Dark Matter Ascension-Chapter 62B2 - : Into the thick of it

Greg saw the stone under them crack in half, and he jumped over to Dee and Priam, holding them close as the world went dark for a brief moment. His vision shifted to the dark, brown vision that enabled him to see, and the rocks began tumbling down from above. Priam’s barrier deflected most of the damage, and it barely showed a crack despite the weight of the stone falling on them.

Then, the walls were crushed inward. Not all the way, but compressed, and Greg could see a fleshy object past the chunks of rock.

“Now Dee! Blast it!” Priam shouted.

“Demolisher’s Devastation (Rank 3) [Blast]!” she shouted. An enormous geyser of caustic acid surged out from her hands, and the entire creature they were within shuddered, and an ear-piercing roar forced Greg and Priam to cover their ears. Dee seemed unaffected. “Crap, acid didn’t work as well as I thought it would.”

Greg’s footing slipped as he glanced down. The rock under him had been crushed, and the trio slid down the gullet of the creature. There were large spikes that jutted down: as if to prevent prey from wriggling out: and Greg tried to grab one. But they were too slick from Dee’s acid, and he kept tumbling end over end before landing in some pool of viscous sludge that ate away are Priam’s barrier.

Priam landed a second later with a flop, and Dee splashed down a second later. “Ah, that explains it,” Dee stated. “It has strong gastrointestinal lining.”

Priam clambered up onto Greg, “It’s going to melt us unless we get out of here!”

Greg nodded as he looked around the cavernous, wriggling space. It undulated as the creature moved. “Quinn, you have our location?” he asked.

“I’m tracking you. This thing is…conveniently enough, heading towards Wricen’s citadel on the far side of the Big Dry.”

“It is his pet,” Dee said. “We just have to survive the acid down here!”

Priam looked down, “That’s going to be tough, it’s eating away my barrier quickly.”

Dee giggled, and laid down, submerging herself in the acid. “It doesn’t hurt me,” he said, and she tapped her chitinous shell, “Just stand on top of me.”

Greg felt mixed feelings about standing on top of a woman: well, woman-shaped blob of jelly. But, it was that or get his legs eaten away by acid. He sat down on her chitinous torso, and set Priam on his lap. “How long?” he asked.

“At your current rate of travel, a few hours,” Quinn replied.

“We’ll need a way out,” Priam said with relief as he saw that Dee’s Plorp body was more than sufficient to survive the highly caustic environment of this Wurms’ digestive system. “You good down there?”

Dee nodded, and her goop left the chitinous shell before forming a shape approximating a woman in front of the two. Completely made of goop. Her center ‘core’ was floating in the middle of her torso, and the two smaller orbs that appeared to be her eyes floated up to her ‘face’. “Yeah, my shell can’t be melted by anything acidic. Plorps get more caustic as we get older.”

Greg nodded, “What are our options? I didn’t bring any firearms since this place is a magic world and they wouldn’t work. No grenades to blow our way out, no rockets-” he paused. “Well, I can launch a rock really fast.”

Dee’s goopy head nodded, “I can also use other energy types. Anything that a nebula could be composed of. I could blast it until it freezes, and then we chip our way out.”

Priam frowned and crossed his arms, “We still don’t know how far down we will be in the sand. And digging our way up and out is not going to be possible without running out of air.”

“I’ll use hyper-pressurized blasts of nitrogen to bore us a hole!” Dee replied.

“That won’t work,” Greg muttered. “The sand would just re-fill the space. We need to harden it after you clear a section.” He smiled, “I could do that. My Planetary Palisade, shaped like a tube. You blast a hole, I make the tube to keep sand from getting in. And we slowly make our way up. It should work as long as our energy holds out.”

Priam smiled and nodded, “Okay, that sounds like a plan! And I can give you both energy if you’re running low.”

Greg nodded, “Then we just have to wait until we arrive at our destination.”

Jace finished his countdown for Dark Energy Mine and just on time he began to fall back towards the planet. From this height, he could see the vibrant, luminescent forest in all of its glory. The glowing purple and green hues were soothing and calming, and the trees were enormous; some had canopies that spread for what looked like miles.

“Ollie, how high am I?”

“Fifteen-thousand feet and descending at a rate of 120 miles per hour,” he replied. “Approximately 1 minute and 20 seconds until impact.”

Jace scanned the environment but did not see the lake. “Map?” he asked, and Ollie pulled it up to be larger in his vision. “Oh, it’s hidden under the trees.” Jace angled his body to adjust the direction of his fall. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1), he thought, placing it on his chest once more.

