Chapter 3-18 Instruments of Memory

Chapter 3-18 Instruments of Memory

Memory is a weakness; memory is a weapon; memory is a place; memory is water.

Memory, ultimately then, is a thing of modularity and malleability. But stilland do not forget thismemory is matter incorporeal.

And it must be the will of the Necrojack that infuses it.

-Forge of the Fallen

3-18

Instruments of Memory

Ved was lying about the state of the Galeslither. First, it wasn't in the motor pool, it was rotting away in a quarantined cesspit. Second, the golem wasnt just brokenits Heaven was outright missing. Upon approaching, Avo tasted no resonance ebbing from its shell, no shine of the dismembered flame that once burned within all gods. Instead, the narrow combat platform lay in three jointed segments some thirty feet long. It looked almost train-like in its design, with a roundel-shaped head and a deflated lattice made from unknown materials clinging to its back.

Rust coated its exterior as well. A sign of decay and negligence. Truly, Conflux kept their treasures like trash, leaving something that could still be salvaged to languish instead. A picture began to form in his head regarding the Syndicates woes. Lingering hisses of whispering ghosts trailed in the airthe unmistakable presence of decaying mem-contagion strands snaking uselessly against Avos wards.

Someone was targeting Conflux. And nigh constantly. Might even be the same group that jocked those missiles after him just as he left the Crucible and entered the gutters.

Something to consider.

Producing his mem-marker, Avo held up the small stick-like device as it pulsed a spray of memories from its micro-locus. The ghosts it cast out splashed over the golem as it began to groan, a door on its side hissing and grinding open with a squeal.

Looking around to ascertain there was no one else visibly or phantasmally tracking him, Avo studied the room. Shredded tarps and sloppily poured plascrete were the aesthetic of this floor. Clumps of hardened matter sealed former breaches while the light shone through the tears on the tarps. A large gate was fused into the walls; its metal frame melted in pools that spilled into webbed fissures.

This mightve been where aerial vehicles could launch from. Or it was, before the block was made so destitute, so damaged.

Stepping into the golem required Avo to dip his head. Clearly, this was not designed with ghouls in mind. The primary control module was located in the middle segment of the golem, which itself was split into an upper piloting gimbal and two lower auxiliary stations. Neither gimbal nor stations would serve his purpose; he simply wouldnt fit. However, the walkway between the two stations offered eight feet of room.

Activating the marker again, Avo laid down upon the soothing chill of the ground before closing doors could even shut away the outside lights. Between two dormant locinow seated at the center of concentric slotshe settled his head and embraced the comfort of darkness. It mightve taken promising Chambers a favor for the marker to sleep within this golem, but at that moment, it was absolutely worth it.

No noise.

No distractions.

No Mirrorhead.Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

Just him, his Metamind, and the darkness.

Good enough conditions to begin reconstruction.

Stretching out his neck one final time, Avo plucked mem-data from the local locus and looked at the time. It was five in the afternoon. Which meant that he had been awake for nearly eighteen hours now since the night before.

He didnt know how much time he would have to himself for his sequencing, but at least for now, it seemed that his use to Mirrorhead had run its course for a day. Still meant that he needed to prepare and modify his essential phantasmics before anything else.

Best that he got his sequencing completed before someone else got the drop on him. Avo preferred to hold the initiative instead of reacting. And these days, he had done a lot of reacting.

With a thought, he set a timer for six hours. Six hours wasnt much, but he wasnt in his workshop and didnt have the tools he needed to tune complex constructs. Thankfully, what he needed right now wouldnt require anything too complicated, though he could do with more ghosts.

GHOSTS - [42]

Forty-two was workable, but not ideal. Much like with his Liminal Frame, he needed to claim more victims. Two hundred offered a much vaster expanse of options. That was where a Metamind went from a mere tool to being a phantasmal operations platform.

Avo shook his head. Ifs, buts, and coulds. Those didn't matter. He needed to focus on the now.

Prepare dive, he said to his Metamind.

RECEIVED

INITIALIZING META-DIVE

He could have done the command mentally, but it was better enunciated. More brain activity for the Metamind to pick up; sped up the descent of his consciousness. A white flash splashed across his cog-feed, spilling over his vision like stretching needles.

And suddenly, as if a blade had cut him free from the strings tethering himself to the weight of his body, Avo plunged into his own mind.

Like a raindrop of pure color, he fell into a vast grey expanse. The horizon around him was factory setting, barely adjusted. This Metamind mustve been new. Just recently forked from a clone of his mind, but not tuned into a palace yet.

Guiding himself down like a tungsten rod from the Heavens, Avo envisioned the memory that would form the foundations of this place. The memory came to Avo clear and solid, refined and shaped through years of visualization. And with this memory swelling inside him like a seed, he plunged into the greyness of the land. Out the clay-like depths, he rose, pushing free from the shapeless nothing as around him the megablock of his youth rose, a bright thirteen shining on its side.

With four arches running across its corners and an open-air lobby, detail began to bleed from Avos mind into the building around him. Doors, columns, and spiraling jump-tubes spread through the building like veins. A single blackdred tree stood, three hundred feet high and half again as wide, its spear-like branches expanding from the tumorous growths that domed its bark. Next to the tree, a web of tubes splashed, bodies flitting to and fro across the entirety of the block. Slowly, the lobby took shape, spreading until the light began shining through between the dancing holo-ads of the entrance.

