෴෴෴ ෴෴෴ ෴෴෴

Anger and Mourning.

In a small private cemetery in northeast Georgia, a quiet group of people sat facing nine open graves. The mood ranged from somber to downright morose. Many short conversations started, but each inevitably fizzled out under the weight of those holes in the ground.

Two men got out of an SUV and began pushing a third man in a wheelchair up the gently sloped grassy hill toward the gathering. Seeing the three coming up the hill, Wilson wiped the beads of sweat off the dark glistening dome of his freshly shaved head and leaned over to the curvaceous black haired woman sitting beside him.

“Reilly, tell Wesley it’s time.”

She nodded and looked past the two women sitting to her right at the younger technopath with shaking hands who was covered with far more sweat than the heat should have caused.

She looked back at Wilson with a small shake of her head. “I think he should hear it from you.”

Wilson narrowed his eyes in annoyance before looking over at Wraith. He looked back at Raven and nodded. “I see what you mean.”

Wilson got up and walked past Raven, past Hex in the middle of signing Razor’s cast, and stood before Wraith.

“Son, they’re here, we’re going to need you to do your part now. Ringo’s wife paged me. He’s still in the hospital. This is everyone that can make it.” Neither of them looked at all the empty chairs set out.

Wraith looked up at Wilson, and then turned to look at the trio coming up the hill, anxiety writ large on his face and posture. “Ok boss, I’ll—” he swallowed hard, “I’ll get started when they sit down. I mean, when Rhino and Rex sit down.”

Wilson gave Wraith an avuncular smile and clap on the shoulder. As he turned away to sit back down the warm expression vanished leaving a visage of cold, impotent, fury.

When he sat back down, Raven handed him her phone. He looked at it as she made words scroll across the screen. After a moment he handed it back to her, directing a suspicious look at Hex as he did so.

“Any word from the deadbeat?” He whispered to Raven.

She shook her head slightly. “Nothing. He’s all over the news, but no funds in the account, or messages. He’s making himself very visible on the world stage right now, but I can't even get his people to pick up the phone.”

Wilson looked down at his lighter palms and then clenched his fists and pressed them against his thighs. “Keep me updated. If we don’t hear from him soon we’re going to send a more direct message.”

Wraith stood at the mobile podium and nervously cleared his throat. The young man gripped a book of scripture tightly between his hands and began to speak.

“There are no words that can ease the sorrow of loss. We gather here today to say our farewells. Brothers and sisters in arms, compatriots, friends. The fallen were many things to each of us, and in all those ways they’ll be missed.” His voice broke. He tried to cover it with a cough and managed to continue after a moment.

“We’ll begin with a prayer, and the service, and follow it by reading the prepared statement’s each of our fallen brothers and sisters had on file. Following that, those who wish to say something will have an opportunity to speak.”

෴Raz෴

෴Hex෴

෴Today෴

Raz closed down his sensoria. “I don’t feel anything at all out there.”

Hex nodded and her aspects took up a firing arc facing the door.

He smiled in approval. “Good call, I don’t sense anything, but let’s not be careless.

One of Hex’s aspects rolled her eyes impatiently.

Raz yanked the door open and stepped back. Nothing happened. He kicked the door frame with a dull thud. The hallway stayed still and quiet.

“They aren’t strategists. I think we’re clear for—” he stopped speaking as he heard the rhythmic clack of claws on hard flooring.

He crouched just to the side of the doorway in time for a one eyed chimera no bigger than a housecat to skid to a stop in the doorway. It appeared to have been in one or more fights. One eye socket was a hollowed-out, bloody mess, and it appeared to be missing its eyelid for the remaining eye. It let out a high pitched hiss-whine as it spotted the Hex aspects around the room. The small monster licked its remaining eyeball and lowered its haunches.

The chimera appeared to lock onto one of the Hex aspects just as Raz brought his fist down as hard as he could in a heavy targeted strike. The chimera went limp with a wheezing sigh. Raz had seen this before and didn’t let up. Only after several more solid blows led to him feeling the skull giveaway did he stop pummeling the beast.

“You make me so thankful for my rifle.” Hex said.

Raz shrugged. The brief battle had invigorated him even as it set him breathing faster. “What can I say? Taking them on hand to hand just feels right. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten the other weapons. I’ll shoot or stab them if I have to.”

“Suit yourself. I’m just glad I don’t have to be the one smashing them by hand.” she said.

They crept down the hallway trying to make as little noise as possible. At one of the hallway intersections they came across the grim sight of a human skeleton stripped down to the bone. Both femurs snapped in half, the marrow sucked out of them.

