Chapter 243 – Crunching Numbers
Savri
It’s showtime, I thought and downed the vial of godjuice that Nyxie gave me.
I immediately felt the buzz of the Air energy spreading through my body, but I knew it would be days, if not weeks, before I saw any concrete effects.
Shouldn't have dilli-dallied so much.
I fully expected Nyx to make a joke about me having ingested a lot of her juices already, but she stayed tactfully silent.
‘You were making one of the most important decisions of your life, my love,’ Nyx said softly. ‘It was hard to resist the temptation, but I didn't want to make light of it.’
I appreciate that. Though I am curious, why does this stuff work, but not… the other kind?
‘In time, my… secretions would have an effect, but what you just drank is a neutron star-grade level of essence concentration.’
I wasn't sure whether that metaphor worked, but I got the gist of what she meant.
We’ll have to test if they make the transformation faster, I smiled to myself.
‘That is an intriguing research avenue. I will be very happy to help you pursue it.’
It’s a date then!
‘Yup. We can probably sneak you away some night.’
Looking forward to it.
‘Now don't get yourself killed.’
We were almost done packing when Anika suddenly suggested we try listening in on Strickland and his buddies.
‘We have those radios, and we know that these fuckers are in the area,’ she argued. ‘We lose nothing by trying to listen in on them.’
Except some irreplaceable battery power. But she's right.
I handed Anika one of the radios we had on us, and she began flipping through the channels. Finding nothing, she switched to frequency mode and began a manual scan, changing the band periodically.
Finally, after a few minutes, we first heard a distorted chime.
‘There,’ Lilyth muttered.
Transcript of the Numbers Station BSP-3 transmission intercepted by the Tenebral Order
Monotonous Automatic-sounding Voice: BZPR… BZPR… BSP-3 Command …17… BHRT… RETG… 5… OMSH… 7…
*Three clicks of a buzzer*
*Soft chime*
<Message repeats twice - redacted for brevity>
Distorted Voice (suspected to be male): BSP-3 BSP-3 BZPR Reporting Code 95 Alpha One
<Message repeated twice>
MAV: BZPR… BZPR… BSP-3 Acknowledges 95 Alpha One
*Three clicks of a buzzer*
*Soft chime*
<Message repeated twice>
MAV: CRSU… CRSU… BSP-3 AVGF AVGF AVGF
*Ten clicks of a buzzer*
*Five soft chimes*
<Message repeated nine times>
* Three clicks of a buzzer*
MAV: 5… 66…
*Chime*
<Communication sequence loops, the only difference being a change in the final message examples:>
MAV: 7… 52…
MAV: 3… 98…
<After four complete loops, most Tenebral Order members wanted to move on, but Anika Anderson wished to listen once more as she was hoping that a larger sample size would help her decipher some of the messages. This decision paid off in an unexpected way.>
<Fifth loop proceeds as normal until the fifth repetition of the “AVGF” communication.>
MAV: CRSU… CRSU… BSP-3 AVGF AVGF AVGF
*Eight clicks of a buzzer which dissolve into a persistent distorted buzz*
*Discordant music*
MAV: CEEE-E-E-... AAAAVVV…
*A cacophony of sounds develops and then suddenly ends with a loud snap*
<Silence>
<End of Transcript>
Savri
‘What the fuck was that?’ Persephone asked.
‘A numbers station by the sound of it,’ Lilyth said with a shrug.
‘Good to know, but I was talking about the end of the… whatever that was.’
‘Maybe a mechanical malfunction,’ Anika said matter-of-factly. ‘Or maybe they fucked up changing what was transmitting.’
‘Still, I wish the whole transmission wasn't gibberish,’ Aki shook her head.
‘We actually learned a lot.’
‘We did?’ Persephone sounded very dubious.
‘Yes. Our enemies have long-range radio communication capabilities. They probably have one central transmitter near their HQ.’
‘Wouldn’t it mean we are close to it?’ Aki asked.
‘No, morsel,’ Phosi shook her head. ‘Even in my days, military-grade radio could transmit over very long distances using something called “Skywave.” Though I am not sure how that worked.’
‘Yeah, I remember hearing about that,’ Lilyth scratched her chin. ‘About how soldiers would bounce their transmissions from clouds or something.’
‘Close,’ Anika smiled. ‘They actually used the ionosphere, an energy field surrounding the planet, to do it. But yes, for all we know the central transmitter is on the other side of the continent. A damn shame. I wish we could raid the place. The tech there…’
‘We still can probably get our grubby mitts on some of that,’ I finally chimed in. ‘They must have some local stations.’
‘Yeah. We probably listened in on a convo between a local station and a regional station. Or rather, a recording of that convo being transmitted to the central station. Should be reasonably easy to track down a source.’
‘How?’ Aki asked.
‘Just climb up high enough and look for antennas…’ Lilyth shrugged. ‘Those are tall metallic towers. Or I guess twisted metal contraptions on roofs.’
I fully expected Persephone or Deirdee to say that they had seen one, but they stayed silent.
