And he found allies. Priam Westerfold, Greg Bhastal, and Quinn Cipher. Oh, and the newest addition, Deasyl ‘Dee’ Luna. Now…she had a solid group to do what needed to be done in the System. Priam, Greg, and Quinn were a ‘B’ team that functioned well together. Jace could work well enough with them, but he was just as easily a lone wolf – Xera’s one-man ‘A’ team.
And Quinn…well, her support capabilities had quite literally saved a whole world. Okay…deep breaths. I can talk about that later when it’s scanning. Inhaling, Xera opened the interface that would effectively suck out, compress, and then re-insert memories.
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[Hello, Xera.]
[Welcome to you. Are you ready?]
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“Ready. Let’s get started.”
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[Confirmed. Engaging memory extraction and compression protocol…]
[Standby…]
[Initialized.]
[State your name and designation.]
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“Xera’tal Pen’arkon, tech support for The Cosmic System.”
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[Confirmed identity.]
[Discuss events that you wish to withdraw and compress.]
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“Jace and the group went to Earth. First, they went to Australia, to Quinn’s safehouse to pick up a bunch of supplies that she had stashed away; and for her to burn the site to prevent any tracing back to them. After that, they went to Mexico City, got an old APC, and took that south. Fighting off some ancient remnants of the cartels from some fifty-years in that world’s history, they made it to Pheracorp Holdings in South America.”
Pheracorp was one of the five mega-corporations that were the driving force behind the Nebula Alliance’s push to take over Earth. The Alliance had given the megacorporations a ton of advanced cybernetics and the planet had quickly adopted the new technology giving rise to a true age of cybernetic hybridization. At a rapid pace, too. Less than a month. It was honestly shocking how quickly the humans on Earth were willing to remove limbs and body parts to shove on mechanical replacements.
“Their target for each megacorp was the server that helped host the Webnet on that world. Take down all five central servers, the Webnet would be crippled – as would megacorp operations. Then, the various world governments that the Star Council had been courting would be able to reimpose control and guide the Civilians of Earth to vote for joining that faction.”
The Star Council – their goal was to uplift worlds and provide an egalitarian society to the best of their capabilities. But they were not wholly altruistic in their actions. One main driving force lay behind the rush of these factions to lay claim to worlds and convince the citizens to vote for them. They wanted resources. Something that The Cosmic System could only provide by taking Stardust – the matter that composed all things – and transforming that.
It was much easier to get raw products such as minerals, food, and the like from worlds and the surrounding space. Such as Earth’s plentiful solar system with entire planets ripe for harvesting.
Xera continued, “Pheracorp fell after a long-duration sabotage operation. Jace had to come to terms with the fact that killing hundreds of thousands…even on accident…were possible risks when working to keep the System balanced.” And what is a few hundred thousand against hundreds of trillions of life forms? Not a lot in the grand scheme of things.
“Well, after that they rapidly dealt with the other megacorps. Greg got revenge on Myscape Industrial in New York City, they went to Tokyo and took down Cybronics over there.” Oh, right. “Special information on that one – I had a firsthand view of the reanimation process that Troxanir can use. Make sure you extract all of that for analyzation.”
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[Confirmed. Please continue.]
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The leader of the Black Hole Conclave, a faction who sought the destruction of everything through forceful assimilation with ‘oblivion’ – the black hole at the center of the universe – was named Troxanir. And the group learned of the truth of his existence. He was a guard dog, keeping the ‘funnel’ that was that mega-singularity ‘blocked’. Preventing access to the Astral Verge. An underlying ‘layer’ of reality that enabled access to other universes, and more.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“The group then went to free a Plorp named Dee. She was held in a containment facility in the Mediterranean where she was imprisoned by the Nebula Alliance and being harvested for her ‘goop’. Then, they went for the last one.” She took a deep breath, “General Logistics. I disabled the locks on the portal to The Cosmic Corridor so we could send the Star Council’s operatives along with the group. The B-team assaulted their mountain base, while Jace snuck in. He disabled the servers…and met his mother.”
The woman who had left Jace in a ‘boarding school’ that would have effectively molded him to be the perfect corpo-slave. She had wanted a good life for her children, but Jace suffered in that place and ran away to become a street kid. And, Jace had learned of a sister that was born out of wedlock between his mother and a higher-up in the megacorp. He stole Chroma away from the boarding school and took her in, teaching her the ways of the street folk.
But…Chroma died. Hence Jace’s entire decision to become an Aspirant. The reason he had to become a Tier 10 Ascendant and defeat Troxanir – so that she could be rescued and brought back.
