Into the Black: Book X: After the Storm, page 1
part #4 of Into the Black Series
Volume X – After the Storm
Prologue – Trade Chat
(NERV Game Site – Official DAtS Offline Forums)
Number5Alive, Golddigger, BurtBacharach, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, l44tpally, Bennie, SEA-TAC_Sweetie, Lord_Kickass, Requiesce-in-Pace, MacD, HaveGunsWillTravel, Guardian, GunKitty, Chummer, Inquisitor, SemiSolidSnake, ElfMama, Not_the_Face!, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous9, AggregatorOfSorrows, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, Dolcett, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, Hullu_Kapteeni, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, MajorTom, Parca, and DarkAngel are in the chat.
Inquisitor: Holy drek, did you see the footage of the battles in Sol?
CrazyCelt: Of course I have. Everyone has!
SemiSolidSnake: That’s just pieced together footage, though. Space battles move too slow for the vids they’ve been putting out.
Parca: Well, as someone who was there, I can tell you that it depends on the battle. The fleet action by Luna got hot and heavy, from what I heard.
Dolcett: If you were there, how come you only heard about it?
Parca: Because I was flying out by Venus at the time. There were literally four simultaneous assaults on the system, to break up the imperial forces and keep them from responding in time.
DoYouEvenLyft?: Fuck, without computers it is hell to do a simultaneous strike on one ship. How’d they do it for the whole system?
Guardian: Well, it helps when you have stealth ships check things out beforehand so you know where best to send your ships. Then it is just math, making sure the ships all drop out of warp at the same time. Pop the tarpits, and then you’re set.
Backlog: Tarpits?
Hullu_Kapteeni: Slang for a little trick that navies and pirates use, to kick ships out of warp.
Golddigger: I heard about that one! You basically trick their computer into thinking there’s an invisible planet in front of them, so the hardware safeties kick in, and keep you from smashing yourself, right?
Guardian: Basically. And no one removes those safeties, because hitting anything while going FTL is BAD.
GunKitty: So, did your boss respawn yet?
HaveGunsWillTravel: He’ll be up shortly.
Lord_Kickass: Wait, someone finally killed that bastard?
MajorTom: Only after he unleashed the end of the world on Earth.
AggregatorOfSorrows: Wait, end of the world? Is Earth like Jagloth now?
M.Mollen has entered the chat.
Parca: How ya feeling, boss?
M.Mollen: Like someone shot my damn head off.
Number5Alive: How’d they get you? From what I know, other than that arena death, you’re the only player who hadn’t had a respawn yet.
M.Mollen: Really? Didn’t know I was the last one. Anyways, it was a nice, professional hit. Sniper shot while I was leaving the Senate building after setting off my part of the world-ending nastiness. Single shot to the head.
Requiesce-in-Pace: I do try to be professional about things.
M.Mollen: The ‘Notice of Termination’ mail just before taking the shot was a nice touch.
Backlog: You’re not pissed at getting ganked?
M.Mollen: By a professional hitman, who managed to predict where I was going to be and got in the right place at the right time to take the shot? Nah. He did a job, didn’t make it personal, and didn’t draw my people into it. Sucks having to make up the levels, but any anger I have is going out to the guy that ordered the hit. Worst part was looking down the wrong end of what looked like a cousin to GunKitty’s prize lady.
GunKitty: Well, I’ve sold a few of those over the last year, and a lot of smaller guns. But yeah, it was about six months ago that RIP bought one of my babies.
Requiesce-in-Pace: Quality workmanship, and the gun has great stats, too.
M.Mollen: I’ll say, it did about 3000 damage on that one shot!
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: WTF????
Requiesce-in-Pace: Take a gun designed to shoot vehicles, and use it on a person. Then add in multipliers for shot placement, sneak attack, bonus damage from ammunition type, and so on.
M.Mollen: Yeah, all I saw was a flash, and then ‘you died’.
