Evan has the technology and network access to contact all the Settlement owners and most powerful groups on Earth including the Legendary Strike Forces. I quickly brief him and a small group of people he uses specifically for this purpose and ask him to inform everyone and come up with the bones of a plan. He doesn’t for a second doubt that I’m telling the truth, but it’s a sobering moment for both of us when I trigger Omnipresent and open a Portal near one of the massive stingray-like beings to show him and observe it more closely. I zoom back out and confirm there are thousands upon thousands of them winging toward Earth; it’s a nightmare version of a mass ocean migration. Evan and I agree my job is to find out what I can about the invaders while he puts everyone on high alert and starts activating our coalition of the willing.
“This isn’t your fight, and technically you’re still restricted as far as your movements on Earth go,” I say to Taiwo as I angst internally about whether or not I should involve Jeff right now in the exploration. I open up a Portal to the MIS Hub in Queenstown so Taiwo can rejoin whatever Tenebris has established at the Academy and potentially the Legendary Strike Force that’s covering Australia and New Zealand. “Don’t make me come enforce your Protocol violations.”
“I’ll help where I can,” Taiwo says sincerely, and I believe him. With less regret than I thought I might feel, I remove the Enforcer Deputization from Taiwo. There’s no questions from him, he totally understands and hopefully is happy he got a small peak into the SSA Enforcer world. Maybe there will be a need in the future for me to run with the SSA Enforcers, but I’ve already determined the only path I want is to follow what I think is right, not to hire myself out to anyone to do Enforcement work.
The mental clarity feels good. I feel a lot more aligned in myself by letting some of the ‘what ifs’ go. This is my mission. This is what I do.
“I know you’ll help us,” I respond to Taiwo, “and I appreciate it. Now go - I’ve got a lot to do.” He steps through the Portal and I close it behind him quickly, my mind spinning through possible things I should do next.
Warn the people I care about? Go to Venus to find out what we’re dealing with? Portal to one of the incoming Monsters and see if I can figure out their weaknesses?
I kick myself for never really looking at our own solar system, even with Omnipresent. I’ve only been focused on Earth plus all the specific situations I’ve had to search out. Just to make sure there’s nothing else coming for us at the same time, I trigger Omnipresent and zoom in to each planet and moon, and even have a look around the sun. There are Monsters and life on every surface, but especially the solid planets and moons. I can even see that points of light representing Monsters are on the gaseous planets.
I zoom in on Earth’s moon and see that it’s been terraformed and now teams with life. I can only assume Venus was sufficiently terraformed after the Influx to support life. Since the moon is the closest to Earth, I take a half a minute to adjust the filters I have on Omnipresent to investigate the level of threat there. I breathe a sigh of relief that nothing on the moon right now looks to be over Level 250, and there are very few Monsters over Level 200. Millions and millions of them under Level 150 though, right down to low Levels. Perhaps it took a bit of time to create a habitable environment for life on the moon and so it’s lagging Earth and Venus slightly. I put it on the backburner for now and transfer my attention through Omnipresent to Venus as I feel the looming threat pressing on my mind.
I filter as calmly as I can with my Skill and scan the Monsters on the planet. It looks a lot like the few Scorched Worlds I’ve examined, where life is not abundant and instead there is an overweighting of high Level creatures. It’s the opposite of worlds like Earth or Holgaad, where the thick life everywhere has overrun all the Settlements and left it as a Bane World.
Before I turn my attention to the Monsters approaching Earth, I filter on Venus to find out what the highest Level creature is, the one with the most potential danger to Earth if it can even leave its own planet. I breathe out heavily and wince as I see what’s there and open a Portal, then pull what I can through it about the creature that’s there.
Xypharoth (Level 538 Evolved Ravager Manta)
Health: 945600/945600
Mana: 65930/65930
Conditions: Ascended Regeneration, Ascended Inviolate, Mana Field, Gravity Field, Colossus, Reality Warp, Enemy of My Enemy, Elemental Mastery, more…
This thing is even more powerful than Hvitserkur and I’m having trouble fathoming its dimensions. The way it moves and everything about it gives me the sense it has a predatory cunning and intelligence. It’s a giant version of the other Monsters headed to Earth and the underside of this one pulses with eldritch energy contained in runes and designs. At the moment Xypharoth shows no signs of leaving Venus, but it is lazily swimming at a level that must be almost low orbit above Venus. We can only hope there’s no connection between Xypharoth and the Ravager Manta that are on the way to Earth.
Stolen novel; please report.
