Xera dashed over to the blinking, red floating panel and began tapping icons. Damnit! I thought we had this under control! She looked over at her personal Wayfinder, Josie, who was a flurry of activities with her tentacles whipping in all different directions as she interfaced. “How many breaches on your end?” Xera shouted at her companion.
“I’ve only got one. Redirecting local Pulsar Coalition.”
And I’ve got one over here. Xera looked over at the floating Wayfinders that she had reassigned to herself to assist in the workload. She had pushed most of the daily workload to them, leaving her more time to work on the more important and delicate portions of The Cosmic System’s maintenance.
She sighed in pinched the bridge of her nose as she continued tapping panels with her other three hands. I have no choice. Damnit!
“Oh, hey! That’s not fair!” Shhiv shouted at Jace through the watery recreation cube as he used his grapple arm to tether himself to the floor of the cube and race down to grab the glowing sticks.
Jace looked back at her and grinned, “Sorry! But you said, ‘anything goes’ this time!”
Ollie was swimming alongside Jace in happy, little circles. Wherever he traveled in the watery cube, shimmering, light-blue sparkles of starlight traced behind him. As Jace was swimming up to the top where there was a small gap for air, Ollie paused, and his eyes went black. Xera’s voice came out of the Wayfinder’s mouth. “Jace, get ready. Now.”
What’s going on? Jace thought as he glanced up at Shhiv before heading to the cube’s exit. Stepping out onto the rectangle panel in front of the recreation ‘pool’, he instantly dried off. “Mind filling me in?” he asked as he walked over to his earpiece that was sitting on a nearby table.
Ollie became himself once more as he swam through the watery cube to float just above Jace. His face had a look of worry, and as Jace placed the communication device in his ear, he heard Xera’s voice come through in a panic. “You have to go now! We have Astral Incursions. Two of them. I’m sending you to deal with one, and the rest to the other.”
Jace looked back at Shhiv as she exited the cube and gave her an apologetic frown, “Sorry. Duty calls.”
Shhiv frowned as well, but nodded, “I get it. Go keep the universe safe, stud.”
Jace ran to the elevator and went up to his room, the whole time being filled in by Xera on the recent developments.
Two different Astral Incursions were underway. One was on Velenar Prime – and both the Black Hole Conclave and Pulsar Coalition had seemingly put aside their vast hatred for each other to try and fight back whatever was coming through. He had no fond memories of that world that hosted his Aspirant Trial. “What caused the incursion?” he asked Xera as he ran into his room and began putting on his equipment.
“The damned engine that the Conclave was trying to install. I thought Troxanir was using ‘warp travel’ style technology. Seems like it experienced a malfunction. I am already working on fixing the System’s parameters to block further attempts of that model of ‘punch’ drive. I’m guessing that your earlier sabotage of the drill screwed something up deeper in the planet’s core, and when they tried to install this engine, it broke in some way.”
No clue what a punch drive is, but I get the gist.
Jace knew that the Astral Verge was a layer of reality that was ‘under’ their universe, and that ‘warp travel’ was impossible outside of Khrox or The Cosmic Corridor. That was why Earth never discovered other species out in the vastness of the cosmos, and other species never discovered them – the technology was ‘blocked’ by Xera.
The Cosmic System ‘shrouded’ worlds from being discovered until they went through Cosmogenic Merging; the process by which a world was integrated into the System proper. And who would need ‘warp travel’ of any type when they could simply walk through a portal to the quasi-dimensional space of The Cosmic Corridor and reach any world that was connected?
Troxanir must be using some weird Astral engine to get worlds to the singularity at the center of the universe faster than physics would normally allow. He must have avoided malfunctions before, otherwise Xera would have blocked that type of technology from being developed in the universe.
Troxanir, the Endless Hunger, was the physical avatar of the Astral Demon – a term for the native of the Astral Verge – that Xera’s people, The Architects, used to ‘plug’ that ‘drain’ at the center of the universe. Troxanir wanted his black hole, Oblivion, to grow. Eventually, to consume the whole universe. For what purpose, Jace did not know. And Xera did not seem to know, either, as the realm that Troxanir originated from was not the subject of her studies and work, but rather that of her brother who left with the rest of their species once The Cosmic System was completed.
Jace finished equipping his gear and heard Quinn’s voice in his earpiece – the Webwalker-turned-support Class. “Priam, Greg, and Dee are already on their way to another world called Menaly. You’re going to Velenar Prime. I’ve already requisitioned a hoverbike from Xera’s garage – we’ll warp it right to the Cosmic Corridor portal so you can get going ASAP.”
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“Alright, warp me.” Jace felt reality shift around him. Normally, one would have to visualize a destination in Khrox or the Corridor, walk for a minute, and then they would arrive. But Jace and the other Dark Between Stars members were given special privileges by Xera. She could warp them from anywhere to anywhere else within the confines of the quasi-dimensional space.
He appeared in front of the pastel-blue portal, pulled up his hood and mask, and glanced sideways as space distorted. With a pop, a vehicle like the hypercycle he rode a few months prior appeared. But this one was very slick and appeared more futuristic. Ollie flew over to it and pointed to where the fuel would go on the older model he rode. “This uses a miniature, compressed stellar-engine for fuel. X’s design.”
Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3), Jace thought. The Skill manifested and shrouded him in a light layer of purple, rendering him invisible, undetectable, and untraceable to everyone else. Ollie was also affected, and the Wayfinder flew over and wriggled into Jace’s hood, popping his head out of the top above the Aspirant’s head.
Jace mounted the hoverbike and started it up. The vehicle did not sputter to life and vibrate under him as the first one had done those months prior. This one hummed to life and began to float a few inches above the ground. It seemed to automatically stabilize, and Jace thumbed the accelerator, surging through the portal and onto the familiar world of Velenar Prime. It was night, and the grasslands that would normally be full of night-blooms were decimated from people coming in to harvest the resource.
Ollie pulled up a map in Jace’s vision that overlaid the environment, and Xera’s voice came over the earpiece. “Go top speed. The sooner you get there, the better.”
“And” Quinn added as she spoke through his earpiece, “I’m activating everything on you. Celestial Observer (Rank 1), Coordinator’s Critical Gaze (Rank 6), Coordinator’s Warning System (Rank 5), and all my Stratagems.”
Jace’s vision was overlaid with the still-unfamiliar but very logically laid out heads-up-display overlay. He saw the various Skills that Quinn had active and ready to go – improved movement speed, outgoing damage multiplier, incoming damage reduction, grounded against forced movement, nullification of mental effects, damage adaptation, even more stealth amplification, and illusory duplicates. Those would last for a set amount of time before fading.
“Xera, how tough is this thing?” Jace asked as he saw the landscape with perfect clarity – his enhanced, magic-prosthetic eyes able to easily pick up the small pack of Brontasps that began chasing him only to be left behind in the dust.
“Astral entities are hard to qualify. But it’s forcing Pulsar Coalition and Black Hole Conclave to team up to avoid death-” her voice cut off, and Jace heard her come back with a curse. “They’re dying off rapidly. This thing is going to be tough.”
“I only have the single use of Reality’s Order to shut the rift,” Quinn commented. “Either Priam’s squad or Jace here.”
Xera groaned, “I know! I’m working on something else. I…Hold on!”
-----
[Quest: Destroy the Astral Demon.]
[Time Limit: ASAP.]
[Reward: Legendary (Augmentation) Boon.]
[Sender: Dark Between Stars]
-----
“That can be used on your eyes once you kill it to upgrade a piece of your Equipment to close Astral Incursions,” Xera said with confidence returning to her voice as her cool, steely tone reasserted itself. “But that taps my resources for a bit.”
Jace nodded, “Understood.” He glanced at the map as he raced across the alien planet.
Priam stepped through the portal from The Cosmic Corridor that led to Menaly. A Tier 3 world that was home of the Moslow species – a type of dog-humanoid with digitigrade legs, long snouts, and bushy tails. A magic-focused world. “That way!” he shouted as he looked back at his allies.
Dee and Greg emerged from the portal and looked at the way he was pointing. Far off in the distance on the edge of the horizon, there was a shimmering light behind a hill. It was a deep, sinister black that seemed to seep outward and slowly creep across the land. “What the heck is that?” Dee asked with a slight tremble of panic in her voice.
Quinn’s voice came over the comms, “Astral Incursion spreading. I’m activating every Skill at my disposal on you three.”
Greg took a deep breath and manifested his Skills: his body became crusted in rock and stone, with spikes of metal pointing outward. A light-blue sphere of energy surrounded him and extended out in all directions, and icons appeared above Dee and Priam’s heads that Quinn’s eye-like sphere sucked up.
Priam also activated several Skills in rapid succession. Glimmering, golden and white barriers flecked with astral wings popped into place around the group. At the same time, all of them were granted a conditional healing effect that would save them from the brink of death.
Dee ushered the trio out of the way of the portal as people began to stream past them and into The Cosmic Corridor. “Why are they all running away? We’re here to stop it!”
“Backup measure,” Xera replied in the earpieces. “I sent an emergency evacuation order to every Civilian. Worst case scenario, if you can’t stop the Astral Demon, I have to detonate the world to prevent any possible spreading to the universe as a whole.”
Greg grimaced and glanced over at Priam, “In other words, if we don’t stop it, we’ll die.”
Priam felt a jolt of fear through him and met Greg’s gaze for a second before the man’s helmet emerged from his armor and covered his face. Glancing over at Dee, he saw a slightly concerned expression on her chitinous visage. “Okay…we got this,” Priam whispered – mostly to himself to help hype himself up.
“Heck yeah we do!” Dee shouted as her slight concern shifted to exuberance and enthusiasm. “I can’t wait to try and blow up an Astral Demon!”
Greg glanced around, “No transport nearby. Looks like we’re going to be hoofing it.”
Priam shook his head, “Grab on.” Both of his allies glanced at each other questioningly but did as Priam instructed. “Here we go. Heavenly Smite (Rank 1).” Spectral, angelic wings manifested from his back as he flew forward at breakneck speed, capable of blasting targets with divine, Cosmic, or Ascended power.
The sinister, black miasma was slowly moving out towards the entrance to The Cosmic Corridor, which was located outside of a main gate of one of the world’s most prominent cities. Priam counted down the seconds in his head before re-activating the Skill, feeling the drain on his energy as he really wanted to take a nap.
But, the twenty seconds of flight took them over the edge of the hill that they had seen on the horizon – and the sight that greeted the three was something out of nightmare.
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