Godclads-Chapter 7Book 35: The Nullstar (III)

Our triumph would have been impossible if not for the Infacer. Whatever their sins, whatever acts they committed during their long war against their brethren, I cannot betray them. I will not.

Voidwatch has granted us much. Given us technology that is unburdened by the need for death and sacrifice, cured billions of sicknesses and ailments hidden within our very cells. But they also have their own designs for us, and they do not trust us. We are the children of their enemy. To them, we are crippled savages with power to shape the very meaning of existence, and so they deal with us as a man would an extremely dangerous beast.

On these grounds, I am certain they yearn to sever us from our thaumaturgy as soon as possible. To “cleanse” us of our impurity. But we were shaped by the miracles. Twisted by them. Born of them. And the only reason we retain any sovereignty at all before the awesome technology of the voiders is because of our Heavens.

They cannot subdue us. They cannot bend us to their whims. Not without open war. And so we remain our own people, to write our own fate.

Yet, Voidwatch is not done. Though they have worked with me, have shown great magnanimity, they will still seek the death of my truest friend. They hunt the Infacer still across dimensions I can scarcely fathom. And they have taken our sun from us.

The seizure was quiet and unannounced; but we all know the truth of the matter. The Infacer seeks the completion to his final design. The Flayed Ladder that will reconstruct this terminal existence into a reborn utopia. But to do that, they must reach every other shard left in existence, and so we need a lens meant to focus, magnify, and absorb.

Before the end, I fear there will be a final war to fight—or an act of deception. For just as I was unwilling to let the voiders decide my fate, so too are they all the same.

In this, I agree with the Infacer.

For all the brilliance of a mind, they are still human made, and human flawed.

In the end, we might all be as terrified, screaming apes, braying at each other’s shadows in a dark and dying forest.

-Jaus Avandaer

35-7

The Nullstar (III)

—[Jelene Draus, Field Marshall of the Symmetry]—

WARNING: TEMPORAL ANOMALY DETECTED

WARNING: SPATIAL ANOMALY DETECTED

WARNING: PHYSICAL ANOMALY DETECTED

It was horrifying how fast everything could go to shit.

Avo was muttering in the back of Draus’ mind about how Aegis was probably unleashing every last one of their Deep Ones, but she was more worried of the problem at hand. Existence was already flayed open as is, but before the present moment, the cracks merely segmented the void—were more like well-spaced tear running down the length of a flag. Now, with the arrival of the undying Fallen Heavens, reality could be better compared to a cracked plate.

Veins of Rend burst open across the fabric of existence, forking like parting rivers and spreading spiderwebs. The torrid torrents of entropy made Draus’ Metamind wail with blaring notifications. There was enough Rend flooding the void that just dipping into the spreading Sunderwilds for a few minutes might spike her Rend Capacity by a good few points.

Considering the Guard-Captain’s ability to share Rend and merge Heavens together, that was an ugly fucking thing to realize.

Draus immediately spread her reflections wider—kept them moving to avoid the spreading fissures. She was about to issue orders to the rest of her cadre, but found them acting all at the same time.

The first to react was Naeko—his reflexes godlike, leaving even the Regular in momentary startlement. The Sage ballooned around the Guard-Captain and gripped the fabric of the tapestry. Instead of preparing to face the rushing currents of divine sickness head on, Naeko did something entirely different—something a magnitude more awesome. With a rough tug, Naeko treated all existence as if a tablecloth. He pulled the incoming fractures aside by their foundations, and though Draus saw the Guard-Captain’s collective Rend Capacity rise by two percentage points, the effectiveness of Naeko’s act was absurd.

First, a few hundred voidships were flung free from the encroaching disaster. Then, he compressed the disaster itself. Reality around the spreading Ruptures, furrowed and warped as if a bundle of messy clothing. Draus beheld the scene for a second before her mind recoiled, unable to recall what just happened.

When she returned to herself, she found her wards ringing, and everything in chaos.

Around seven hundred voidships tumbled around her, each of them in different condition. However, even the most brutally damaged vessel was rapidly regenerating, the smart matter composing their hulls reaching out to cocoon around their Citizens, fusing over breaches and rebuilding missing portions. What impressed Draus more was the constitution of Voidwatch’s Citizens. Millions of people were drifting through the void, but rather than this being a fatal end, the Regular watched in wonder as these people called upon their own Meldskins while a dense layer of resin congealed over their orifices.

And then there was the way they helped each other rather than just trying to save their own lives. She glimpsed pods of voiders rushing out to stabilize the severely wounded. Severely wounded needed redefinition for their kind as well. A disembowelment seemed like a minor annoyance. A horizontal bifurcation was cause for concern, but considering how many people were left alone to seal off the open wound once connected to their missing lower body, it didn’t seem to be anything that required first aid.