I’m deeply concerned when I close the Portal and open a new one to the Ravager Manta that’s closest to Earth. There are thousands of them and some filtering with Omnipresent shows this one is typical, though from my perspective it’s anything but. I use Omnipresent to jump down the long, irregular line of Ravager Manta who are doing some kind of fucked up version of when geese fly south for the winter.
Each of them seems to be between 800 and 1200 meters long, a stingray-like Monster that has evolved beyond Venus, breaching the upper atmosphere to become a true interplanetary predator. Mana-infused propulsion holes must use and vent Mana; there are hundreds of them all across the Ravager Manta at different sizes and angles, although two huge ones at the back of its body where the four-pronged tail starts are clearly powering it forward through space. Like Xypharoth, on their undersides is an enormous, circular maw with rings of razor-sharp teeth
Ravager Manta (Level 307)
Health: 281090/281890
Mana: 21110/21110
Conditions: Gravity Field, Adaptive Armor, Troop Transport, Mana Jets, Farsight, Strength of the Fever, more…
Two things are clear to me. I have to find out how tough these things are to kill so I can pass as much information to Earth as possible, and I need to try to kill as many as I can before they reach us. That means taking the fight to them. Right now.
Adrenaline dumps into my system as I contemplate taking on thousands of Monsters, each with twenty times my Health and so big they each carry tens or hundreds of thousands of additional Monster invaders. For a second the whole thing seems absurd and daunting. Then I shake myself out of it.
“Fuck that!” I exclaim out loud. I’m a fucking Ascended Class Dark Mana Knight and I’m going to take the fight to them.
I manifest the Portal above the lead Ravager Manta and leap through onto its back. Immediately I feel the effects of space that tries to pull me apart and freeze me, but the toughness of my body along with my Dimensional Forge armor and my regeneration handle it easily.
The Ravager Manta seems to flinch as I land on it, and I can feel the thick hide below me strengthen and become more rigid as if defensive power from its Adaptive Armor Skill is able to adjust to protect it against me. As unstoppable as my Swords are, this thing is so big it’s only going to be the equivalent of a cut while shaving. Maybe if I can find a weakness and exploit it they’ll be useful or find a weapon that’s 100m long with massive stopping power? Everything has to be on the table.
Just to check I plunge my Swords down into the Ravager Manta and I fly up from the surface of the Monster as my Swords are momentarily rebuffed and I have no way to anchor myself in the weightlessness of space.
Fuck!
I’ve been all over the Universe, but never fought in zero gravity before.
I use Dimensional Forge to form a new weapon, this time a grappling hook with a sharp point to penetrate the hide deeply and claws that punch out as I retract the chain. With all my Strength I hurl the grappling hook and trigger Imbued Strike back at the Ravager Manta. The force hurls me away, but the point strikes true and the weapon slams into the Monster and drives deep, powered by my Skills. I yank on the chain and retract it to slam me back down on the hide. It’s a powerful, heavy landing and it feels like I should hear a loud thump, but in the cold void of space there’s nothing.
The surface of the hide closes around the chain of my grappling hook and becomes rigid again, seemingly trying to close off the breach, but it can’t cut through my Dimensional Forge Skill’s construct. In my other hand I form one of my Sword and plunge it down into the Ravager Manta, using my grappling hook to keep me in place.
The resistance is tremendous, but I apply all my Strength and focus on making the Sword as sharp as it can possibly be. In less than a second the reinforced hide of the Monster parts to allow my Sword in and I focus on lengthening it as much as I can. I push Dimensional Forge hard, straining with my will and determination through my SMI, and extend it far beyond what’s been previously possible to almost 20 meters.
The Ravager Manta bucks and accelerates suddenly with a massive blast from all the Mana jets along its body, but I’ve got a good grip on my Sword and the grappling hook. With Perfect Focus slowing everything down and my Strength, I rip my Sword in a chaotic pattern inside the Monster’s body. It’s only a small area, but I’m tearing its internals up with high velocity.
My Danger Sense alerts me all around and I look up to see the four types of creatures I saw with Foresight emerging from organic flesh pockets all over the Ravager Manta. I want more information about this thing before I get distracted so I dismiss my Sword and grappling hook then pull a jetpack out of my Inventory and trigger Omnipresent, then open a Portal to the underside of the creature I’m standing on and quickly find its massive, circular maw.
I quickly check Omnipresent and notice we’re a lot closer to Earth than I originally estimated; we must be moving a lot faster. My sense of urgency spikes. I need to find out more about these invaders and then deliver the most possible damage to them before we reach Earth.