BloodForTheBloodGod: Wait a minute, he told you who ordered the hit?
Requiesce-in-Pace: It was part of the contract. He was to know who ordered the hit and why.
ElfMama: Well, don’t keep us in suspense! Who was it?
M.Mollen: Well, lets just say that it was a poor bastard that got caught in the Legion’s path on Jagloth, and had to reroll, losing possession on all his former property.
DarkAngel: But you were just there at the end for Jagloth, right? What’s that got to do with anything?
M.Mollen: Because I purchased a mostly-completed ship from the yards that had been defaulted on by the owner becoming part of the legion, so I picked up the ship, and the patents to some proprietary tech that the player had developed. When he tried to reroll, and reinvent his tech, he found I already had the patents.
DarkAngel: That sucks, but there wasn’t an easier way to get your attention?
M.Mollen: You know how many messages I got in game about Jagloth, and how I certainly owe this person or that person something since blah, blah, blah? And how many scammers have tried the same thing out of game? Suffice to say he didn’t get through the spam filters.
DarkAvariel: Well, I can see how that would piss someone off.
MightMakesRight: Hey, what was this ‘end of the world’ thing, they were talking about, if Earth isn’t getting burnt to a cinder? And why do it?
GunKitty: Well, the why is simple. The AI was doing mass conversions, just like Jagloth, but without the hivemind. As for the what…
M.Mollen: Lets just say that outside of safe zones, Earth is going technology free for the next few decades. Anything post-industrial is going to be eaten by the end of the month.
Blaze: Daaaamn. Where’d you find that?
M.Mollen: I have marines, and I’m not afraid to use them in the name of causing mayhem and grabbing useful stuff.
MajorTom: Oorah.
Chapter 91 – Complications
Waking up from being dead was not a pleasant experience. Especially since I had died from a single gunshot wound to the forehead that had basically turned my head to red mist, because that’s what happens when someone snipes you with a frakking anti-materiel rifle.
The first thing I saw was that I was in the med bay of the Shinokage. While Nomads could set their spawn point to any ‘base’ they had access to, you got bonuses when it was in a medbay. Well, not bonuses, but you didn’t suffer from the post-Resurrection debuff for as long. Of course, I hadn’t died for real in game yet, so I hadn’t experienced it for myself.
I looked, and saw several techs in the room, along with my pets, and the Inatumal sisters. They were all looking at me like I was some kind of eldritch horror. I quickly checked my notifications.
For interrupting a meeting of the Imperial Senate being broadcast to the entire Empire, killing several Deus-sworn Imperial Senators, and unleashing an unstoppable nanoplague upon the Earth you have gained experience and Fame!
You are now Level 44.
You have gained the following skill levels:
Blades 1, Climbing 1, Acting 3, Force Psy Mastery 3.
+100000 Fame
Resurrection Sickness
-25% to all stats and skills for 10 minutes (reduced from 30 for respawning in a medical facility).
Time Remaining: 09:12
Death Penalty
You have died! You are now Level 40, with 780000 XP. You have lost the last 8 skill levels gained: Blades 1, Climbing 1, Acting 3, Force Psy Mastery 3. The Attribute bonuses associated with those level and skill gains are also removed.
Corporeal Instability
Because you are a shapeshifter who has dedicated a lot of effort into improving your shapeshifting ability, your flesh is more malleable than a normal person’s. When you respawn, for a period of time equal to two hours per minute of your Resurrection Sickness total (20 hours, or 60 hours if respawning outside a medical facility), your body is in a state of flux, until you reestablish the control over your flesh that allows for shapeshifting.
Well, that gave me a bad feeling. Looking down, I saw that I was dressed in medical scrubs, like what was supposed to happen when you respawned in a medical facility. Only my flesh was… rippling, I guess you could say. It looked like I was about to grow tentacles or something and become something out of a biohazard survival horror video game.
