Liberty and Death, Chapter 64
Chapter 64
“We still hitting the Textarder-Tetixer- the factory tonight?” Hawk asked.
Cora’s A-Team plus Iain and Reine were gathered in the Armory, sorting through the assorted loot dropped by the myriad Chains footsoldiers they’d torn through today. This could probably be outsourced, but Cora wanted to debrief, and also give the non-combatants some time to destress tonight.
“I want to,” Cora sighed. “That attack didn’t make our Rescues any more free. Might be a good chance too, since the Chains can’t regen that many boys that fast, or we’d get hit like this every day. What do y’all think?”
“I’m in,” Kyra declared. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m fucking pissed. They hit us where we live, but were stupid enough not to kill us when they did.”
“What shortstuff said,” Hawk agreed, drawing a glare from Kyra, and then a knife when she reached over to ruffle her hair.
“I keep this shit in a tight braid,” Kyra said, keeping her knife about a millimeter in front of Hawk’s palm as the big girl feinted in. “Its not even ruffle-able!”
“Principle of the thing,” Hawk sighed, giving up, unwilling to risk fire poison for what would doubtlessly be an unsatisfying ruffle. “But yeah, I agree. With any luck that shitbird Donovan will be out of commish too, you hit him pretty hard.”
“Wouldn’t count on it, high [Vit] is a crazy thing. The hits all of us took today would have killed a normal person, and none of us even have a bruise,” she pointed out.
“After a pass from Fern or Jocasta,” Kyra countered, which was a good point. They’d seen no evidence that the Chains had access to a healer, and given the personality-based way the System seemed to assign classes, it wasn’t likely.
“Fair, but they’ve got money, and probably have healing tech we don’t,” Cora riposted. “I’m not making assumptions.”
“I’ll note none of ye’re really touchin’ the elephant in the room, what bein’ teh big bastard ye ken can kick each ‘o yer asses at once!” Iain yelled, a little extra smoke escaping under his moustache. He was right, and now none of them could ignore it.
“..... yeah,” Cora sighed, putting her head in her hands. “I’m still not sure why he didn’t keep pressing. Maybe he couldn’t break in with Lux’s new upgrades, but this afternoon? I’m not sure we could have stopped him.”
“Was I crazy, or was his ass actually level 6?” Kyra asked, arms crossed in frustration. “How the fuck was he so strong!? Tech???”
“[Big Sys] had an explanation for that….,” Cora said, “but I could use some expanding on it. Lux? Would you be his voice for the group, sweetheart?”
‘Of course! [Big Sys] was telling me about it earlier. He thinks your [Class Traitor] was probably a prestige class. Think of it as similar to the Monster Evolution Hawk went through. It’s something that can happen when you reach the max level for your class tier, so he could be anywhere from level 16 to 26, effectively, and have two class bonuses on top of that, plus any cyberware,’ Lux explained, and Cora let out a low whistle.
“Damn, well, that’d certainly fuckin’ explain how he was able to ragdoll Hawk,” she said. “Doesn’t give me a lot of hope for actually killing him any time soon though. Dickhead had a shield too. Oh, and Donovan had like a million levels!”
‘I think I can explain that one. If we’re right, and the Chains have a dungeon core, then, well, it's like much like a hostile version of myself, meant for leveling rather than living space and defense. If they’re using it even remotely properly, they will continue to gain a level advantage,’ Lux explained, sounding as worried as Cora felt.
“We gotta find these assholes,” Cora said, “our position gets more untenable by the day. If you’re right, it won’t be that long and we won’t be able to leave without having to worry about getting jumped by multiple folks that make Hawk look like a weakling.”
“Not if I can fuckin’ help it,” Hawk growled. “I mean, come on people, this is all the more reason for us to get out and kick some ass! I can’t have been the only one that levelled up in that fight, lets go get some fucking more!”
“....yeah, you’re right,” Cora sighed. “Can’t turtle up and let the slavers get even further ahead of us. I’m gonna send Fern out, and have her arm anybody interested, tell em to Search and Destroy close to the base, Iain go with ‘em. We can’t afford to have willing fighters on the sidelines. As for us… well, we can at least scout out the Textillery, the trip should net us some parts at least.”
“Well, ‘fore ya go, mayhap take a look-see at this,” Reine said, having apparently managed to follow the conversation despite never once looking up from sorting through dropped weaponry. She held up a strap stuffed with 5 short, thick throwing knives. “Thinkin’ you, specifically, Kyra.”
Kyra’s eyes glowed blue as she took the blades, mouth spreading into a pretty, violent smile.
“Hell yeah,” she said, hoisting one shapely black-clad leg up onto the counter and strapping it tight around her thigh. As it always was with these things, the slight indent it made in her firm, athletic leg had an inordinate effect on general sexiness.
Cora examined the strap.
[Sheath of Returning]: What it says on the tin. Also, +5 to [Dex]
Do you write the equipment descriptions?
YEP!
Explains a lot.
