Godclads

Chapter 5-8 Alignment of Interests

There ain't no weapon I fear more than a Ghostjack. It's the reason I run mem-matches every day; it's the same damned reason I don't cast into public lobbies. You never know what kind of seeded mem-tags they got sprinkled through the public mem-packet downloads.

And understand that when I say "they" I mean fucking everyone. The Freedivers do it for the art and thrill; some up-jumped ganger who lucked into getting a 'Jack; Ori-Thaum Incubi, already shaping minds and memories for their shadow war...

Point is, if the half-strand you're fighting's got a 'Jack, he's the one you want to make sure is snuffed by fight's end. Because if you don't, if you let a 'Jack slip, trust me, they'll come back for you. They're gonna pull a visual memory of you and throw it into a Recollector Registry is what comes next.

Then? Then, you best make good on the disappearing and running. New name. New look. New sequences for your Meta. 'Cause if you don't, you just might wake up remembering only how to scream your own name, seein' how they pruned all the other paths out from your mind.

-Quail Tavers, School of the Warrens

5-8

Alignment of Interests

The practice of resurrection was bound to the nature of one’s being.

For those vacant of Domains, resurrection is a thing of deception; a sleight of hand played against reality. This was also the method that Kae had instructed him to use for his return instead of emerging forth from a threshold of blood.

The nature of a resurrection was intrinsically tied to one’s available Domains and canons. In his prior deaths, his return had been tethered to the tactile, overwriting his original corpse to re-manifest or, in the case since his ascent from the Crucible, emerging nearby the nearest concentration of blood.

Position anchored to where he lay dead on the lung bed, Avo felt reality shudder violently, his ascent from death striking it across the jaw in a cracking backhand against all that was right, all that was sensible. As his senses clicked on, he found himself held in the boiling grasp of the bed—doubtlessly heating itself to match the post-mortem cold that was his former body.

RESURRECTION - 100%

IMPLANTING NOUS

ONTOLOGY REVERTED

RESURRECTION COMPLETED

DOMAIN RESPAWN ENGAGED

ENGAGING THAUMIC CYCLER: 57 THAUM/c

LOADING PHANTASMICS…

Across the room, a narrow depression cupped the apartment's entertainment system, holovision spraying particles of light in pinpricks of static. There Draus sat at the end of a couch, working away, basked in the neon fractals cast by the holovision's projector, ignorant to his return. Before her, a vertical stack comprised of three revolving rings chained by an axis wrought from magnetism sang a low whine. At the center of this coldtech concentricity, a clot of beam-printed materials emitted from the inner curves of the rings burned matter into shape, fabricating plassteel carapaces from congealing particulates.

On the ground before her were two spinal clasps, freshly fabricated and emitting a kaleidoscopic radiance from their ventral projectors.

A field-fab. Avo didn't know she even had one on her. But then again, it shouldn't have surprised him. Regs liked to keep themselves prepared, and Draus' habit remained long after the dissolution of her rank and service.

"We should envy her," Avo muttered, looking up at the fishes. They didn't respond in words, choosing still to tear into each other, darker sprays of blood pluming into the shining red waters that lined the aquarium, preying and being preyed upon. But he supposed they were as close to joy and terror as anything could be. Feeding and fed upon. More impulse than choice or enlightenment.

Perhaps things should be seen as the opposite. Perhaps it is he and the fish that should be envied, true children of New Vultun that they are.

From his periphery, he saw a strand of thoughtstuff slowly creeping into notice, manifesting indicators in his cog-feed. Kae was trying to initialize a link-chain again. Trying, but halted. Through the horrendous cracks inflicted over the outer lattice of her mind, he heard the ghosts within her squirm, their presences swimming beneath her thoughtstuff in the form of bubbling anxiety, as an eternal clash, her exo-cortex constantly reuploading her memories, her affliction constantly dissolving them.

Fragmenting strands of thought hissed from the wounds of her mind like steam from a cracked tea kettle.

The beast inside him twitched. Her weakness, plain in flesh and mind, aroused his violence like a herb-scented meal would one's hunger. Still, her damage was too fascinating--he couldn't consider killing her until after his study was finished.

But to even begin, he knew what he needed. Had known since he resurrected in the Maw.