Hex looked at the body and then around them. “I think this is where Blink and I found the downed guard. I guess he didn’t make it out.”

“Yeah, I thought this was the spot.” Raz agreed.

Not sure how to feel about that.

The next corner brought them face to face with the giant heavy door Raz recalled from his escape. It yawned open, leading to a long ramp downward into darkness.

The hairs on the back of Raz’s neck, along with other senses he couldn't quite articulate suddenly conveyed a deep sense of danger.

“So, this giant door? It was closed last time I saw it.” He whispered.

Something in the darkness below shifted at the sound. Raz didn’t wait for Hex to react. He got behind the vast door and started pushing. The sound of something large moving below came again. This time accompanied by the sound of something like scales or chitin rasping along a metal surface.

Raz kept pushing, the door barely moving under his efforts. Hex slid her aspects into the gap between the door and wall and began to help push. The door began to move and something below cried out.

A chimera came around the corner. It looked at the door, then at the humans pushing on it, and began to advance. Raz shifted positions while he pushed to be ready to meet its inevitable charge.

The rasping from below grew louder, as though many hard feet were sliding and grasping for purchase on the smooth metal shod ramp.

The smaller chimera advanced a few more steps, and then sniffed the air. Suddenly it did something he had never seen a chimera do before. It turned and ran.

Raz risked a peek past the door as they pushed it towards closing. A chimera no smaller than a large car or minivan was painstakingly crawling up the slick looking steel shod ramp. Digging each claw into the steel skin for traction, it was clear that it would have been upon them already if not for the steep ramp and the creature’s great size.

“Push harder!” he grunted.

Hex didn’t reply as she strained with all her aspects.

They gained another inch, then another. It was far too slow. Every time they heard the scratching rasp sound, Raz knew it was closer still to the door at the top of the ramp.

[It's almost here!]

Thanks for the update, I hate it.

A large insectile claw curled around the edge of the door. It thrashed around blindly and sliced at him.

Raz slid to the side, not far enough. A line of blood appeared on his upper arm, soaking into the sweatshirt.

Raz drew his combat knife and slashed at the bladed probe. The knife cut into the thick chitin without doing any visible damage “We have a problem!” he muttered.

Hex flickered in and out of view, throwing something past him into the hole.

A few seconds later a thunderous crash assaulted them. The chimera slackened its efforts for a few precious seconds.

Hex yelled at him “That’s a flashbang! It might buy us a few seconds!”

Raz wondered why she was yelling when he could hear her just fine. He nodded and kept pushing as he looked for a solution. He risked a look around the door and only the sudden change to slow time allowed him to narrowly avoid the chimera’s claw stabbing at his face.

He remembered Hex saying they get smarter as they get bigger.

Bee, can we use Remote Access on this thing?

[No interface detected.]

This is a bullshit skill. If I survive the next catalyst is going to be anything but shit in your HUD tree.

Raz turned around to free up his hands so he could push with his legs and back. The door began sliding further open. A long prehensile appendage snaked out around the widening door. Raz slashed at it and was glad to feel the knife slice deep.

The satisfaction lasted until two more tongues with odd fanged mouths came around the door to replace the stump that had retracted away from the injury. As he slashed at one and ducked under the other, a small sign at the corner where the smaller chimera had come from caught his eye. “Door Emergency close, stand clear after activation until door sealed.”

He moved to the side again to avoid the flailing mouth tongues. “Hex! Hit that button!” he grunted out and pointed.

She looked up and nodded at the same time an aspect appeared at the button. The door began moving outward faster, and the tongues seemed to have heard him. The mouth tongues didn’t have eyes, but it seemed they could sense movement or sound, or both. Raz was forced to let the door slide further still open or allow the fanged tongues to get a grip on him.

Just then, a new sound started. When the door began to close that mechanized sound became music to his ears. He just had time to step back and look through the door gap to see the ramp leading up to the door dropping down to be flush with the ground before the door closed on the two questing fanged tongues. The bank vault sized door severed the tongues without slowing down. They wriggled and twitched on the floor for a few seconds before going still.

As though cued by the tentacle tongues finally stopping their creeping writhing around, Raz and Hex breathed a synchronized sigh of relief.

“Thank god you got that button in time!” he exclaimed.

“Me? I’m just glad you saw it. I can't even see the sign from here, let alone read it.” Hex replied.

