by Skyler Grant
Flicker was an interesting case. When I had assigned her Administration it seemed she must have some sort of knack at it—otherwise, why had it been an option? I’d been wrong. People seeking permits of approval went into the administration building only to emerge days later, if that, wandering about and having had countless extra-dimensional adventures and typically requiring a visit to Medical.
I’d taken to telling those requesting any permit that there was no need, and sending only those who only wanted to complained into the administration district. Far from harming city operations the lack of red-tape was working out rather well.
28
I and Minerva still didn’t get along, but for a self-styled Goddess of Knowledge she was almost deserving of the title. Thanks to her we had a real map of the region. It allowed us to expand our reach without tripping over the Divine, who in turn also seemed inclined to leave us alone.
We even had trade agreements with a few, but most were wary of our presence and I thought it only a matter of time until they pooled their resources for a larger attack. I decided that we would make the first move before that happened.
Our target was called “The Forge” and was occupied by Kothar, who was a renowned craftsman amongst the Divine. It was common to utilize types of power crystals in technology, but the Divine seemed to do it differently, somehow imbuing them directly into objects.
Kothar’s anvil was said to be home to a Forge core, just what Blank insisted she needed to expand her district. I found it curious that the Divine and the Righteous might have something in common when their world views in many ways seemed completely at odds with each other.
I moved an airship to where I could get a proper look at what awaited us. The Forge was a large complex for the Divine, with quarters and workshops for dozens of craftsman along with a thriving marketplace.
Like in most of the other Divine villages we’d seen there was a sharp contrast in the facilities for the Powered versus the unpowered. They weren’t alone in this, of course—the Scholars had a caste system based on the same principles.
A central workshop gave off the strongest readings and was most likely the home of what we sought. I was picking up one Powered inside and perhaps two dozen lieutenants. That was on the high side of what was expected, but still within expected parameters. The market was another matter. According to my readings there were three other Divine and another dozen lieutenants.
Hot Stuff was leading this operation. I sent her what I’d found.
“Not ideal,” Hot Stuff said.
“Never stopped you in love, why should it stop you in war? We need this,” I said.
Our plan had originally been to capture this facility and take Kothar captive. He hadn’t proved amenable to cooperating with us so far. Overwhelming force was good for making friends.
Hot Stuff had her flames disabled so she could interact with a tactical display. “Will you settle for just the anvil?”
I didn’t like leaving any potential resource behind. I particularly didn’t like leaving one behind who had friends. I’d never settle for leaving empty-handed.
“Better half of what I want than none,” I said.
“Words to live by. We’ll make it quick and try the new barriers,” Hot Stuff said.
The barriers were one of the latest inventions from the lab. The theory was that few things governed how a fight went so much as mobility, and even in situations where we couldn’t make our own forces more mobile we should at least constrain the enemy. The barriers were high-powered force shields of short duration meant to do just that.
“They’re Divine. It won’t buy you long,” I said.
I did a short range jump to bring us in directly above the facility, our ramp already opening and forces deploying. Hot Stuff led the way, igniting her flames and heating up enough that she melted through the roof upon impact. Four Valkyries followed her in. Quarters were close in there and that was the environment they excelled in.
Grenade launchers sent tranquilizer gas bombs tumbling through the air throughout the complex. I detonated two barrier bombs on top of the marketplace encasing it in a glowing blue energy shield.
It didn’t survive a single hit. An arrow of pure glowing white energy ripped the barrier to shreds and hit the ship. Armor was holding, but it was quite a shot, equal to what I’d expect from an airship cannon. Another arrow followed it a moment later.
There was no point in informing Hot Stuff, not right now, she had enough on her plate. Kothar’s forge hammer had no issues with intense heat and she’d already taken a blow from him that had broken three of her ribs. It was a rare case where the Valkyries had more success. Their heavy armor wasn’t dependent on fire for defense. Two had stepped forward to guard her even as she manifested a wall of fire to stop several of the forge assistants from joining the fray.
Another arrow hit the ship, and not from the ground this time. A massive eagle swept above the marketplace and an ebony-haired woman in a skirt of leather strips rode on its back. That was her mistake. I had some issues at leveling the ship’s cannons at a crowded marketplace, I didn’t have a problem firing at an aerial threat shooting back.
I began to return fire with the energy cannons. Two shots were dodged as the eagle swept to the side and another one was neutralized as an arrow met it part-way resulting in a brilliantly flare of energy.
Down below Hot Stuff had killed her flames to rig booster jets to Kothar’s anvil. That was supposed to be the Valkryie’s job, but the first two had already gone down against him. No armor was perfect, there were always weak spots, areas of tiny vulnerability. This God of Craftsman seemed to have an eye for them.
Hot Stuff was coughing up blood as she draped herself over the anvil and triggered the boosters. Gouts of flame erupted as the anvil was lifted into the air and shot up through the hole in the roof.
