Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 8B3 - : Familiar survival tactic

The facility Jace descended into had some lights that were a deep, orange color that seemed to indicate a power-saving mode. The dim brightness was enough to illuminate the path in front of him, and Jace tried to still his breathing as he kept inhaling through the nose and out through the mouth: just as his mentor had taught him. Every single sense at his disposal was dulled from months of having it augmented by Cosmic Infusion, and he stood still as he waited for them to readjust.

Thanks to his new Primal Hide, he was not affected by the cold in the slightest. Well, that combined with his armor: but the carbon dioxide that escaped from the release valve on the rebreather unit puffed into a cloud before almost instantly solidifying into ice and clattering on the ground. Damn, Jace thought, it’s cold enough to turn what I breathe out into ice? He shuddered as he thought of what would happen if he was not as augmented as he was, or if he did not have that Environmental Adaptation Skill.

His hearing finished readjusting, and he could make out the slight fzzt of electricity or something analogous to it zipping through the lights above. He descended into the passageway which had a set of steps that went down before it leveled out into a hallway that forked into left, right, and continuing ahead. The walls were covered with scribbling…which he had no clue of the contents of, as Universal Translation was a Skill.

I’ve really been relying on The Cosmic System quite a bit, he thought. Maybe I can think of this experience as a good thing: a reminder of where I came from and the talents that helped me survive on the street.

He chose to go left. Thanks to his All-Seeing Dragon’s Eyes, he was able to see the small arcs of energy emanating from magical symbols that were etched into the ground, walls, and ceiling. Thank you, prosthetic eyes, he thought. And thank you Shhiv for giving me the Boon necessary to get one. He stood up and tapped his foot. Now…how to disable magical runes? I can’t throw my sword because it won’t return to me. Maybe…if I scratch them? That worked on the arc-reactors on Velenar Prime.

He drew his sword: which, to his surprise, still had the dimensional sheath that the blade emerged from: and pointed it out as far as he could. Pushing it along the floor, it began to gouge into the ground thanks to its incredible cutting power. He was able to slice through the symbol, the metal flooring, and into the rock below. To his delight, the arcs of energy dissipated. Damn, I’m good. He walked forward and kept traveling down the tunnel until he encountered another one of the sets of symbols. Once more, he scraped it away, and progressed.

A sound caught his ears. A slight rasp of metal on metal. He froze and tried to figure out where it was coming from. Behind, or in front? He asked himself mentally as he glanced both directions. Then, he heard it again. Definitely behind me. Jace turned around and stood in a bladed stance. I might not have Swordmage Stance, he thought, but I think I’ve gotten used to this whole sword fighting thing.

A slight groan reached his ears, followed by a clattering sound of something solid being dropped from a small height. The pattern repeated itself; metallic scraping, a groaning noise, and a slight thunk. Jace walked back the way he came; keeping his sword pointed out in front of him. His heart was racing, but he was confident of his abilities and buoyed up by the fact that his armor and skin were incredibly tough.

The object making the noise was a fleshy mass that slowly inched along the corridor. It stopped at the first symbol Jace had disabled, and began grumbling as it seemed to fix the gouges in the ground that Jace had created. There was an odd mumbling. Maybe it is intelligent? Jace thought. Should I surprise attack it or see if it is helpful? He was torn. On the one hand, if this thing was just surviving in this Complex, then it might be a survivor who was unable to reach the portals to The Cosmic Corridor. On the other hand, however, if this thing was hostile, then getting a sneak attack off would be quite valuable.

Jace was about to speak up to offer it help, but then a thought struck him. I can’t communicate with it. If it isn’t hostile, it might become hostile seeing: to it: an alien in its base. But…at the same time. He closed his eyes and focused on his hearing, and could hear the slight Fwoosh of the wind outside. It would close up the entrance if it was trying to survive here. Not just go around repairing.

He'd made up his mind. Jace leaped forward and stabbed at the thing. It let out a groan and then turned towards him as he pulled the blade back. He could see its front, now, and it was quite the grotesque sight. A blob of flesh that was mottled and multi-colored, with metallic claws that it skittered along underneath. There was not a face; instead a series of eyes poked out from the front of the fleshy mass.

Jace sliced down into it again, and carved apart the flesh revealing a meaty interior. The creature let out a pained wail from some unseen mouth, and then the thing rushed forward. Jace backed off as he took more slices out of it: but the thing kept coming. He cut down, chopping at it over and over without finesse; just relying on his strength and the cutting power of the blade.

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It was enough, and the creature stilled as it seemed to deflate. The blood that was a greenish hue almost instantly froze, and the mass just sat there: partially blocking the corridor. Jace kept chopping into it, just to make sure. He was huffing and puffing as he turned back to the corridor the way he had been heading. Closing his eyes, he focused on his hearing once more. Just the slight whistling of the wind through the entrance reached his ears, and the faint hum of the magitech equivalent of electricity coursing through the lights of the corridor up above.

