Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 42B2 - : Why board when you can blast?

Dee woke up to someone shaking her shoulder. A distant voice shouted at her, and she heard the loud crack of something impacting the floor below her. “Get up!”

She shook her head and willed her ‘eye-orbs’ to the slot for them on her chitinous shell. The Priest was crouched next to her, a golden barrier covering him like a hexagon carapace. “What is it?” she asked groggily.

“We’re being attacked, and Greg is out of rockets!”

She could hear the ratatat of bullets being fired, heard Greg cursing, and felt the impacts rocking their vessel. “Alright, I’m getting up.” She pushed herself to her feet, but Priam pulled her back down, and a hail of bullets whizzed by their heads.

“We have to get closer to Greg to get inside his Sphere of Protection!” Priam began crawling away, and Dee followed him as they passed through a translucent, barely visible, light-blue force field. “Ok, we’re in. Any hits you take while in here go to him.”

“And he can suffer that injury?” she asked.

“He’s the ‘tank’ as Xera called it! Come on, get to blasting, I’ll keep him protecting.”

Dee stood up and saw that they were surrounded. Their ship was torn up with thousands of impacts from firearms, and large chunks were missing. She also noticed the slight tilt. Not good if we’re sinking.

Facing one of the boats that was unleashing a flurry of bullets upon them, she saw that the rounds were hitting the barrier, and then vanishing. But she heard the grunts of the man behind her, and looking back saw Greg. He was covered in a rocky shell that was constantly chipping. But the golden shell appeared around him, and the stone carapace began to re-grow over him.

Perfect! Lots of targets! She raised her hands and cupped them together. “Nebula Explosion (Rank 20)!”

All the boats were within two-hundred feet, having begun to close the distance as the stubborn vessel the trio were on was refusing to go down. Thanks to Artillerist’s Acumen (Rank 5), this should do x8 damage. She grinned as she was sure this was going to be her biggest explosion yet.

The enormous globule of acid shot skyward before arcing down and crashing onto the top of the assault boat.

Crack! Boom! Fsthz!

The globule exploded with a raging fury that shredded the top of the boat from the blast wave, and that blast wave was followed by an acidic cloud that descended and corroded everything it touched. The ship was melted in a caustic haze down to the waterline.

She felt slightly winded, and had to drop below the gunwale to take a quick set of recovery breaths. Well, not really breaths, more like environmental osmosis to filter oxygen through her biology.

Priam crawled over to her, “Another three boats!” he cocked his head sideways, and pointed, “Don’t shoot that one off the front.”

Dee was going to question why, but the slight, sideways tilting of their boat told her enough. We’re going to steal another boat? Awesome! She stood up and replicated her Nebula Explosion on another ship. The globule expanded in her hands, arced skyward, and slammed down onto the deck of the next gun boat. Exploding, destroying via the shockwave, and then melting all that remained with the power of a caustic space cloud, just like the one her home world existed within.

Again, she felt her energy drain precipitously, and her arms were shaking. “This…fun, but I’m tired.”

Priam shook her slightly, “Just one more!” He looked up, “Ooof. I feel bad for them.”

Dee stood up again and looked where Priam was looking. The vessel off the front of their now-sinking ship. She could see sprays of red mist as something carved a bloody path of carnage across the decks. “What is it?” she asked.

“That’s Jace. He’s like the group’s leader? Kind of?”

Greg chuckled and shouted over the gunfire, “I thought I was the leader!”

Dee frowned, “Why board when you could blast?” She aimed her hands at the last boat that Greg was exchanging fire with. He was scoring hits against the personnel, but she could also see that they were very well in cover behind their vessel’s side railing. “Nebula Explosion (Rank 20)!” Another globule rose into the sky, and another enormous explosion echoed out. “Woohoo!” she whooped out as the vessel began to melt.

She felt woozy and collapsed to her knees. Priam caught her before she went prone. “Think you can swim over to our new ship?”

She nodded weakly, “Yeah. Get me to the water. I’m a natural swimmer.”

“I saw!” Priam replied as Greg walked over and grabbed her, lifting her over his broad, muscular shoulder.