“Well, he did not end up killing his mother as I expected he would after years of resentment. Priam can be thanked, for that. He has been a calming, stabilizing presence for Jace. As has Shhiv. I was able to leverage his relationship with her…which is good. Another lever for control, especially since the
Shhiv and Priam – two stabilizing forces that Xera needed to keep intact. Above Greg, Quinn, and Dee. “Well, they then went back to Khrox and had some downtime. They all got enough Stardust – well, Jace did - I’ll cover the rest later, to max out Swordmage at level 100 and move on to the next stage. He chose my suggestions, of course; Ascended Power of Void and the Advanced Class called [Edge].”
“Then, they split up. The B-team went to fight god-king Wricen back on Priam’s home world, and Jace went on an information-gathering and tracking mission to find a cult who was trying to pierce to the Astral Verge.”
Xera knew how dangerous the Astral Verge could be. It ran on an ancient system – older than the System that she had made. And the creatures there were primordial; the layer of reality was the soup that universes were born from. If an Incursion was unchecked, she had no choice but to blow up the world it happened on to prevent the rip from growing and letting more Astral Demons or other entities into her universe.
“Jace worked for a thieves’ guild doing some jobs to get street credit, then met a cowardly Ascendant who quit my faction. An information broker. In exchange for Jace’s recovery of a crystal that would enable him to reset and re-level his Class…including Expansion…he would reveal the location of this cult.”
“Jace got the crystal, defeated some of – oh, I forgot to mention. After Earth was done with, Deckard, leader of the Nebula Alliance put a hit out on my Signers. The biggest reward was for Jace. And he’s been dealing with some bounty hunters and mercenaries who want the payout.” Xera laughed lightly, “Idiots. Jace obliterated them. Well, one gave him trouble, but that was a unique individual. Anyways, he found the cultists…but it was too late.”
“The Astral Verge had been opened, and an Astral Demon came through. If not for Quinn’s support Skills coming into play, Jace would have been hard-pressed to defeat the creature. But with her help? The monstrosity was brought to a swift end.”
“Meanwhile, the B-team leveled up, maxed out their Classes, and all gained their Ascended Power and Advanced Classes. In summary; Priam chose Gigastar [Exarch], Greg chose Supermassive [Weaponmaster], Dee chose Flux [Demolisher], and Quinn chose Exoplanet [Reality Strategist]. They fought Wricen, slew him, and then returned with plenty of Boons from looted treasure.”
Xera sighed, “Then…the party. We had a relaxing party. Well, what should have been relaxing. I made sure the event was very secure, and there were no incidents. Everything went almost perfectly. The one exception…was Star Father revealing to Jace that I had hidden easy Quests from him during his Aspirant Trial. Ones that he could have completed with ease and would have massively increased his chances of survival.”
But I needed to see, she thought. I had to see if he had what it took to persevere despite all of the odds seemingly being stacked against him. If he had no one to rely on. And he excelled. “He was upset, but I played his emotions perfectly. Thankfully, Shhiv was able to keep him distracted and engaged for the rest of the evening.”
That woman has been extremely useful. The perfect person I can use to keep Jace in check and make sure he doesn’t do anything rash. And she is none the wiser. “Alright. That’s everything. Compress and re-file.”
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[Confirmed.]
[Data extraction of described events in process.
[Stand by…]
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Xera felt the familiar chill as she was pulled from her body into the dimensional storage space. Isolated in this space, she was able to analyze her actions over the past few weeks. She had made a handful of minor errors. Just keep on playing up the maternal, caring figure for Jace to listen to. She did feel a little remorse for lying to him about blocking Quests that he could have received that might have saved his life post-Aspirant Trial.
But she needed him. And he had survived. That’s what I needed. A survivor. Someone who will get the job done and won’t stop at anything to live. Because he has something to live for. Oh, thinking of that, I need to begin designing an Astral probe for when another Astral Incursion happens.
Not if, but when. She had been around long enough to know that these events, when prompted by foolish people in her universe, would often have a cascading chain until all the local Astral creatures had investigated.
And, she needed to know more about the Astral Verge. If Jace defeated Troxanir…he could travel through that realm in an underlying ‘layer’ of reality to chase down his sister’s soul. The whole reason he was surviving and struggling to stay alive. I’ll help you get her back, Xera thought. We’ll get your Chroma back. Oh, I should also start making a clone body for her soul to return to.
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[All data extracted and compressed.]
[Confirm re-upload?]
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“Yes,” Xera replied. She felt her consciousness surge back into her body and inhaled. She was ravenous. I shouldn’t bother Josie and the others – they’re busy. Her personal Wayfinder had conscripted another five who were assisting with all the operations that Xera was busy with.
Making her way to her kitchen, she looked out upon The Eternal City of Khrox. She smiled as the artificial sun began to set. System intact. Excellent. Now, to try this “bacon and eggs” Greg was telling me I had to try…