Gritting my teeth, I forced my flesh to settle in what I had made my ‘base’ form, the one everyone here knew me best as. I needed to get ahead of this or my secrets were going to be spreading like wildfire. And who knows what would happen then? Fortunately, there was one person who knew at least some of my history, and knew how I tried to keep it quiet. I opened a private channel to Raven.
Mirikon: Raven, how long have I been… writhing, and how many people know about it?
Raven: It started about thirty seconds before you woke up. Cameras are offline, and there are no communications so far. I’ve managed to keep the techs from doing any tests on the blood samples they drew just before you started ‘moving’, or entering the samples into computer records.
Mirikon: Right, I can work with that.
Raven: I’ll follow your play. You’re the most interesting Captain I’ve had since I was
I took a breath, and looked to made sure that my flesh was still stable. It was taking more concentration than I would have liked to admit in order to keep my flesh from becoming unstable. The nearest equivalent would be trying to fight against muscle spasms. It was going to wear me out quick.
“All right, you guys, quit huddling over by the wall like I’m some kind of monster about to eat you. Well, I might eat Shearah in a little bit, but only in the fun way.” As I expected, that got a blush out of the Knelfi girl, and nervous laughs from the rest.
Since I’d named her, Shearah sighed, and stepped hesitantly towards me. “So, um, Master, what is going on? Is it some reaction with the weapon you used? From what Cali and Jaynie say, this isn’t what normally happens when Nomads return from death.”
I nodded, and said, “In a moment,” before looking over at the techs. “Give the samples you took to Raven.” When they did that, I said, “Now, don’t resist, and when I am done go take a break to give us some privacy.” A couple doses of Alter Memory later, and I’d scrubbed the last few minutes from their memories, so that instead they believed they left the room before I woke up, at Raven’s request. The two techs had a slightly dazed look on their faces as they left the room, but I knew it would go away in time.
Turning back to the group that was watching me, I said, “First, I’ll come clean, and say that I have not been entirely honest with you all. My entry to this world was a little more complicated than most Nomads’. You see, I first ‘woke up’ in an Imperial Navy research lab on Luna, where they were conducting experiments on me, altering my DNA. I’m sure you can imagine what the idea of having a test subject that couldn’t die was like for those scientists.”
I considered how to say this without screwing up all my hard work, and said, “There were several side effects of the treatments they did. I have an increased affinity with Mental Psy powers, for instance, which is why I’ve used them more than other types. Those of you who have been around me know that I have very few augmentations, and that most of those are very rare things.”
“The reason for that is that, since the time I was in the lab, my flesh has not been entirely stable. In other words, I’ve had some limited shapeshifting abilities since I first came to this world. When I discovered that such abilities were very rare, I made the cover story of a ‘unique psy power’, which was easier for people to accept.”
Sheila stiffened. “When we first met, you said that my brother’s people had a research lab on Luna that was making chimeras. Specifically, chimeras based on infiltration.”
Ah, crap. Looking around, I could see that Shearah didn’t get it, Carissa was mildly interested, the two Inatumals were wide-eyed, and the Princess looked frightened. Cali and Jaynie, however, simply nodded. They’d read the game lore, at least, so had an idea of why I’d done that.
I sighed, and said, “Yeah, I woke up in this world by luck, random chance, or because someone likes making my life difficult in a chimera’s body. It was supposed to be an infiltration and assassination kind of thing, but I managed to manipulate things until I could escape. Thankfully, my escape came before the Princess here was supposed to be replaced by me.”
Shearah nodded slowly. “Well, that’s fine. It isn’t like that changes how you’ve treated us since we first met on Choson ring, after all.”
Cali grinned. “You’ve always played straight with us, Master. Don’t care much about the chimera thing, but I can see why you were keeping it under wraps, judging by the reactions of those three.”
