Chapter 6-13 Vulnerabilities (II)

Chapter 6-13 Vulnerabilities (II)

...That can't be possible. No one else has the memories to tap into our inception of the Highflame thoughtcast...

Unless...

Engram Protocol is in full effect. Wipe your short-term memories. Douse your thoughtstuff. See them eradicated entirely. I will do the same after encrypting what we have. Redact what you know of me as well. We're burning this circle. Let Cipher-Three know. Liquidate all non-essential assets. Schedule a memory restoration a month from now.

Go dark in the meantime. Use a Sleeper if you need to.

No. I don't know if Highflame has achieved counter-penetration. Seeing as we haven't died in a mass causality accident, I'd say we're not looking at the work of our esteemed competition. Voidwatch perhaps. Maybe Sanctus.

It matters little now. We move on. Stay stationary. Regroup in a month.

If we're still alive then, that is.

-Ori-Thaum Incubi "Cipher-01" to "Cipher-02" regarding a possible compromise of their interception of Highflame's planar security breach

6-13

Vulnerabilities (II)

The midnight rain bled down in columns through cracks left upon the face of holographic midnight. As the moisture loosened, an oscillating crown of neon bright spread throughout the heights of Nu-Scarrowbur. This district was a different beast from Xin Yunsha, for rather than being hewn by modular tissue, its edifices rose in stacked rondels--domed fortresses of painted metal that sprouted upward like ever-shrinking mushroom caps. Each block rose bristled with serried pylons fused across their hulls as if the flashing scales of a leviathan granted shine by pulses of electricity.

Beyond the steel, the winds flowing free from the interior Nu-Scarrowbur caressed pedestrians and aerovecs alike with a breath most primal. Each current of flow moved as if slaved to the whims of another as if all of air was but fabric, and needles were tugging upon its totality in different places. From height to height, shrieking from alley to alley, hidden presences encased themselves beneath the breeze: steeds skimming within in the veins of the breeze itself.

It was after one such Galeslither knot that Avo and Draus followed. It, and two additional Sangeists. Their Heavens were to be essential digest for Avo's Soul, while their Rendsinks would serve to aid his efforts to balance the Fallen Heaven out in Burner's Way.

The deeper details as to how the process would follow were best left to Kae. Though an echo of her former self, her understanding of thaumaturgy still thundered loud in the postmortem of her constrained brilliance.

Within an aerovan Draus managed to "borrow" from a former enforcer employed by Conflux, the mem-locked positions of all the presently operating knots glowed as radiant vertices across the DeepNav district simulation. Through preparation and subversion, Avo had managed to tag six different knots. Today, though, they only remained on the trail of one, the dual engines of their aged vehicle grunting as they passed through a dilapidated skytunnel that ran hollow through the guts of a megablock.

Their desired Galeslither was ahead by a mile and a half. In another five minutes, it would dive down a one-way lane that ran through both blocks two and three of the Aldendractht Quadplex as it had made a habit of every Ursday. Such a habit was the main reason Draus had designated it as an easy target, after all.

"Knot's gonna be turnin' any time now," Draus said. At her mental command, external sensory feeds crackled into shape from a merging of ghosts via the aerovec's locus. Breadth existed between and within the lanes. Five across and ten vertical, the skylanes of the tunnel ran porous while the holo-lanes were walled with stripped static--crossing allowed. "You got eyes on the others? They stickin' to their routes."

Avo checked before he replied. Certainty served one better than assumption. "Yes. No deviation. Continuing their patrols. Two breaking over Burner's Way outer perimeter. Other three delving down into the gutters."

The Regular chuckled. "Wonder wh--" Their aerovec dipped. Just in time to greet a speeding blur cleaving diagonally across traffic. Their aerovec twisted. Turbulence gripped and rattled the interior, with but their gimbals holding them in place. The familiar roar of an explosion sounded as raindrops of shrapnel sang their chiming tones upon the external hull above Avo.