She surveyed the hall in both directions. “I know I’ve said this, but I don’t think you’re really hearing me. When a chimera gets to the size of a person, they’re already too dangerous to handle alone even with military small arms. One of my aspects was killed by one just a bit bigger than a person last week. I was there with two aspects, and two other people with abilities with me, and still that aspect was killed so fast I only got a single shot off.”

Raz squatted down and nodded. “I do hear you! I know being here is dangerous. I’m glad you came to help, but I have problems I don’t see other solutions to.”

He looked at the big door again. “Did you see how big that thing was? I bet it was bigger than your minivan!”

She nodded gravely. “Yeah, and it wasn’t even a quarter the size of the one that came out to play the other night. I get the impression you weren’t really listening when I said that the entire big sludgy scorched area out front is all that’s left of that one.”

Raz looked at her wide eyed. “Damn. You said it was a big one, but I think in my head I imagined it was like, I don’t know, maybe human sized, or like, horse sized or something. Much smaller than what we just saw!” he pointed at the door.

“Oh no, that one had a lot in common with the one we fought, but the one that came outside was so much bigger. It was tougher and stronger too. They get extra tricks as they grow.”

Raz looked around and then peeked around the corner to ensure they were still alone. “How the hell did you even fight something that big? I can hardly imagine rifles doing much to the one we just saw, let alone one that much bigger.”

She stared down the dark hallway for several seconds before answering. “It wasn’t easy. Some heavy weapons, creative use of the abilities on the team, and in the end, a friend crippled himself killing it.”

An aspect popped in and dropped a small package into her waiting hands. She opened it and pulled out first aid supplies.

“Sorry to hear that, do you think he’ll recover?” Raz felt stupid asking the question, but couldn’t think of anything better to say.

She shook her head and shrugged. “Hold still” She started working on his arm.

Holy shit that really hurts! Dial back the pain.

[Warning: Sensory reduction is dangerous for the health of the host.]

Noted. Do it.

The pain of her digging into the wound to clean and debride it receded into a sort of informational only awareness. He relaxed against the door and let her work.

She looked up at him with some alarm. “You can still move and feel what I’m doing right?”

“Yeah, I’m very aware. Just letting you get done.” He kept an eye on the hallways.

She let out an audible relieved sound. “Oh good, some of them have venom, or acid, or paralytics. I thought it might have numbed you.”

He groaned. “Why am I not surprised?”

I wonder if I should be worried about turning into a red like Midnight seems to think.

[His concern was valid.]

Well shit. That needs to be addressed soon. I never want to be a red.

[Clarification. His concern was valid, with the connected implication that it no longer is.]

[Since your request, using the information provided by opponent designate: Midnight, I have determined that there are several interconnection built in mechanisms that could easily result in positive feedback loops.]

[I have isolated these procedures, and they can be run individually without risk.]

[The interaction of these procedures appears to be the source of the vicious cycle.]

What would it take to fix that for someone else?

[Provided you achieve access, you can do it now. However, the long term effects of this are unknown.]

Right, reds aren’t instantly or even guaranteed to go bad. They just usually do. Sounds like removing the cause might not matter if someone has gone full darkside.

[Agreed.]

Have we still got access to her interface?

[Distributed consciousness: Hex: 2 local nodes of unknown. Current Remote Access: granted.]

A yes would have been fine. Does she have any of those programs running?

[Yes. Several of them. Not all of them.]

Raz wanted the list.

[The program intended to reduce the emotional trauma of combat.]

[The program for shielding the mind from the judgement impairing effects of fear and danger hormones.]

[The third is a complex program designed to assist in fine tuning manual and mental skill sets.]

That sounds handy. So am I running any of those?

[Yes, those are the three that appear safe.]

[I disabled the others, leaving only these when IA 3 came online and I was able to determine what she runs, and find the problem with running all six programs.]

Motherf—let me guess, you couldn’t fix it without IA3?

Hex stood up and offered him a hand.

Guess it’s time to turn the pain receptors back on.

Raz extended his injured arm and immediately regretted it while she helped him up.

New plan, dial that specific injury down.

[This is still dangerous.]

The pain receded to a distant ache. “So what about your friend. He gonna be ok?”

[It is unclear if I could have found the program errors without IA3.]

[I had flagged those programs as possible causes before the upgrade, but would have had to disable all of them.]

He waited for her reply for several seconds before pressing onward down the hall.

Her aspects followed him in a staggered fireteam with rifles at a low ready. “I don’t know. Maybe my boss can help him, he’s helped other people with fucked up abilities in the past, including me.”