“Alright little lady. Let’s go. We got a ride to catch!” The large man carried her to the still-sinking bow, and he leaped off of the vessel to get some distance before splashing down into the water. With long, powerful, single-arm strokes: despite his armor and the rocky shell: he swam to the other vessel. “No dusting these guys: reinforcements could be on their way any moment.”

A ladder was let down, and he pushed her up, “Alright, up you go.”

Dee clambered up and came face-to-face with an oddly handsome yet otherwordly figure. He was…maybe human? She wasn’t sure what species he was. He had slightly grey skin with gold and silver streaks that made him look like some type of exotic animal. But the streaks shifted, and his skin slowly shifted hue to a more human-like, pink. His eyes were the most striking feature: they were draconic.

She’d seen those before. Deckard had one in stasis in the room that she stole from, and the plaque said that they were powerful, magic-world creatures. “Hi, I’m Deasyl. Dee to my friends!”

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He held out a hand, and she saw it was a deep, black with golden arcane writing. “Jace. You’re Xera’s newest Signer?”

Dee nodded as she shook, recognizing the gesture from several worlds she’d visited. “Yeah, that’s me!”

He raised an eyebrow, and his slight smile revealed sharp teeth. “You did those big acid explosions?”

She nodded her head, “Yeah…what are you?”

He blinked, “I’m…a human?”

“Ah,” she said. Greg clambered up behind her, and Priam was just behind. “Thanks for saving me!”

“No problem,” Greg replied as he turned to Jace. “Is the boat clear?”

Jace shook his head, “Lower decks have employees. My eyes’ augmentation got them all to stay quiet. We just need to drop them off somewhere.”

Greg punched his shoulder and chuckled, “Good to see you still have a bit of a conscience in there.”

Jace’s face went dour, and he looked away from Greg as the larger man went to take the helm. Priam walked over to Jace and squeezed his wrist for a moment, eliciting a small smile from the weird-human Ascendant. Priam left to stand on the front of the boat.

“What’s your Cosmic Power?” Dee asked as she glanced down at Jace’s symbol.

“Dark Matter. A secret option Xera unlocked.”

A small, starry-blue river otter poked its head from inside Jace’s hood. “I am Oliver, but friends can call me Ollie! Jace is the only Dark Matter user in the System right now.”

Wow. What did he do to get that level of favoritism? She glanced over at her Wayfinder who had been hiding behind her. “Hey, say hi, Miku.”

“H-hi- wait. Ollie?”

The otter blinked a few times, “Do we know each other?”

“Mikusanata!”

“Oh!” Ollie flew out and went over to Dee’s Wayfinder. “I didn’t know you abbreviated your name!”

“Just after meeting Dee…” the two trailed off in conversation.

Jace shrugged and gestured to the front of the ship. The vessel lurched under their feet, and Dee followed him up to stand next to Priam. The Dark Matter Aspirant set his forearms on the railing as the waves caused the vehicle to lurch up and down. “Tell us a bit about you, Dee. If you don’t mind sharing.”

She gripped the railing, “Well, I’m a Plorp from Xelvor Tersius. My sister and I were some of the best thieves on our home world: Magitech, Tier 6. We got some good loot, and then the whole Cosmogenic Merging thing happened. My sister did not want to risk it, and I tried to convince her, but she wanted to stay safe.”

“Ah, sort of like what me and my brother went through,” Priam muttered just loud enough for her to hear him over the engine and splash of the waves they cut a course through.

“I finished my Aspirant Trial, met up with my sister, and then got an offer to join the Nebula Alliance. So, I did! I became one of the best treasure hunters they had, since I can break down my chitin and sneak into crevices and tight places. But…well…I stole something from my boss, he sold me to this Enduralife place, and the rest is your friends finding me.” She looked over at Priam, “Thank you, you cute little rabbit.”

Priam once again blushed and pulled his hat down over his head.

Jace nodded curtly and glanced sideways at her, pulling back his hood the whole way. “Ollie showed me your readout. You’re the heavy hitter with these two.” He looked back out over the waves.

“You did some good work yourself,” Dee said, eying the blade on his hip which did not have a blade now that she looked closer at it: just a hilt.