He kept following the path before reaching another fork: left and right. Glancing to the left, he saw a small length of hall before a arcane symbol-etched door, much like the one that gave him access to the facility, stood. I should keep hugging the left wall, Jace thought as he scrounged around his pack. Aaaand I did not bring any type of writing material to make a map. He sighed and re-shouldered the pack as he walked up to the door. Slicing into the frame, he cut the door from the surrounding structure and kicked out with his Steelstalker Sabatons. There was a riotous bang followed by a crash as the door fell down.

Inside the room were several tubes that looked to be sleeping pods of some type; racks upon racks: easily hundreds in the hangar-sized chamber. Jace walked around to a few of them, wiping the frost and ice from each. Empty, he thought. Must be some type of preservation chamber. They were willing to stasis themselves to avoid dying. He closed his eyes and focused on his hearing once more; and heard a far-off, metallic skittering. But it was…faster. A quick tap tap tap tap of metal on metal.

He knew something was coming, and did not want to be cornered in a room. He got to the T-section he had just left, and glanced both directions over and over, waiting for whatever it was to come for him. The noise from the door must have set them off, he thought. Whatever they are. He took deep, calming breaths as he waited for whatever it was.

Then, another noise. A loud bang of a gunshot. He recognized that sound. It was etched into his mind from corpos taking pot-shots at the street folk when they would try to scavenge from some of the dumpsters outside of the big corporation restaurants where the good, non-synthetic food was. Jace never joined in, because it was too dangerous, but the sound was forever branded into his memory.

Flattening himself against the wall, he heard a weird whirring noise followed by a rapid ‘tink tink tink’ noise. He recognized that sound too. Treads of a vehicle. Someone is driving a vehicle in here?

He kept next to the wall and slowly slinked back towards the entrance. Towards the sound of the gunshots.

The sniper sighed as he pulled back the slide on his rifle and ejected the shell before loading a new one in. He had just shot a weird, spider-like, blend of metal and flesh.

Pursuing Flicker was easy enough, and based upon what data he could gather, going inside this Complex to chase Flicker was a smart move despite the man’s distaste for close quarters combat. Without Skills, and Equipment, Flicker would be a much easier foe to fight.

Sure, sniping was his passion and what he excelled at, but he was a fully-borged-up person. Fully made of technology, with backup brains ready to be transmitted away to his other bodies. And his current body was made entirely of Starheart Steel from a Tier 9 world. The strongest material available on the market.

There is no way that this Flicker can cut through my body, the sniper thought. And I should have the Tier advantage.

There was a sound to his left, and he glanced that way. A slight rasping noise. Moving his treads that way, he came across the corpse of a creature. From behind, it was just a fleshy mass. Disgusting, he thought. So happy I ditched my organics. He shifted his treads up his body and extended them to go against the two walls on either side: lifting his mass up and moving forward down the tunnel.

Then, he heard something odd. A scraping noise. Then, his consciousness was transmitted to his backup body. “What?!” he shouted as his synthesized voice came out of the backup unit. “What killed me?”

He kicked his legs over the side of his storage rack and pulled up a screen as he replayed his optical sensor’s data. Letting out a frustrated sigh, he tossed aside the screen. “That was an expensive suit,” he muttered. “I’ve got one more of those shells. Now…it’s a matter of pride and Stardust. I can’t let myself be beaten by a guy with a fucking sword. Next round…the flying chassis with the anti-tank rifle.”

Jace had hidden himself underneath the disgusting, fleshy body of the creature he had slain: something he was okay with, since he was used to dirtying himself up back on Earth and on Velenar Prime in order to survive. A weird, half-humanoid and half-tank thing had rolled overheard, and he squirmed out from under the corpse before slicing the tank-thing clean in two and then hacking it over and over.

The corpse remained. Must be because we aren’t in a place where The Cosmic System can impose its control, he thought. And I’m not dusting it. He went over to where the four arms were, and cut those off as he extricated the various components. Where is the gun?

Despite cutting the thing to bits he could not find where the gun was. Jace sighed and began taking the larger chunks of the metal. It was a glossy, white color. This must be valuable, he thought as he began removing the external shell from the interior components. He had carved through enough mechs back on Earth during their recent assault on the megacorps that he could tell the difference between armored plating and the stuff that made the unit move.

But he came across a weird chip. A green-hued, blinking microchip that was blinking with a red light. Huh. Well, definitely keeping whatever this is, he thought. Taking the microchip and the armored plates: about sixty pounds worth: he shoved all the contents into his pack. Thankfully, there was still room for more. Re-shouldering it, and glancing about at the components once more, he resumed his path. Reaching the T-intersection, he moved to the right, keeping his sword raised and at the ready.