Dark Matter Ascension

Dee looked back at Jace. That's…a lofty goal, she thought as she observed the armored man. His face was unreadable thanks to his visor, but she was familiar with the tone he used. He was pissed off.

Jace continued speaking, "I don't know if we can destroy it – but I can't help but think that our universe would be better off without the Nebula Alliance."

Greg interrupted, "When Quinn and I were in Khrox, we visited the Star Archive. Dark Between Stars Signers destroyed a faction called Twisted Apocrypha, so there's precedent for it happening at least."

Jace was silent for a few moments before walking over to Dee. His helmet receded into the armor, and she looked into his draconic, purple eyes with the slits that glowed with starlight. He was angry – she could tell that from the clenched jaw and the slight twitch of the eyebrow. "I know you have experience with these people. What do you say? Want to take down a whole faction?"

"I'd love to," Dee replied with a manic smile. "But it's hard to do that to an enormous organization. You'd have to get their Stardust reserves. All of them. And they aren't centralized. Plus, even if they lose all their Stardust, we would have to cut off all the leadership or get them to quit the organization."

Jace went silent, and she saw his expression change a few times from that pissed-off expression to understanding, and finally a slight smile. "Ollie had an idea. This Tyul guy is on-world. He's planning on taking over the Nebula Alliance anyways – what if he rebrands it? Takes over and we make sure that as a condition of him being the one to take over – rather than us just ending him – he improves the conditions for people lower down the rungs of society?"

"Sounds feasible," Dee replied. "Let's go pay him a visit. Miku? Pull up a map to Tyul's location."

S-s-s-orry, the Wayfinder replied in her mind. I c-c-c-an't d-do t-that. I-i-t is un-kn-known-n.

Dee shook her head, "Looks like we have to find him the old-fashioned way."

Greg sped up his pace to catch up to the two, pushing slightly past Priam. "We have a mission. Take out Deckard. Not to restructure a faction. Let's focus on our objective first. Okay? Things will be easier with Deckard dead and no bounty on us three."

That is true, Dee thought. "Very well," she replied. "Come on. I know where Deckard's tower is. Only a few hours away." She looked back at the tracks running adjacent to them, "And if my amazing memory serves, we should be seeing a train any minute now."

True to her memory, she saw the racing vehicle beginning to approach. "Come on!" she turned and began sprinting, but then felt weightless. She was about to say something, but Jace grabbed onto her, slung her onto his back – and Greg grabbed onto her as well. Priam was already wrapped around Jace's neck.

And the man began sprinting. Dee was astonished with the speed he was able to achieve – just a little slower than the approaching train. Enough that jumping from their service corridor to the train would be far less dangerous. He leaped forward, the train came up right under them, and he planted his feet on the top of the vehicle.

Gravity reasserted itself as he canceled the Skill, and Dee gripped into the train's metal top as tightly as she could. Priam was still holding tight onto Jace, and Greg had planted his metal, booted feet to stay put.

The four Aspirants raced through the ecumenopolis towards Deckard's tower.

"Troxanir can't possibly expect me to fulfill this size of an order," Deckard muttered as he finished perusing the documents on his screens. "At this rate we'll run out of even basic metals."

The doors to his office opened up and Tyul walked through. The birdman was holding a data pad, and he dipped his head slightly. "I'm back from my vacation. How have things been in my absence?"

Deckard closed out the screens and stood up, his mass squirming over the floors as he folded his tendrils in on themselves. "Well. Very well. How was your trip?"

"Uneventful and refreshing, as expected," Tyul replied. "I wanted to see if you saw the improved productivity reports from Felesii."

Deckard waved a tendril and a screen appeared next to him, "Yes. We have exceeded expectations for output. Sadly, it appears that we also lost one of our deep-space mining vessels from the same world." He watched Tyul's face, looking for any trace of emotion.

But the bird man remained remarkably composed, "That is unfortunate."

Deckard sighed, "Yes, well, it is being dealt with. I sent the autonomous swarm to handle the recapture of the vessel."

Tyul raised an appraising eyebrow, "Really? That seems like a lot of effort for a single vessel."

"All of our assets are important."

"Well…if that is all. I'll return to my duties." Tyul dipped his head exited.

Deckard returned to his desk, completely forgetting about Tyul as he engrossed himself with the reports of various foundries and smelteries. He had to keep on good terms with Troxanir – the man was his best customer at this point, after all.