He needed to get his Ghostjack back.

Without hesitation, he connected his thoughtstuff to the Agnos and Regular. The former winced, her form looking small on Draus' lung bed, back to the wall and rubbing her arm awkwardly. The latter, however, gave nothing away. She merely continued tuning the holo-model of that which she was printing.

GHOST-LINK ESTABLISHED

CLOSED CHAIN FORMED: [3]

+How long since death?+ Avo asked.

Across the room, the fabricator whined its last as Draus pulled an oblong-shaped helmet from its containment field. +'Bout six and a half hours. Would've figured you for dead. 'Cept Kae's been crying into you for a while. Never get used to that.+ She turned and stared at the Agnos from the corner of her eye. +So? How's our ghoul's Soul? Is shit 'bout as fucked as I reckon?"

Kae shrugged so timidly that it might as well have been a shiver. +P-probably worse. M... Single most... uh... advanced Liminal Frame I... I ever interfaced with.+ She chuckled. +A different frame... f-fit for a different kind of Godclad.+

Draus' lip thinned. +Can't tell if that's a compliment or an insult."

Avo, too, found himself curious.

+C... compliment!+ Kae provided, a sudden panic overtaking her. Her side of the link spiked a rising wave of nervousness that crashed through the chain. It rattled Draus' end but splashed back into straightness on Avo's. He sensed it coming from the shifts in her thoughtstuff.

The couch squelched as Draus rose, the ground beneath pushing the furniture leggings out from its carpet-like biomass with the parting of weight. Picking up her newly printed helmet and a holocoat clasp, she walked over to Avo.

"Here," she said, speaking directly instead of using her Meta. "For you." She handed him the helmet first and the clasp after. "Took the initiative to scan your skull while you were sleepin'. Found some time to work in a fab-job after digging through mem-data relatin' to Conflux HQ. It'll protect your eyes from mean ol' master daylight if you gotta look up for some reason."

Avo took the helmet from her. Its exterior was like the shell of a beetle with three v-shaped outer lenses for him to see. Different visual functions probably. Cautiously, he peered inside trying to glean some understanding from its design despite holding no comprehension of coldtech.

"Yeah," Draus snorted, "gonna work one over on you after you wake."

"Have to be sure," Avo said. "Last time I was promised kit there were problems. Old. Outdated. And no jump-jet."

Draus shrugged. "Can't fault you there, I suppose. Wanna rundown of the functions?"

"Would be helpful."

"Put it on, then."

There was something very persuasive about Draus. It might've been the fact that she was probably thinking about how to best pulp his skull if he made any sudden movements.

To be fair, it wasn't like he wasn't considering how he could kill and eat her every moment he was aware of her presence.

The helmet slid easily over his head, with the interior lining molding over his bones to provide additional padding. He wasn't sure what kind of materials she used to fabricate the interior, but it accommodated him just right.

Like a wreath, the upper section of the helmet settled over his crown. An envelope of light flashed, the visors coming on one after another. Curiously, he reached up to tap one of the visors with his claws. No glitching. No scratching. Decent materials.

"It'll take small arms just fine," Draus said, "but try to headbutt a flechette and you print your own helmet. After you stop bein' dead, of course."

Coldtech was coldtech, and physics was cruel. Armor was hard. Gauss hit harder.

"Three vision functions. Standard. Infra. Electromag. Switch through them by blinking twice real fast."

Avo tried it. Infrared proved promising. Electromagnetics, however, made him nauseous. Ultimately, this was more for perspective enhancements rather than scouting. His cog-feed would always be better than coldtech for clandestine functions.

"It's also got comms." Draus' voice crackled in the helmet but her lips didn't move. She bared her gleaming teeth at him, each one looking more like the shin of a voidship's hull than natural enamel. "Implant. Gotta have a way to keep contact if, say, someone shivers the local Nether with a thoughtwave bomb."

"Good," Avo said. "Useful. Radio?"

"Hyperwave," Draus said. "Voidwatch shit. Don't get it either." She chucked the holocoat clasp in his lap. "Reckon you know how to work this one?"