“Sounds like he’s done more good than you hear about on the news.” Raz ventured as he kept an eye open for the chimera that had run away before.

“Yeah, I’d agree with that.” came her terse reply.

At the next turn he spotted the door to his cell. As they passed it, he glanced inside, and then reached in and pulled the door closed when he spotted what looked like the same small chimera that had fled from the scent of the large one. It was gnawing on the remains of a human corpse. The faint click of the door latch engaging was a welcome sound.

The group paused as he drew a careful bead on the eating chimera’s head through the food slot on the door. Ballistic projection activated drew a line from the barrel one meter out toward his target. He gently pressed the trigger and was rewarded by a chimera collapsing to the ground when the .45 caliber round blew through its skull with a wet hollow knock. The sound of the cycling suppressed pistol action clacked loudly in the otherwise silent hall.

“Nice shot, very precise.” Hex commented.

He holstered the pistol and shrugged. “Stationary target at three meters. Nothing special.”

One of the Hex aspects face palmed. “Take a damn compliment would you? First one taken down with a single shot all day deserves some praise. You even did it with an unfamiliar weapon.”

He relaxed a bit and nodded. “You’re right, I’m a bit keyed up, and thanks. Let’s keep going. We’re almost there.”

A few steps later he stopped. “I hear something.”

Hex shook her heads. “Can't hear anything new.”

“Sounds like a whole bunch of those little ones. Somewhere ahead. Be ready for a bunch of them.”

Four empty rooms later Raz peeked around the doorframe and then pulled his head back quickly. He peered in again in several small glances. A group of five small chimeras were milling around a metal cabinet, feeding on what looked like the fresh remains of several larger chimeras.

He held up five fingers to Hex then pinched his fingers together to indicate the small size range. She nodded.

He got ready to pull the door closed so they could pass by.

“Help! Somebody help!” a female voice rang out from inside the room. The sound riled up the chimeras in the room. The sound of small bodies crashing into sheet metal painted a picture of the action in the room for Raz.

“Oh god, I’m never getting out of here.” she said, further stirring up the chimeras.

Raz looked at Hex and shrugged. He leaned down and put his mouth to her ear. “That voice is vaguely familiar. Any ideas on what we can do?” his lips brushing against her ear as he spoke.

She shrugged back, and put her lips to his ear. “Are you sure you want to risk this?”

He nodded once, his expression resolute.

She silently pantomimed a vast sigh of exasperation before whispering to him again “How fast could you kill them if they weren’t attacking you?”

He thought about the size of them and shrugged. “Maybe ten seconds if everything goes well. Got a distraction in mind?”

“Sort of.” One of the aspects held up a flashbang grenade.

Hex pulled the pin but held the spoon in place. She leaned over again. “Get ready for anything. When I release the spoon the arming isn’t silent.”

Raz nodded. Another aspect did a countdown with her fingers. The moment the grenade was tossed into the room the chimeras began to howl and leap about, searching for the cause of the sound. A single chimera poked its head out the door.

Yes! Come on out and let me deal with you before it goes off.

It took one look at the group and immediately jumped at a nearby Hex aspect.

Raz intercepted its leap and slammed it to the floor with a stunning blow.

[Energy:95/100]

The chimera landed hard with a dull thud and lay there twitching.

The grenade filled the air with light and thunder.

Raz charged into the room. “That one’s yours!” he called out, hoping Hex could hear him.

In a flurry of attacks and a few fortunate, and unfortunate, misses, the four small chimera were crushed under the heavy blows from his gauntlets.

[Energy 48/100]

Raz checked the hall and found the chimera dead and Hex positioned to provide fire support.

Raz stood for a moment actively regenerating his energy.

So, are each of these still netting a capacity unit?

[Not even close. The reward per chimera has dropped significantly.]

That was too good to last. Do I even want to know how much it’s dropped?

[You do not.]

[New energy consumption information.]

[Normal punches consume 1 point of energy.]

[Strikes that include a stun component consume 5 or more energy.]

Do we know why only punches are taking energy?

[No.]

Then that is not really new information.

[The skin tight armor you are wearing is consuming energy to self repair.]

Well why didn’t you lead with that? What do you think that means?

As the buzzing started Raz canceled that question. “We’ll worry about that when we’re not in a combat zone.”

Hex looked askance at him. “Worry about what?”

“Sorry, I have a lot on my mind, just thinking aloud.”

Raz tapped a gauntlet on the door to the large sheet metal cabinet. “You alive in there?”

Hmm, you don’t suppose it’s the gloves?