Jace kept a close eye on his still-slowly-draining energy. He did not want to risk the trio being seen or detected, and keeping the Cloak active was his only real defense. Thankfully, Ollie had informed him that gravitic sensors could only cover relatively small spaces. The explorer tank that the Conclave was using back on Poltor Six was only able to use such gravitic sensors because there was so little on the planet's surface.

Here, this world was full of life. Everywhere he looked down below, peeking his head over the edge of the train, he saw people. Primarily a species that looked to be slim, tall, and almost regal. They had various skin colorations, elongated skulls compared to a Human, and sharp eyes. No ears, oddly enough – instead they had some type of holes on the top of their head. He could make all of this out thanks to the telescoping capabilities of his eyes.

We will not have access to Xera or Quinn until we disable whatever is causing this interference, Ollie said in his mind. Which is strange – this is not interference with The Cosmic System, but the communication network we have been using is based upon a subspace relay – think of it like a sliverscreen tower back on Earth. Well, a network of them, in geostationary orbit around most stars in the universe. One of The Architect's first creations – universe-wide communication.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Before they made The Cosmic System," Jace inferred. "And since it travels through space, whereas everything else travels through…wherever the System is."

Quasi-dimensional space. Think of it as a custom layer of reality sitting 'above' ours.

Jace shook his head, and picked up someone shouting – the wind racing by his helmet was too loud, and he had to drag himself forward towards Dee to hear her.

"We need to get off!"

Jace nodded and grabbed her hand. He glanced back to Greg and wiggled his leg. Greg got the message and grabbed on. Priam was still holding tightly to his neck. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). Detonate. Jace's Skill went off and he pushed off of the train. They floated lazily out to the left of the underside of the highway, and Jace used his grapple to pull the group to a nearby balcony.

An outdoor dining area filled with patrons of varying species – all bearing the slightly green fingertips of the Nebula Alliance – or finger equivalents, for the case of a few squid-looking species. They were chatting about the recent development of a mining ship crashing into the surface a good distance away, and taking bets on how much of the crew survived.

It sickened Jace to hear them talk about gambling with lives. "Where next?" he asked.

Dee pointed around the side of the building, "It's behind this here. A few miles off."

Jace pushed off the balcony and used his grapple to pull the group up faster. To the top of the building. As the Dark Energy Mine was about to run out, he made sure the group was firmly affixed to the rooftop – a flat, square top, thankfully, and then was able to take in the sight before him.

There was a huge, cleared-out space. Easily ten miles across. Peering down, he could see the full two-mile depth, and at the bottom of the enormous chasm were sunlamps illuminating a lush park. Dee cleared her throat, "The tower in the center is Deckard's personal base. His office used to be at the top, but the whole place goes down towards the core of the planet – one of the big power generators so he can never have his tech disabled from power loss."

"We could do Jace's float-thing over," Greg said. "Get in from above like we did at the Empire State Tower for Myscape Industrial back on Earth."

"Not a good idea," Priam muttered as he held onto the lip of the building's edge. "We need to be where he is. This guy sounds like a coward, judging by what Jace told us about their last brief encounter. We need to know exactly where he is, or else he might get away."

"I agree," Greg muttered. "But finding his location in that giant tower won't be easy."

Dee gulped audibly – which was an odd noise because she didn't have a digestive tract as far as Jace was aware. "I…I have an idea. I can ask for a meeting. Get the location. Relay it to you all."

"That's risky," Priam replied as he shook his head. "He sold you off to a megacorporation! You think he'll let you walk in there?"

Dee frowned, "Maybe?"

Greg leaned against the small wall, turning his back to the tower as he looked at his allies. "Agreed. It is too risky. We need to come up with another plan."

"I could just destroy the tower," Jace stated bluntly. "I have Ruination Razor. But it would result in collateral damage I'd rather avoid. And he probably has gravitic sensors installed all over that place, so sneaking in is going to be practically impossible." He sighed and tapped his foot, "I don't like the idea, but we might have to go with Dee's plan."

"How would we even talk to her! Our comms are down!" Priam said as he turned with an uncharacteristic shout. "We can't risk her!"

An idea struck Jace, "What if we lured him out? With something that he could not resist? Anything you know that he absolutely desires?"

Dee shook her head, "He's a collector."

Jace looked to Priam, "Did you use that Godheart yet?"