Shaped from the matter of thought itself, Avo pulled himself loose from the soil of his mind and made to leave his still-growing home.

FUNCTION: ALLOWS THE EXTENSION OF CONSCIOUS AWARENESS BY 60 FEET AND THE DELIVERANCE OF COG-DATA WITHIN SAID FIELD OF AWARENESS; CAN BE EXTENDED BY MULTIPLES SHOULD MORE SEQUENCES BE USED

This would allow him to thought-shiv someone through a wall, at the very least. Saved him the trouble of getting close. Of course, he was still burning a ghost due to using them as a fragmentation weapon. But there was no easy way to replicate the functions of an offensive phantasmic like a Ghostjack.

Of course, he probably didnt want to build something that ghost-intensive or sequence-demanding either. Not unless he wanted Mirrorhead to get suspicious and trigger the cortex bomb, that was.

With his new phantasmic made, Avo grouped the ghosts that fed its sequences into a specific area of the palace. It would make pruning them easier when he had the time. Always better to have a stable of ghosts specifically dedicated to keeping a phantasmic functional.

Turning his attention to his other constructs, he passed by the Phys-Sim without too much attention.

[PHYS-SIM] COG-CAP: 18 SEQUENCES (FIXED)

STRUCTURE: A MISSILE LOCKED TO AN AEROVEC, EVER INCHING CLOSER, DODGING INCOMING POINT DEFENSE FIRE

FUNCTION: CALCULATES THE ACCELERATION VECTORS AND IMPACT LANES OF UP TO TWELVE DYNAMIC OBJECTS

He could probably improve on it, but that was going to require more components. Better design. Best to leave it for now. Focus on his wards. With his current cog-cap limitations, he doubted he would be running the Phys-Sim and the Whisper at the same time anyway. He just didnt have the sequences between those two and his wards.

Uninstalling his Whisper for a moment, he let his Phys-Sim run. Overhead, he watched as the missile chased the non-descript aerovec, bullets tracing through the air in a ballet of violence.

Good. No issue.

He moved on to the final modification he wanted to make this night: the wards.

[OSARAI MEMGUARD] COG-CAP: 20 SEQUENCES (BASELINE)

STRUCTURE: A HURRICANE TWISTING AND HURTLING SCREAMING FIGURES AND BROKEN STRUCTURES

FUNCTION: GUARDS THE MIND USING A LAYER OF TRAUMATIC MEMORIES: CAPABLE OF WITHSTANDING AND REFORMING AGAINST HEAVY-MASS PHANTASMAL INTRUSIONS; VULNERABLE TO NARROW-BUILD INVADERS.

Avo frowned. No reason that should have eaten up the attention of twenty ghosts. The only good thing was that pretty much all his ghosts could simulate the structure needed. Still, the enhancement here was simple but time-consuming.

He would make the storm thickerhe would bind the trauma of the ghosts into a lattice where he could. There was another thing all Necrojacks could do, but few mastered. Linking symmetrical memories together.

For the remainder of his time, he worked, binding similar traumas together from ghost to ghost, weaving what used to be mere milestones along the storm's border into a net. From his mind, he stitched memories. The first two he joined were between Hap-Tat and Little Vicious. Turns out, both had lost nu-dogs in their time. The only difference was Hap-Tat lost an actual dog and Little Vicious watched her ten-foot tall dog-looking bioform get turned into paste by a gauss-cannon fired from a block over.

He was about to connect another two when a dull ringing sounded from on high. Avo froze, stopping his work as he waited, wondering if it was a secondhand memory bleeding over into his mind, or if he was actually

The ringing grew to a hammering then. Definitely not a memory.

EXTERNAL PRESENCE DETECTED

RETURN TO CONSCIOUSNESS?

Avo stared glumly at his wards, barely fractionally strengthened. No time. Never enough time. At least he planted his foundations down. Let him continue building his palace next time. Make things easier for himself.

Yes, he said, turning to stare at his megablock. End dive.

Light suddenly flashed into Avos eyes. His body still felt tired and sore but his mind was refreshed; ghosts drained most of the cognitive burden while he worked, Metamind lucid while his brain slumbered.

Blinking, he heard the hammering sound thumping against the door to the golem again. Turning, he spotted a glint of thoughtstuff shining through the wall.

Mornin, consang. Sleep good? Did you dream any ghoulie dreams? Chambers said, voice muffled by the plating of the Galeslither.

Didnt look like there was anyone else but Chambers. Did he want the favor back already?

No, Avo said, grunting as he felt a tension headache begin to build. His ligaments were screaming. It felt like his joints were on fire. His body was still punishing him for abusing the Celerostylus.

Asked you two questions; you just gonna answer with no.

Yes.

Real sociable. Do I need to lube your conversational bits up with a daily hostage incident so that I can get a full sentence out of you? I think I can still find the flat. Hand him an actual gun this time. See how many techs he takes hostage and how many he kills.

No, Avo said, rubbing his head. You. Why are you here?

Gotta take you to go rig-fitting. Time for you to put the Nightmantis on. Take it for a test run. Mirrorheads orders. Turns out, since ol Chambers is the only one willing to deal with you, so you mightve just got my ass a promotion. Looks like Im your personal nanny now, Moonblood.

The enforcer laughed his hyena-like laugh. Avo stared at the ground and sighed in annoyance.

At least he was getting a plate of armor out of the deal.