They were almost to the airship when an arrow caught the anvil, exploding against it and destroying the boosters, sending Hot Stuff flying.
A head for math again proved itself the greatest superpower one could ever hope for. One short range jump later had Hot Stuff and the anvil falling into our cargo bay as we manifested inverted directly beneath them. A second jump moments later had us away.
We might have gotten what we’d come for, but these new Divine had again proved themselves capable adversaries.
29
After a few hours in the Medbay Hot Stuff was back on her feet. When the airship arrived back at Aefwal I turned over the anvil to Blank. I wanted to study it further, but observing Blank putting it to use was even better than having it sitting in the lab.
We also needed to get it operational as quickly as possible. Kothar was of value to the other Divine primarily because of what he had been able to construct with the thing. If we could fill those same needs instead, we might find ourselves some new allies.
I didn’t intend to waste any time before going after our next target. Minerva had given us the locations of several artifacts of value to the Divine. According to Minerva the next one belonged to a secretive cult, a lead she considered among the more valuable she had to offer.
To me it seemed far more likely to be useless—supposedly a Goddess of Vegetation by the name of Ningal had a tree the fruit of which could create new Gods. While I doubted it worked exactly as described, if a plant had somehow gotten infused with a high concentration of crystal dust it might be possible the fruit gave abilities to someone young.
A concentration that high might allow us a few uses of some of the city’s more energy-sapping functions.
I jumped in our airship close to the grove where this tree was supposed to exist and began to scan. My sensors were a mix of results. Being biomechanical I had both electronic and membrane detectors and only half of them were picking up unusual energy readings in the distance.
It was a curious phenomenon. I moved some of my drones to the observation deck to observe first-hand and I discovered the effect duplicated there. My
human drones saw an unremarkable forest down below, while my mechanical ones observed a massive tree growing in a large clearing and glowing with a faint luminescence.
Whatever was there had found a way to mask itself against biological life. As a hybrid I was only partly under its influence, but with no electronics amongst the Divine this would be a secret to most of them.
I devoted more resources to my electronic sensors. I owed Minerva a plate of cookies, the forest was absolutely teeming with the Powered. There were roughly one hundred down there, a huge concentration, and while I was only detecting a few at the power level of a standard Divine only a handful were as weak as the Dust. There was something to that tree, and that posed me quite the dilemma.
I wanted that tree, but not only was it too large to effectively transport, we didn’t need to make this many enemies. I’d gotten Aefwal built up to some extent, and while we might be strong enough to withstand an attack from any single divine we weren’t strong enough to handle this.
Well, I’d devoted a district to espionage for a reason. I consulted with Crash.
After filling him in on what I’d observed he spent a good ten minutes tapping away at his keyboard. Why were humans so very slow?
“I’ve got you a solution. It should allow you to get samples at least. Maybe even a branch or whatever tree-thing people do,” Crash said.
“Have you ever actually stepped foot outside?” I asked.
“Why bother when all the really interesting things are indoors? What I’ll be doing is using my abilities to subvert their already existing stealth system,” Crash said.
That was an interesting idea. It hadn’t occurred to me. Humans were almost worth the trouble, on occasion.
“You want to camouflage a probe from biological sight. We should adopt this system for Anna,” I said.
“Anna is hot and you’re just a hater, but yeah, you got the idea. Then you just sneak up with it and get what you need from where nobody will be the wiser,” Crash said.
It was far from ideal. I was convinced that the tree must operate from some pre-existing concentration of energy. Something had not only fueled its exceptional growth and the luminescence, but was also providing the energy that went on to make future Powered. A sample wouldn’t be enough to get me some of that power, although it might at least show how biology had been altered to achieve these effects.
I readied a probe according to the specifications Crash provided and waited for nightfall. The time of day shouldn’t matter—if the field was working properly they shouldn’t see it approach the tree in either day or night. Still, I thought it best to be cautious. While the tree might be invisible to the biologicals on this ship, obviously someone down there could observe it just fine. Whether that meant a power that specifically countered the field it put out, or some more symbiotic relationship, I didn’t know.
I chose one of the unripened fruit that adorned the branches. It was about the size of a large apple with a thick fibrous exterior. When I brushed against one of the branches I ran into an issue. The tree pulsed with a ripple of energy that tossed the drone through the air as a loud keening sound filled the air.
The tree had an alarm I’d call that terribly unnecessary—except it obviously was.
There was little point in further stealth now. I had the drone sever the fruit with a laser cutter and catch it as it fell.
Overhead the sky pulsed and night turned to day.
There went our anonymity. I jumped out as soon as the drone was secured. This was the second anthill we’d kicked over, it was time to return to the city and make sure our defenses were in order.
