt a pang of fear race through him. “Can…is there any…” he took a deep breath, “Remind me of what I can and can’t use.”

“Skills will not work. Your Equipment will still function minus the augmentation. NICIF is still functional, and the armor integrated the Breathing Unit. Just keep the helmet on, and you will have atmosphere recycled.” He reached through Jace’s helmet and patted him on the face, “You’ll do great, I’m sure of it! If forced on foot, it could take a few days to reach the center of the core.”

Jace pulled up a System message screen and composed a letter to Shhiv. After sending it off, he ventured forward on the Sliver Arc, Ollie vanished, and he felt the oppressive resurgence of his non-empowered body readjusting to its reduced attributes. Okay, Jace thought, here I go.