“Yeah. I’m well-equipped to go off on my own. Sort of an all-rounder. Whereas these two,” he said as he hiked a thumb at Priam, and then the same thumb back towards Greg. “They are pretty specialized like yourself. The way Xera put it, you’ll be sticking around with them two most of the time, and I’ll go off on my own here and there.”

Dee nodded, “Lone wolf?”

Jace smirked, “Yeah, I’m good at surviving by myself.” He glanced sideways at her once more. “I don’t mind working with other people, though. And judging by those explosions? I think you’ll be a good fit.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve worked on a team, other than with my sister,” Dee replied. “So! Who else is involved?”

“Quinn: we’ll get you an earpiece so you can get looped in. Oh…do you have ears?”

Dee shrugged, “I can hear from a device placed inside my goop mass.”

“…Okay…”

Priam poked his head out of his hat to join the conversation, “You put a little air bubble around stuff you don’t want dissolved in your goop, right? And you can also feel sensations from it?”

“If we want,” Dee replied.

Jace nodded, “Right. Well, Quinn is our information person. Xera is, too: but she seems really busy right now. That’s it for the Aspirants. Oh, Quinn is not a Dark Between Stars Signer like us four. Just a heads-up. She’s Star Council.”

Dee narrowed her eyes, “Oh, really? Why?”

“Access to Equipment,” Priam replied.

Makes sense. “Is she a fence?”

“What? She’s not a wooden palisade,” Priam replied.

Jace laughed, and his laugh was rough but infectious, and Dee found herself giggling unintentionally. “No, Priam. A fence is someone you sell illegal goods to.” Jace narrowed his vision as his eyes seemed to focus in on a point in the distance. “Quinn says she can do that,” he muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Priam asked.

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Jace shook his head, “Nothing is wrong. Just a long ways to shore. And we’ve got a hold full of scared people downstairs.”

“Ah,” Dee said. “Want me to deal with them?” she asked.

“No,” Jace replied rapidly. “It’s not necessary bloodshed.”

Huh. Interesting. A killer with a conscience? Surprising, given the bloody mist, she glanced around at the blood-slicked deck littered with corpses, and the general chaos. “Why haven’t you dusted these?”

Jace glanced around, “I forgot. Ollie?” he shouted out.

Ollie flew over and held out his little paw, Miku right next to him holding out her wing.

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[Stardust Acquired: 1000]

[Stardust Split: 200]

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Jace frowned, “Don’t get me wrong: if they fought me? I’d end them. But they’re just scared workers.”

Dee nodded slowly, “But they are your enemies, no?”

“In the grand scheme of The Cosmic System, everyone on Earth is insignificant,” Jace replied. “But it doesn’t mean we have to just kill everyone we come across.”

Priam nodded, “He’s right. We don’t have to be mean to everyone we meet.”

That thought struck Dee, and she pondered it as they continued traveling towards the coast.

Tyul, Nebula Alliance head recruiter, was irritated. His Aspirants and several Ascendants he had recruited over the years were dead. All because of Flicker. Jace Seren. And his crew. He tapped several icons on the console before him.

I only have enough access for a single portal, he thought. What can I send to try and kill them?

Earth was almost a lost cause. The entire planet was too well-connected with this Webnet, and losing the servers that were hosting all that interconnected information was going to bring the Nebula Alliance’s conversion plans to a grinding halt. Re-covering a whole world in a new data network was within their power, but at a certain point the cost would exceed the profit.

A panel appeared next to him, and his faction-leader’s face appeared. Deckard was in his usual outfit and looked quite calm, “How are affairs on Earth?”

“Going to shit,” Tyul replied. “If General Logistics’ server gets taken out, we may as well concede the planet. We’ve already lost a ton in resources and manpower.”

“We have more Aspirants and Ascendants. I’m not concerned about the manpower loss as I am about the profit loss. What of our remaining Signers on Earth?”

“All of them are at General Logistics. They’re preparing a final stand, as it were, expecting this crew to come.”

Deckard chortled, “3 Ascendants and 8 Aspirants, yes?”

“Correct, sir.”

“Well then…let’s hope that is enough.” The screen shut off, and Tyul turned back to his task at hand.

Now…let’s see if I can allocate any more resources to those Aspirants. Get them to a higher Tier, send simple Quests with (Equipment) Boons their way…it’s the best shot we got.