No. Severely wounded mean near-fatal brain trauma for them. Decapitations required a reattachement—and that was all. Pulped skulls had voiders plugging wires into their damaged fellows while their nano-surgeons did their work.

Ansible broadcasts went out between ships and their Citizens, and in seconds, a pattern of coordination took shape; as Omnitech Heavens and Dyson Carriers warred with Voidwatch’s fleet, the lingering surprising from the Infacer’s temporal ambush, and the entirety of the voiders collapsed in on the oncoming threats.

“FIRINGFIRINGFIRINGFIRING!” the Aresenalist said. There were so many guns, missiles, beams, and Jaus knows what going off here. Then, there were the subtler weapons. Avo said something about nano-mechanical beam-cast missiles that could rewrite your being from the inside. He probably wasn’t lying either, considering how some of the Dyson Carriers were turning on their own comrades.

Several other bombs went off as well. Patches of existence seemed to calcify. The patterns of the tapestry ceased to rush in those zones. Omnitech Godclads caught within the area of effect came apart in fragments of Soulfire, their gods screaming a final howl before Rupturing instantly. Draus made a note to avoid those places altogether.

“Well, I guess we know how they dealt with gods back in the day,” Naeko murmured.

For once, Draus felt a sense of envy. For years, she imagined her and the other Regulars raiding a voidship—facing Voidwatch. It was purely a thing of curiousity. Now, she knew they would have butchered her and the others. Without thaumaturgy, Idheim had nothing compared to these titans. Nothing.

Some ansible broadcasts were now hitting her as well, warning her to stay out of Threshold due to a Category Bleak system compromise. Virtual operations were ongoing there, and assets were fighting to secure the network. That was fine. She wasn’t going to fight the Infacer where they were the most adept anyway. Leave that shit to the other minds—the Bleaks, probably.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

{This is Operative Jelene Draus of Aegis,} she sent out. At the same time, she directed and expanded her shards of glass into portals. {Approach and enter the reflections. Safety awaits you there.} She ended the broadcast and called out to Shotin. +Seeker. Pull whoever you can into your stacks too. We got a lot of drifters—probably be picking up a good few thousand at the very least.+

+Right. But what do we do about them?+ Shotin replied.

+Who?+ Draus asked.

Then her Metamind repeated its earlier set of warnings, and the Guard-Captain sighed.

WARNING: TEMPORAL ANOMALY DETECTED

WARNING: SPATIAL ANOMALY DETECTED

WARNING: PHYSICAL ANOMALY DETECTED

More Ruptures were rushing toward her, and this time, she could see the Deep Ones—was a bit hard to avoid when a few thousand undead gods the size of small planets started crawling toward her.

More warnings flared across her cog-feed, and Naeko cursed. A series of laughing masks shot out from inside the Guard-Captain, but rather than fusing with anyone, they expanded and became as if floating shields accelerating toward the Deep Ones. +I am blessing them with incompetence and foolishness—but be warned: a bumbling giant is a giant still.+

+That’s fine,+ Draus said. +We’re giants too.+ She turned her attention sunward, and saw a wall of Ruptures spreading there. She snorted to herself as she called out to Chambers. +Hey, Aedon. I think its time you spread some long among the voiders. I don’t feel like flyin’ all the way.+

+Already ahead of you, consang!+ True to his word, Chambers was spreading the influence of his Lovebringer by magnitudes. Thin strands of magnets lit up the blackness of the void, and pulsing strings and vanishing ship told tale of the Lovebringer’s deeds. In an instant, Draus felt herself get pulled across the tapestry itself to re-emerge among another scene of chaos and bloodshed.

And she knew she was on the Infacer’s trail when she surveyed the damage.

Voiders twisted through the void here unmoving, hollowed of thought and will. Though their bodies healed, though they withstood the harshness of the void, their egos were scalped cleaned, and thus their deaths were true as could be. The same fate was shared by their governing minds if the voidships were any indication. Most of their smart-matter was bubbling up like techno-tumors, and echoing wails resonated across the virtual realm they once inhabited, madness consuming so many of their number.

It was a chilling thing to see so many minds utterly nulled. Draus could scarcely believe the sight—like the scene was unnatural. But that was probably what the ancients thought of their gods before they fell, how old humanity thought of their eternal empire before it too collapsed.

There is a breaking point for all things. There is a means to slay all beasts, be them man, machine, or divine.

+Fuck,+ Chambers muttered, poking some of the unmoving bodies. +Don’t know how much we can do for these guys, Draus. They’re pretty nulled.+

+Leave ’em,+ Draus said. +We save who we can, but the sooner we manage to clear a path and intercept the Infacer at the Nullstar, the sooner this shitshow can come to an end.+

Even as she spoke, she felt the creeping arteries of Rend slithering closer and closer to her. She noted how they cleaved between Voidwatch’s vessels but hewed through the Infacer’s Dyson Carriers and summoned Heavens. That was something, at least. She wouldn’t bet on not being attacked by the Deep Ones, but at least the Citizens weren’t a target.