30
Three hours after the airship returned to Aefwal we came under attack. It started with a thick fog billowing in. By this point I’d done proper tests on the river and its amnesia-inducing properties didn’t survive the water being taken from the river itself. The fog wouldn’t be making my people forget, but it had other issues.
The instant it came into contact with the outer city sensors the electronic elements began to shut down. As the fog billowed closer to the city core that effect persisted. I jumped the airship out of range.
My own core systems were biological now so I shouldn’t be directly impacted, but a lot of our defenses used electrical systems. Shield projects, beam cannons, even a lot of the tracking routines for the kinetic weapons.
While I still could, I used the comm to call my council and the District Lords.
“This isn’t natural,” Anna said.
“I can burn it off a small area,” Hot Stuff said.
“And I can project it away from another,” Jade said.
They were both viewing the fog as the enemy to be faced, I suspected that wasn’t so.
“While your desire to go to war with the weather is inspirational, I do think we have other enemies that are likely to need your attention more. Crystal, my sensors are going down. Do you have anything?” I asked.
“I have sent some swarms. We’ll lose communications soon though,” Crystal said.
I’d already thought of that.
“I have humanoid drones heading to each of you. They won’t let you communicate with each other, but you’ll be able to coordinate through me,” I said.
Insects were flying and crawling through the city. Crystal had continued to grow her swarms.
“Oh, you’ll love this,” Crystal said.
“I doubt that. What have you got?” I asked.
“Elemental cores. Water coming in from the southeast, lightning from the north, earth from the west,” Crystal said.
The fog must be some sort of combined effect from them. They were used to working together. That was ominous.
The fog swept over the central comm and the network went down. I’d already gotten my drones in place.
“I’ve had some experience fighting other elementals. Water is going to be a shifty fucker, earth can take their punches, and lightning pack the hardest punch,” Hot Stuff said.
“And here I thought most of your experiences before hooking up with me were purely sexual,” I said.
“Sometimes folks would rather fight than screw. Seems stupid to me. I’m heading for Earth, have Crash and Professor join me. They’ll be smart enough to figure out how to hurt them if my flames don’t do the trick,” Hot Stuff said.
I thought she might be giving a bit too much credence to Crash’s intelligence, but his ability to disrupt systems had seriously weakened Sylax once upon a time.
I said, “What about the lightning user? They could be the most important. The fog may be serving as a carrier for their ability and dampening our electricity.”
“Then let’s dampen them right back. Blank is going to ruin their whole day. Ophelia too, just in case they still have their bite. Zora needs to go somewhere,” Hot Stuff said.
I had to admit that her skills as a commander were growing.
“That leaves Jade, Flicker, and Crystal to take on their water user,” I said.
“Jade and her telekinetic fields should be able to make things miserable for them. Flicker is just weird and Crystal has fought everything.”
I sent instructions to the others. None of them were alone, of course. The fog had disabled the juggernaut class units, I wouldn’t be deploying any Valkyries, Asps, or Gunslingers, and beam rifles were out as well—but I still had my biological drones, body armor, as well as traditional firearms and acid sprayers.
My drones were finally catching sight of what Crystal had seen with her insects.
The Earth user was a literal giant. He stood nearly four meters in height, body rippling with muscle. The water user was a woman whose flesh seemed quite natural except for the strange undulations it made as if it were the surface of a pond. Lightning was represented by a man in armor and sporting an enormously large hammer—Mechos would be delighted.
They hadn’t come with any lieutenants. That was bold, and stupid. However powerful, they should have realized how powerful this city was
in turn.
The three walked up to the very edges of the city district, evenly spaced around the perimeterand somehow managing to surround us, and stood waiting.
“We’re here to talk,” said the water woman. The fog vibrated with her words and sent them echoing throughout the whole of the city.
Crystal stepped forward. She’d brought Sylax and her students who stood ready behind her.
“Then perhaps you shouldn’t have disabled our communication systems,” Crystal said.
“You’ve made a habit of launching unprovoked attacks,” the woman said.
“So you decided to launch one of your own? An interesting tactic to be sure and one I’m positive has made you many friends. If you wish to speak, withdraw this fog,” Crystal said.
The watery woman gave a tiny shake of her head. “You may call me Ash, Goddess of the Ocean and the waves. I’m accompanied by Atlas and Thor.”
“You realize your band of reality doesn’t actually have an ocean,” I said from a nearby drone.
“Don’t help, Emma,” Crystal said. “I’m Crystal, Diplomat of the city of Aefwal, which is under the rule of Queen Anna Berasi.”
“We know who you are. We know you killed Ares and Bast, and that you have allied yourself with Minerva. We’re prepared to offer you what you seek should you agree to leave these lands forever,” Ash said.
They’d come to surrender? In a sense. That was a surprise.
“We decline,” Crystal said.
“Just like that? No questions? No discussion?” Ash said.
“None at all,” Crystal said.