The Inatumal twins looked stung, and Nimue said, “Sorry, Master. Bit of a shock to hear that your boss is one of the galaxy’s boogeymen. They still tell stories about the last time chimeras were used in war, you know. Most places still have them as ‘kill on sight’.”
“Yeah, I heard about that. Which is part of the reason I kept this quiet. Right now, the only people who know this secret are in this room, and I’d like it to stay that way. Suffice to say that things will get very bad for the whole corporation, including the civilian side, if this comes to light.”
Everyone nodded, except Sheila, who was still looking wide-eyed at me. “You were supposed to kill and replace me?”
“Yes, and instead, I decided to escape, and wound up saving you. And I’ve been pretty consistent in my behavior since then, I think.”
Sheila took a long breath, and said, “I lost my virginity to a chimera?”
Ah. “Well, yes. But I believe you’ve enjoyed yourself so far, haven’t you? And I think I fairly convincingly showed which side I was on when it comes to you and your brother, no?”
Jaynie grabbed Sheila by the shoulders, and said, “Boss, we’re going to take the Princess her to the Raven for some emergency ice cream and wine. Girls only.” I grinned, and nodded to her. With that, people began filing out of the room, and I brought up the message that Requiese-in-Pace had sent me.
To:
Mirikon Mollen
From:
“Requiesce-in-Pace”
Subject:
Notice of Termination
Captain Mollen:
I regret to inform you that by the time you read this message, you will already have died. Unfortunate, but that is the way of things, and I have a contract to complete, same as any other. I will say, however, that setting up this kill was one of the more challenging jobs I’ve had so far. Your habit of moving around seemingly at random limits the access an assassin has to you unless they are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. Kudos to you for that, as it made me have to sneak into a warzone in order to set up for a situation where I believed you would have to make an appearance.
At any rate, the purpose of this message is to let you know that the contract on your head has been completed, and that your death has likely caused the active bounties on your head to pay out, adding another 210k credits to my pay for this contract, for which I thank you.
My employer for this contract wishes to let you know that he was the original designer of your ‘Shadowdancer’ ships, and he is most upset about the lack of communication from you about what he views as his intellectual property rights regarding the ship and materials design. He demanded that I pass along that further contracts on your life may be taken out if you refuse to contact him. This man, Wulf Weiz, is currently on Earth in game, awaiting your reply in the German city of Berlin.
With Respect,
Requiesce-in-Pace
I chuckled. So that’s what the whole contract was about, huh? Guess I’d better check the spam filters more often. Too bad about the guy who wanted my attention, though. Berlin was one of the primary ‘Conversion Centers’ in Europe, and so it got a direct hit with Greenwave. The guy is probably either trapped, on the run, or respawning in the tech-free zone. Either way, it will be a while before he can do more than rant at me. So not my problem.
A cough alerted me to the presence of others in the room. I looked up, and saw that the two Inatumal sisters had remained behind after everyone left. Raising an eyebrow, I asked, “What can I do for you two ladies, then?”
Aurae took a breath to steady herself, and said, “It is a religious thing, to do with our faith. I know it hasn’t come up before, but we are both followers of the Communion of the Three Divines, commonly known as Communionists. Do you know about the Rite of Luwreni?”
When I shook my head, Nimue said, “It is a ceremony to celebrate Mimdros, the God of War and Fertility. He is the Defender and Conqueror, so when a great war has been won, Communionists will engage in the Rite of Luwreni to praise him. And despite what we just learned about your… condition, tradition demands that we come to you first, as our Master and Commander.”
Ok, so now I was starting to be intrigued.
Chapter 92 – Rite of Luwreni
Since comparative religion wasn’t exactly a topic for public places like the medlab, we changed locations to Captain Inatumal’s quarters. As we walked, I did my best to keep my concentration on my form, to keep it from getting out of control. Who would have guessed that increasing my ability to shapeshift would have had a downside? Still, I could see skill XP start rolling in, which meant that working to control the unstable flesh was basically helping me increase my shapeshifting skill.