Casting his Whisper out, Avo watched as a trailing wreck spiraled downward to meet the ground below. Clasped within the cage of flames, the shine of thoughtstuff spun like a drill. A survivor remained. One whose mind was rushing into overdrive, desperate to discover a way out. Too late now.

He watched as it struck, then skidded, off the edge of a passing truck. The following momentum pitched the burning husk into the opposite lanes. It struck a small aerovec first, both vehicles pancaking in a marriage of force as aeros behind collided.Ñøv€lRapture marked the initial hosting of this chapter on Ñôv€lß¡n.

Strangely, their horns remained silent throughout, as if neither vehicle nor rider noticed chaos unfolding before them.

"Good dodge," Avo said.

The Regular frowned. "Should've seen it comin'. Fact I had to jock us out of the way don't light my awareness in a good gleam." She sighed. "That kind of fuck-up would've seen me pullin' latrine duty back when I was still--"

"Street squires," Avo said, interrupting her self-criticism. He didn't notice either, which was odd enough. Nor did any other aero seem to grant the blazing wreckage with any regard. That sparked more than a few suspicions within Avo. "No one noticed. Probably had a Necro with them. Running Incogs."

"You reckon so?" Draus asked.

He grunted. "Likely. We can get careless." He cast out his Whisper to peek at the surrounding traffic. Still nothing. Aside from those that had suffered collisions, most others remained nigh-ignorant of all that had just transpired. "But everyone in the lanes doesn't react? Not Scalper response knot? Probably Incog. And a well-made one."

The Regular shook her head. "Well, there's a rough run. What'd you think they had on 'em?"

"Nothing anymore," Avo replied.

Draus drew up damage diagnostics and watched as flashes of orange painted the uppermost parts of their egg-shaped aerovec. "We're fine for now. But some of the internal hydraulics are shot. You're gonna have to step out from my side later when we disembark. Think a piece of shrapnel still lodged deep in your door."

He grunted. So long as their Zephyr could keep flying, it wouldn't be a problem. He could tear through the door if the need called for it.

The two of them had spent six nights away from the Second Fortune, returning only to rest and review the tasks which lay ahead. Kae remained in the company of Bright-Wealth and was protected by five or so drones that trailed her person. Draus had left her with a few other items. Items that went unmentioned to Avo. Normally, letting oneself be kept in the dark was a fatal mistake in his profession.

With him being potentially compromised, however, ignorance proved to be a double-edged blade, while the crackling pit that was Kae's mind prevented her from being outright subverted by phantasmal means.

Meanwhile, Draus had assured Green River that their nightly trips wouldn't bring any unwanted attention back to the casino via thoughtcast. Their "benefactor" brooked no complaint or argument about the sudden change in their behavior, merely wishing them fortune and favor for whatever task they pursued.

"You said expendable," Avo said. He chuffed, his amusement dry. "Like me. Like ghouls."

Draus shook her head. "No. Ain't nothin' like your kind." Her lip twitched. Her thoughtstuff swelled. Anger. Rage. He knew that look by now. "Weren't supposed to be, anyhow." She met him eye to eye, her stare rough and hard. "You were made to be wasted. Seen the way your masters used you. Nothin' but mass and brutality there."

"Suppose your kind was better at the killing. Better supported. More ground gained per death."

"Ain't even about that," Draus said. "It's about spending, Avo. Spending our lives. You spend to get somethin' that matters in exchange. You understand? What you fought for? No sensible person in the world wanted to go back to livin' that way. Bein' slaves to some god they don't understand worth a damn. But I suppose that's how the folks down here see the Guilds anymore. Hells. I started the war just treatin' your kin like target practice. Ended it thinkin' I understood you all."

"Understood?" Avo asked. She was hinting at something more. Larger ideas were hiding between the silence of her words. "Your honesty is missing today. Want to say something. Won't."