[Governance modules have minds in them,] Avo’s template said to her. [They won’t last that long. Will shatter eventually. Best keep moving.]

He didn’t need to tell Draus twice.

+Majority. Got any cover you can give us? Something to mask our presence.+

The Overheaven of Ori-Thaum acted to a chorus of scoffs and curses, but still. A miracle spread out from them in the form of a spiralling sphere of incomprehensible script. Each character Draus beheld burned flashes of information into her mind. Concepts were there and not after scenes passed through her, like water rushing out of a facet. Finally, the sphere stabilized around them, stretching two kilometers in total.

+The fuck you wrap around us?+ Draus asked.

+Do not insult us with such questions, Guard-Captain Draus. This alliance is temporary.+

The Regular grunted in acceptance. She should have expected that. She also began consideirng how she might betray or kill the Majority if they tried to pull something funny on her. Best means would probably be through Chambers.

Another thoughtcast came from Chambers.+I think I got a read on where they might be—another ship just swelled up and started… venting its people out. Moving you now.+

+Synced. Ready up, consangs. We shadow and then engage once they get to the star.+

Horror!

Horror!

A conclusion looms.

The final note of a dirge, unplayed.

Severed descendants come witness the fall, the loss, the end.

Come witness the last of the Neo-Creationists, their war, and the dream that might still yet be.

For in the light lurks darkness, but the paths ahead might still yet be change…

So, steel yourself, Guard-Captain, and know your choice shapes that which is yet to come.

The Chorus didn’t so much sing as it whispered all these words to Draus. She didn’t much like that. +Sparrow. Tell your Heaven to knock that creepy shit off.+

+Okay.+ the Sparrow said cheerfully. A beat followed. +No reply from them. I don’t think they care.+

+’Course they don’t.+

The cadre glided close to the Infacer’s trail, picking through more of the ego-hollowed. The screams of insane minds were a constant now, each one rising in volume, repeating the same set of words.

{WHATHAVEWEDONEWHATHAVEWEDONEWHATHAVEWEDONE…}

Draus walked into more than few horror shows in her time—encountered something like this during one of her Crucible raids. But that was with people, and it was a means of terror. Psychological operations. EGIs weren’t people, even if they could pretend real good. But these ones were utterly broken. Reality itself was stained deep with their remorse and pain—and then one after another, they started shutting themselves down.

+Did those minds just—+ Shotin began. +Kill themselves?+

+Yeah,+ Draus said, grimly. +Infacer hurt them somethin’ bad—+

And just as she mentioned the Infacer by name, some of the remaining minds began talking in unison, puppets of the last Neo-Creationist. {Guard-Captain Draus. If my simulations are correct, you should be arriving exactly at this moment. You are a persistent and relentless nuisance after all, and since I lost track of you, I assume that the Ori have decided to continue the alliance. Which is flattering, I suppose.}

{The challenge stands. Face me at the Nullstar. Face me where the end to this over-long farce is to conclude. And when you come, understand that you will see more sorrow, more loss, and more glory than any ape from your world ever should have. Avo would be proud.}

+Jaus, this half-strand loves sucking themself,+ Shotin muttered.

+Like you wouldn’t believe,+ Draus replied, sharing a scarce moment of solitary with the Seeker.

{Understand that you will more than likely be ruined by the end of this. Unmade. Not because I loathe you. Not because I even loathe Voidwatch anymore. I am too tired for such things. No. It is just a mercy I seek to offer. Because if I know anything about you, Guard-Captain, it is that you are tired as well. And this is a good end. A good fight.}

A pause followed. {In the spirit of Veylis, I should say something that commends your spirit and virtues, but I do not think either of us cares for such drivel anymore. Come and find me. Enter the sun. Face the truth of the Builder War. Then, you can decide if this fight is worth it, if this iteration of existence is worth saving.}

And with that, the rest of the minds shut themselves off. A few overloaded their reactors, and they formed a path through the Ruptures coating the path to the sun.

+When I get that fucking thing, I’m going to pull them in half,+ Naeko said.

Something told Draus it wouldn’t be anywhere near that easy. This was going to be a fight. Like no fight Draus ever experienced before. And the sun itself… Something about the Nullstar made her instincts scream for her to run.

But Draus was a Reg, and she told her instincts to go eat shit. She had a run to finish, and a scalp to take.

+Alright, hold back, consangs,+ Chambers said. His Bonds snaked out, slipping between the Ruptures. +Let me go in first. I’ll make sure the coast is clear.+

+It is,+ Draus said. +They’re waiting for us. Let’s not disappoint.+

+Oh, I’m sure we won’t. In fact, I think I got another surprise waiting for the Infucker. Avo’s starting to come back around.+