"Reckon right," Avo said. He picked up the clasp and shoved it beneath the mangled remains of his jacket. Little remained of the garment he stole besides tattered strips and a particularly tenacious zipper. The device expanded, thin fibrous ribs spreading along his torso. Along the back of his neck, he felt a wreath of feelers slither up from under the helmet, growing around his skull.

At a thought, an obfuscating veil formed around him, clinging to his body like a longcoat made from a stormcloud.

"There," Draus said, putting her fingers together to form a picture frame, "you ain't ugly anymore. Ain't I a miracle worker?"

He tugged at the bottom of the helmet. "Can the underside retract?"

"Helmet wasn't pattern-made for cannibals."

"So. No."

"No."

"Your miracles could be better."

The Regular shook her head. "You know, for a flesh-eating bio-weapon, you sure do like to whine whine whine."

Avo shrugged. "Very sensitive to constructive criticism. For a Regular."

"...The constructive part of that supposed to be a pun?"

"Sure."

The edge of Draus' lip curved. Was it a smile? Was it a snarl? Who could say? "Alright. Toy time is over. Time to take inventory." She gestured for him to follow, but Kae responded first. The Agnos was like a hurt child following in the shadow of the Regular.

Which, if the metaphor continued, made Avo the wretched bioform of this little chain. Some kind of particularly vicious nu-dog, perhaps. He hummed with low amusement at the thought of an over-designed dog being made a Godclad.

Suppose that was how most true people felt when they realized what he was.

Gathering at the entertainment system next to where Draus did her fabricating, a flood of phantoms peeled out from her link and began to feed mem-data directly into their chain.

She had been most productive while he was occupied with his lesson.

+So,+ Draus said, reverting to the link, +I'd like to start this here meetin' by listing the few ways in which we're fucked.+ She shot a look at Kae. +Well, me and the ghoul, here. Reckon you'll be fine, Kae. Unless the No-Dragons decide to forget the Nulling of Jinsha and make nice with Ori-Thaum. Then, you're also fucked.+

For a moment, the Agnos didn't notice. Then, her thoughtstuff spiked with reflexive terror. A beat ahead. A beat behind. Avo wondered how much of her ability to socialize was left to guesswork now that her present was lost to her. She was playing on the timeframe of was and will be, in a sense.

+Majorly fucked,+ Draus began, +We got a hyper-advanced, pristine off-the-corpse-of-a-dead-eldritch-hot Liminal Frame burning inside Avo here. And River already suspects us of at least knowing something about it. Not great, but she runs a tight ship here. Meaning No-Dragons'll be the first to find out. After that happens, it don't matter if we're out the city or even in the void. Short of divin' deep into the Sunderwilds somewhere, the Guilds are gonna keep lookin' till we're found.+ A bitter note bled through her link. +'Specially Highflame.+

+Second Point of fuck-edness: Mirrorhead. We're not done. He's not done. And trust me, a half-strand like that ain't gonna just let this go.+

+Left a corpse behind,+ Avo said. +My trail might be cold.+

Draus didn't look so certain. +City's full of eyes. Even down here. And you made a whole godsdamned lot of noise killin' those Scalpers. If I noticed, best assume someone else did too. But it ain't just that.+

+Essus,+ Avo said. +Still with Conflux.+

+Yeah.+ Draus frowned. +That his name? I asked him before I pulled a runner. Wouldn't answer me or nothin' then.+

+Found out through Syndicate circuit. Used him as entertainment. Ghoul-feed.+

A flicker of loathing manifested itself as a twitch in the Regular's expression. +It's why I wanted to keep them three alive,+ Draus said. +The two techs and the one that likes to talk. Might get some useful intel from them. Maybe you could turn them too if you're as nova of a 'Jack as you say.+

+Yes,+ Avo said, understanding the use of Chambers now. With a proper Possessor phantasmic and a well-designed Auto-Seance, the enforcer could go from Mirrorhead's puppet to his. Some parts of the idea pleased him. Mostly, he still just wanted to eat him.

+Will need Ghostjack first. Before I can do anything. Present phantasmics insufficient to conduct this dive.+

Almost silently came Kae's thought. +Y--you could b-buy the sequences to one... to one in the Deep Bazaar. Place an order... Have... Have it dream-dropped into your... your mind.+

It was an idea. Something that made sense from a glance, but not from practice. Avo had done his fair share of dives for the Deep Bazaar, and he knew how they worked. More importantly, however, he knew how Ghostjacks worked, in form, function, and market.