And she didn't. Instead of carrying on their conversation, her eyes were narrowed, affixed to the visual feeds cast across the insides of the vehicle as drifting screens. "We're closin'. Half-mile and counting. Your dives are reliable, yeah? They disembark behind these blocks?"

"Yeah. Think they're smuggling something. Don't want the broader Syndicate to know. Necro I compromised is in on it. Helps them scrub their golem's loci. Installed backdoors into them. Backdoors now mine."

Draus chuckled and shook her head. "Shit, Avo, you make a good argument for dual systems, you know that? Half coldtech, half thaumic. Keeps everything from topplin' one way or the other."

He grunted. "Wouldn't help. Just opens more angles of attack. Ghosts can dive into technology too. Just need to harvest them from someone who knows code. Technology. Diversifying cost more and offers nothing. Better to go with ghosts."

The Regular snorted. "You know Voidwatch got them self-dreaming machines right? That they're ages beyond us in all that technical know-how and stable-reality wonders? Heard they got some ways to choke off the Nether. Blockade the Heavens."

"Are they going to start sharing?" Avo asked, already knowing the answer.

"Maybe," Draus said. "Most the city could catch a new mem-con tomorrow. Decide to give up on Souls and Heavens and thaumaturgy in general. Return to the old ways."

Yeah. That was what the Guilds wanted: to capitulate absolute power for an elevation to their standard of living and a permanent vulnerability to all the strange and anomalous monsters that still festered within the metaphysical scars that stretched throughout the void.

No. Avo knew the pull, same as any Guilder Godclad. Same as any Fallwalker. To be a Godclad was to be able to make your own choices. To be spared from final death by way of folly, failure, or weakness.

Even now, he was stalking the golems to water the soil of his Soul, to feed upon their Heavens and cultivate new canons or build the foundation for a new Hell. If he, but a neophyte of the divine, was half-besotted on the potential for new power, what then did the addiction of the true ancients amongst the Guilders resemble?

The scream of their engines wailed outward through the valley of chrome. Descending streetward, Draus gave orders for the aerovec to park in an available spot. Holographic squares of green and red littered the street as aeros found their halt upon open slots.

Landing in the corner of a lot, Avo watched as an attendant drone began interfacing with the locus of their vehicle. It wouldn't be long till Scalpers dispatched another patrol to check. Openly broadcasting Conflux mem-data would do that.

"One-minute window?" Avo asked.

"About," Draus said. "Probably won't be that quick though. I got some other distractions prepared for them. Won't be that quick. But we should be. Keep this clean and fast. I'll be in place as overwatch. You move on me, got it. No jumpin' in and killin' everybody before I got eyes on the scene."

"Already been over this," Avo replied.

"Well, we're goin' over it again," Draus said. "Can't hurt to be on the same page."

"I won't just attack them. Have injector. More controlled now."

She eyed him once more. "I trust you. But remember this: there ain't no absolute crutch for anythin', Avo."

"Heaven."

Draus opened her mouth and paused. "That--look, let's just get this shit done with. Tired of your godsdamned sophistry."

Avo grinned. "Don't teach argumentation at Regular academy?"

"Just shut the fuck up and sync me, rotlick."

Avo chuffed and triggered the session he shared with Draus in his Auto-Seance. +Coming through?+

+Loud and clear.+ She responded. Through the link, her glee bled over into his impatience. They've both been looking forward to this. For different reasons, perhaps, but all the same. There just might be something to say about the mental symmetry between ghoul and Regular. +Alright. Let's go bag ourselves a couple o' golems. And frame Conflux in the process.+

+Try to make this sloppy,+ Avo said. +Be suspicious if Conflux is too competent.+

Draus smiled. +Yeah. Sure. Don't forget to pick up our friend before you go.+

Avo looked at the back of their aerovan. +He's in the trunk?+

+Kept all neat-like for you. Just the neck's broken.+

He grunted. What was an ambush without some casualties on both sides, after all?