“You never seemed to run out anyway,” Cora observed, and Kyra rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, cause I’m fast as fuck and my fights never last long. Still had to pick everything up after and find somewhere to hide ‘em in this thing. Speaking of…” she pulled a few of the kunai out, and slipped 4 karambits in. The strap seemed to shift to accomodate them. Whipping one back out, it buried itself in the stone wall, then reappeared in the sheath after a moment.
“Nice. One more though.”
Again, her hand flashed, and instead of sticking, the blade spun like a table saw, digging into the hardened stone wall with a whining scream and a shower of sparks.
‘Hey! Ouchie!’
“Heh, whoops, sorry Lux,” Kyra said sheepishly as the knife reappeared. “Hawk was right though. I hit level 10 during that fight, had to try out my new skill. {Buzzkill}.”
Hawk enthusiastically whooped and cheered, and Cora had to join.
“According to the description, it’ll also apply {Burn You Down} from a distance. Woulda been nice fighitng the fucking Shimmer Titans, but can’t complain,” she said with a happy little shrug.
“Dope. Reine, anything else for us?” Cora asked.
“Nothin’ better than what ye already have, got 8 Shimcores left after your spending spree and today’s lootin’ though, wanty Jocasta and I should [Integrate] more girls?”
“Pick 4,” Cora ordered. “I want to have a couple left in case we need a gesture of goodwill after we bring some people back from the Textillery, and to feed Lux in case we need to hole up.”
“Right, only other thing then, is this,” Reine announced, reaching into her apron and plinking another powerfully pulsing Shimcore on the table.
No normal core though. This was an Aspectation.
Cora could feel it, even as it sat on the table. It yearned to grow, to expand, to consume. Or maybe to consume was the wrong word. To make the world more of itself.
<Outgrowth Aspectation>
The System message box popped up over the Aspectation, surprising her.
“Useful, eh?” Reine grinned, “been creepin up the levels these last few days, and jus’ happened to lose track of a grenade during the fighting. Ended up right in the middle of a group of Links!”
[Reine Queenie] [Level 5 Itemsmith (E)]
“Hell yeah!” Cora exclaimed, feeling better and better about the assault. There were probably more of their people who had gained classes from the surge of Shimmer it had provided. If Dip hadn’t managed it, the dude was fired.
“Got a passive that lets me identify anything [Integrated] and have it take for anybody I wish!” Reine preened. “Don’t know about you, but sounds like job security to me. Kinda thing that might be worth a raise?”
She arched one thick black eyebrow, and Cora laughed.
“Tell you what, talk to Jocasta and Lux about getting =Quartermaster= transferred over to you, and you’re up to 3x basic,” Cora said, referring to the 250/week salary they were currently working at. She thought they’d be able to double that as soon as they got their next shipment to Berg, but it provided a good framework.
Basic work in Luxholme netted 1x Basic, assuming a dedicated combat role 2x, and the members with a Role got 3x. Wasn’t set in stone, and individuals were welcome to negotiate with Cora, but unless they did, that was the system they had in place, and it would scale with whatever she made ‘Basic’ to be.
“Do we want to use this?” Kyra asked, picking up the Aspectation, and Cora really wasn’t sure. She didn’t love the way it felt.
<Outgrowth Aspectation>: modifies System functions in ways that are unpredictable, but thematically related to the concept of uncontrolled Growth.
Yeesh, that sounds… not great. Conceptually speaking, not much different than a cancer orb, right?
YEAH
I MEAN, YOU GOT IT FROM A SHIMMER TITAN
I WOULDN’T PUT IT IN A PERSON, THAT’S FOR SURE
Well what the fuck el– OH!
“Lux, can we use this on you?” Cora asked.
‘Oh, mistress, Aspectations are very valuable, I couldn’t ask you–’
“You aren’t asking me, I’m asking you, can you accept Aspectations?”
‘Yes, mistress, I can.’
“Cool, ask [Big Sys] yourself if he thinks it’ll hurt you. He’s a psycho, but I don’t think he could bring himself to lie directly to you.”
I DO HAVE A SOFT SPOT FOR HER.
15 minutes later, Cora’s A-Team was headed out of Luxholme’s gates, nodding encouragement to Fern as she led a group of frightened but determined newbies on patrol.
The trip to the Textillery itself was concerningly easy. More and more, groups of Monsters tended to flee at their approach, especially if Hawk was leading the pack. They were forced to switch to hunting tactics if they wanted to get kills, with the notable and exciting exception of running into another Alphound Matriarch, with a pretty sizable pack of guardian Alphas.
While the fight wasn’t exactly easy this time, it wasn’t the life or death struggle the first had been. Between Trish’s railgun, [Vector Driver], and the blazing sting of Kyra’s {Buzzkill}, the Matriarch was half dead before Hawk even reached it with her charge, a hit that sent even the enormous monster flying.
From there, it was easy. The Matriarch was too busy with Hawk, who matched it strength for strength now, to use {Matriarch’s Call}, meaning its guardian Alphas never really got tough enough to ignore shots from [Vector Driver]. That fight left simply too many corpses for them to waste time harvesting, so Cora sent word to Fern to sortie out a group of workers to deal with it, high security, and the A-Team kept on their way.