I guess you can't always expect your friends to have leads ready to go.
‘We’ll have to keep an eye out, though no action for now,’ I decided.
‘Why?’ Aki furrowed her brows.
‘We can only pull this off ONCE. After that, our enemies will know that we know.’
‘The blame wouldn't necessarily be on us, though,’ Anika shook her head. ‘Remember - they are maintaining strict OpSec, so they are afraid someone might be listening. It can’t be just us.’
‘Maybe they are doing it just in case,’ Lilyth protested. ‘One of the locals will sooner or later reinvent radio. At which point their comms would become public knowledge.’
‘It’s probably both,’ Phosi said. ‘Strickland, Nevahl and their other psycho buddies can't be the only Imperial holdout around. Or rather they can be and likely are, but they will never know for sure. Still, I agree with Pinkhair. We will only have one chance at surprising them; we can't squander it on a random strike.’
‘Happy to hear that, Plantsgirl,’ I smiled. ‘Alas, the only practical conclusion of today's discovery is - we can't use our radios ever again because we do not know who is listening. Which brings me to the following question…’
I turned to Lilyth.
‘...Furball, does your [Mental Contact] spell have any warnings you're getting out of range?’
‘No,’ Her Royal Furiness shook her head. ‘Not to my knowledge, at least. Once you are out of range, you are out of range.’
‘And the range is?’
Lilyth’s eyes went vacant as she checked something on the interface.
‘Forty metres’, she didn't sound pleased by that.’
‘You are coming with us then,’ I decided. ‘I won’t risk us losing connection. You’ll follow us as much as your lungs will allow you, which is what… four levels below?’
‘Yes,’ she nodded. ‘There is a chance my lung situation has improved, but I cannot be sure.’
What? How?
‘Gonna need some details.’
‘Well…’
‘You are a god now?!’ I exclaimed once Lilyth was done.
‘Not quite,’ Lilyth shook her head. Just got a divine power boost. It came with a few perks, but that's about it.’
She vaguely gestured at her clothes.
‘I could go all the way, but I am not sure I want to. It sure does feel nice… but… I quite enjoy the perks of being a mortal. Like being able to hang around you lot.’
‘We love you too, furball. Coming back to the subject at hand: are you still affected by the curse?’
‘Yes. It will probably be easier on me, but that thing is not going away. Ever. If I remain a mortal, that is.’
‘Really?’ Anika couldn't believe what she was hearing. ‘How? You are a demigod or something.’
Lilyth snapped her fingers, and a cup of what smelled to be coffee appeared in her hand. She handed it to my heartbeat-challenged bestie, who eyed it suspiciously, smelled it and then took a sip.
‘Pretty good,’ she nodded. ‘But I am not sure what…’
‘This cup of coffee cost me more mana than the thunder trick. The Blood could create living beings.’
Fuck me… How the fuck did we manage to defeat it…
‘It was fighting with every possible handicap and disadvantage,’ Nyx explained. ‘Usually, there is one simple trick to winning fights against gods. You don't. Still, a Terran channelling the power of Death is a massive force multiplier.’
Fuuuuck.
‘Yup.’
‘So… circling back,’ I mustered my voice, ‘There is a non-zero chance you will be able to join us for the entire trip then?’
‘Yes,’ Lilyth nodded. ‘No promises, though. If it becomes too hard for me to breathe, I will retreat to a level with lesser spore density and provide as much support as I can.’
‘Good enough,’ I nodded, happy that Lilyth was starting to understand the concept of limitations.
Then again, anoxia is not something you can just push through.
‘What about you, kid?’ I turned to Taros.
‘I’ll head to Perth and try to get us a ship to Mavigan,’ vae replied.
‘Just don't get caught,’ Deirdee smiled and gave the demigod a hug. ‘I’d hate to lose you.’
‘I’ll do my best.’
The RMAI compound gave me a slight case of massive heebie-jeebies. Everything inside of me was screaming to turn my tail and run. I wasn't sure what was causing that. The dark and ominous buildings, the ruined campsite with a massive pile of bones next to it in the middle of the base or the late evening sun casting an almost hellish red light onto the place.
‘I guess the plant fuck is not interested in half measures this time around,’ Lilyth muttered.
‘So it is not just me?’ Ren asked.
‘Nope,’ I quickly admitted.
‘Didn’t you guys say that previously the Harvester plant only unleashed a psychic attack on you when you were inside of the compound?’ Deirdee followed up with an excellent question given how we were still outside the base.
‘It did,’ Lilyth admitted. ‘But its range definitely extended out here given how it fired back at me when I was around where we are now?’
‘Any chance you can do the thunder thing again?’ Anika asked, hopefully.
‘Nope. The fucker severed the external branches to prevent damage from the previous hit.
‘So we are about to wander into a lair of an evil Godtree that is fully aw
ake, sentient and likely pissed at you?’ I wanted to confirm.
‘Sounds about right,’ the furball nodded.
‘Awesome. Let's roll!’