To put it simply, ordering the sequences to a Ghostjack was like trying to buy an antimatter bomb: there were ways of doing it, but those ways tended to get you scalpeled by one of the Guilds upon tracing your transaction.

His Whisper and a Ghostjack were technically both phantasmics in the same way that a cheap Mizuhada Seagull and a Voidwatch supercarrier were both vehicles: one had a specific set of functions it was limited to, and the other could modify and edit memories down to the minute of details.

With a Whisper, he could crack poor wards and pierce minds by leaving using them as unstable thought-shivs of trauma--a sloppy, desperate way of fighting that incurred a cost on him each time he slammed his wards against theirs.

Using a Ghostjack, however, he might not need to fight at all. With it rising over the structure of his Metamind like a pylon--a broadcasting tower--he could mimic memories and smuggle his thoughtstuff past the wards of another, or alter the sequences of his ghosts to make them proper weapons.

That would let him reach into someone else's mind and--

Avo's mind stuttered to a halt. He didn't need to buy or assemble a phantasmic. Why do that when he could just take it... and settle a grievance at the same time.

The captain. The one who captained the ship he woke on. The slaver. It was how she cut his senses directly, tearing the fabric of his cognition and rewiring his mind to drown in looping nightmares. He didn't know her name, but he remembered her face, and more importantly, he had the names of her crew.

That, then, was something that just might be purchasable as information.

+Draus,+ Avo asked. +Green River. Does she have a Recollector here?+

+Depends.+ Draus turned. +Mostly on the imps I throw at her? And before that: why?+

+Because I know who to get a Ghostjack from,+ Avo said. +You like traffickers?+

A faint semblance of disgust crawled over Draus' face. +Only when they scream. You?+

+Thing of taste for me.+

Kae shivered. How fast she was to forget he was a ghoul. It was flattering, in some regard.

Draus leaned back against the couch and sighed. +How big a run is this gonna be, you reckon? And do you even know where to look?+

+Mazza’s Junction. Deep gutters. Got her face. Got the face of her crew. Remember the ship. Works in the Maw. Not a hard target if we surprise her.+

Quietly, Draus studied him. +Avo. You be straight with me. We goin' after this... smuggler. Is it just because you know she got a Ghostjack?+

He considered lying to Draus, but something just didn't feel right about it. And why should he lie? His reason was justified. There were just additional wants involved as well. +No. Also want to eat her. And she sold me to Crucible.Reasons coincide. Practical. Pleasurable.+

A stretch of silence followed. Draus stared at him. He stared at Draus. The Agnos' eye flicked between the both of them as if they were her parents, on the verge of a fight.

+With the 'Jack I'm better,+ Avo said. +Can sequence you better phantasmics. Can maybe fix her.+

Draus shot a glance at Kae and turned her attention back to Avo. +We do this fast. And I set the op. You synced with me on that?"+

+Yeah,+ Avo said, trying to hold back his salivation beneath his helmet, +I'm synced.+

+C... can I come... come too?+ Kae asked.

Both Avo and Draus looked at her. The Regular picked at her nose.

+Well, Kae,+ Draus said. +That depends. Can you get real good at snuffin’ folk within the next day or so?+

Kae considered the question and scrunched her face hard, trying to keep her thoughts. +I could... could potentially trick Avo... into dying after accumulating too much Rend and perform a Usurpation on him... take... take over his Frame. So... yes.+

Avo stared. Draus stared.

+I say we take her with us,+ Avo said, very interested in what a "usurpation" was. +Worst case. She dies. I eat her. We find a new Agnos.+

Kae nodded. +I... I'm fine with that. I... I'm not staying here... alone. Don't... don't trust them.+ She squeaked. +The--the No-Dragons, I mean! The Sang are lovely people!+

Avo grunted. +Don't care for how they taste.+

Draus' stare trailed off as she frowned, eyes growing distant.

+Dra... Draus?+ Kae asked. +Yo... Are you okay?+

The Regular nodded slowly. +Yeah. Just... not used to being the... stable one is all.+