"The one from the giant crab? Yeah! I haven't used it yet."

"I think a collector would be very interested in the heart of the last deity from a doomed world. Hand it over."

Priam nodded and pulled it out of his Venture Pack, handing it over to Jace. The black, seed-like shape was lightweight, and Jace put it into his TPSB. "I was holding onto it because I didn't know what it would let me do. Based on what you had told me…mind stuff? Icky. No thank you."

"Isn't your pleasure thing also like that?" Dee asked.

"That's different! It's not mind control. It's just…all-consuming pleasure, or something like that."

Jace looked over the edge of the building, then back to his group. "We've got two options then. Option one is I go in alone, demand a meeting in exchange for the Godheart, and kill him while I'm in there. Or, option two, we lure him out to a meetup." He looked to Dee, "I'd rather go in alone, because I know I can get out…but you have a grudge against this guy. And I don't want to take the satisfaction of ending it from you."

Dee gestured for him to hand over the object, "Give it to me. I'll claim that it's from Earth, and in exchange for meeting with him, I want to talk to him. I can get in, blast him, steal a bunch of stuff, and then blow my way out."

Jace handed her the Godheart. "We're going to need to set a timer. A certain amount of time before we go in after you."

Priam looked to Dee, ran over to her, and grabbed her arm. "This is dangerous. Why not let Jace take on the danger?"

She knelt down and scratched his head under his hat. "I'll be fine."

"I…" Priam sniffled a bit and pulled the hat down over his eyes. "I can't lose another person I care about."

"It'll be fine," Dee replied. "Plorps are hard to kill. Plus, you all are going to come in and be my backup! And, I'll have your shields and healing on standby, won't I?"

Priam sniffled a little but slowly nodded, "Just be careful."

"I will be. Now, how do we get down to the entrance."

"The same way we got up here. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1)." Jace hopped up onto the small wall. "Everyone group up and hold on."

They did so, and he stepped forward, feeling the tremendous rush of air going past him as he let out a whoop of delight at the sensation of falling. He activated the mine before they impacted, and then he used his grapple to pull them the rest of the way down. Extricating herself from their impromptu falling-huddle, Dee brushed herself off. "Alright. Time for Skills."

Quinn's voice came through Jace's HUD as her face appeared. "Hey, I finally got a workaround for this stupid subspace signal jammer. Comms are still down, but I was able to use the NICIF, and your armor's interface, to directly link with The Cosmic System. And since my Skills function anywhere now…well, we'll be good in a moment. Gather up everyone's comms."

Jace turned to the group, "Everyone, hand me your comms." They complied, and the NICIF sweated out of his pores, pushed up through the armor, and then coated the earpieces before receding. He handed the comms back to everyone, and when they put them in, Jace could hear them clearly again.

"Oh, no need for a timer with this. Good job, Quinn." Greg said.

Priam raised his Soul Warden Writ, "Exarch's Ward (Rank 14) [Multi-Target], Exarch's Seraphic Soothe (Rank 11) [Contingent]." The whole group was covered in crackling, golden barriers of energy as the odd hourglass shape appeared above them.

Greg raised his hand, "Been wanting to test this out. Eternal Guardian (Rank 10)." The whole group was surrounded by a shining barrier of deep, blue energy. "Now any injury you suffer, I suffer, but only at fifty percent efficacy. That, stacked with my Indomitable Juggernaut and Bulwark's Defenses – when I activate that – I'll be practically unkillable."

"What applies first?" Priam asked. "My shield or Greg's redirect thingy?"

Quinn's voice replied, "Greg's redirect will apply first, and it will go against his assigned barrier you manifested. I'm activating Celestial Observer (Rank 1), Coordinator's Critical Gaze (Rank 6), Coordinator's Warning System (Rank 5), and Strategem (Rank 37)." A sphere of brilliant gold appeared above each of them – invisible to all but them – and Jace also saw accompanying bars in his HUD for each of Quinn's abilities. "The trigger for Strategem is 'combat initiated'. I stacked all of my Skill Evolutions as well."

Dee shook her head, "I got nothing. Jace, want to drop the Cloak on me?"

Jace complied, and as the Cloak faded on her he activated Void Shield (Rank 6) and Void Blade (Rank 5) [Rending]. "We're here when you need us."

Dee began walking towards the enormous tower in the distance, and the rest of the group followed a short distance behind her.