He felt once more the thrill of falling and it filled him with ecstatic enthusiasm for just being alive in the moment. He let out a whoop of delight as he felt incredibly free. He had phenomenal power at his command, was falling out of the sky without fear because he knew he had the Skills to survive, and he had survived another near-death encounter. No more megacorps, no more scrounging on the streets, no more just struggling to survive.

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He was finally thriving.

Ollie patted him on the temple, “You good.”

Jace nodded vigorously, “Just happy.” He saw the trees coming closer and closer. Detonate. His momentum was arrested and gravity ceased to have a hold on him. Grappling onto the tops of one of the trees, he pulled himself down to the branches, pushing through the leafy canopy. The texture of the wood felt abnormal, as Jace could feel the knobs and swirls on the surface. Extending his foot-blades to provide better grip, he dismissed the Dark Energy Mine and felt gravity reassert itself.

Looking at the map once more, he glanced over in the direction the lake was supposed to be. I don’t see any sign of water, he thought. It’s not too far over that way. Jumping from enormous branch to enormous branch, he descended through the canopy. It was then that he heard the sounds of the jungle.

The place was incredibly vibrant and alive. He heard the buzzing of insects, the chirping of some types of birds. The enormous thump of some heavy footsteps off in the distance, and squawking of some type of animal. It was the most alive place he had ever been in; since Velenar Prime was mostly plains, Earth was just all artificial: well, the parts he was in, and even Nihilethelea was…somehow artificial, despite being a natural environment.

This was untamed wilderness. For all Jace knew, no one had been out this deep in thousands of years. “People used to live out here in this?” Jace asked.

Ollie nodded, “Yup! The Yittka quickly got up to the plateaus once their species evolved enough to realize that none of the other creatures were smart enough to get up to those high, rocky places. But they lived out here at once point in their history.”

Jace stopped on a wide, flat branch and stopped his travel as he spotted some enormous shape about fifty feet below him. “What’s that?” he asked.

“Oh! Very dangerous predator called a Dartcurl. Similar to ancient Earth’s velociraptors.”

Jace cleared his throat, “I don’t know what those are.”

“Oh, well, it is a predator. Pack hunt. The Dartcurl has strong legs and small, grabbing arms. Both have wicked claws. They hunt on the ground and in the trees.”

Jace sighed as he turned around. Of course. Pack hunters in the trees. To his lack of shock, there were three of the creatures, seemingly asleep on the nearby branches. The one below seemed to be on watch in some capacity. Jace drew his sword. Well, easy Stardust. Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3).

He hopped over to the branches where the animals were sleeping. They were large, easily fifteen feet long and if they were standing, twenty feet high. Their claws on the feet were as long as his sword was, just curled inward like a talon. The claws on their little grabby arms were shorter, maybe the size of Jace’s hand. But their teeth and mouth were the most interesting to Jace. It was a beak of sorts, and there were teeth he could spot on the inside as one of the creatures slept with it's mouth open.

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“Xera has no problem with you culling populations,” Ollie stated. “But, do not kill the one I’m tagging, as it is pregnant.” The one Ollie spoke of was highlighted in a dull, blue glow.

Jace nodded, “Void Blade (Rank 1).” He walked along the branch to the first one and chopped down through its neck, severing the portion of its body in one, easy slice. Moving to the second one, he repeated the process. Lastly, he took aim at the one below and threw his sword. It impaled the creature and it collapsed as well. “Too easy,” Jace muttered. “Animals are too easy.”

“Dusting time! Did you want to set aside a split for your allies?”

Jace nodded, “Yeah, why not.”

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[Stardust Acquired: 1500.]

[Stardust Split: 300]

-----

Jace used his grapnel to descend from the tree and began walking towards the lake on his map. But when he arrived at the edge, he saw nothing but green undergrowth. “Where is it?” he asked.

Ollie flew out in front of Jace, popped into the ground, and then came back up. “A mossy layer grew on top of it. The lake is down there. Just rip or cut it open.”

Jace got to the edge and stabbed down, seeing the light splash of black liquid underneath. Using his fingers, he tore away some of the moss and revealed a hole he could jump into. Reaching back to his Venture Pack, he made sure to secure each compartment, making it waterproof, as he dove in.

The black water surrounding him was impossible to see through, as thick as pitch. But, he could breath it just like the water in the pool-cube or the ocean. It had an odd, cinnamon flavor to it. “I want to clear the water. Hydromancy: activate.”

The entire space pulsed with deep, grey energy before the water turned crystalline. Crap. That was a mistake.

Quinn answered her door. “Mizarion, what can I do-”

The man pushed her into the room and sealed the door behind him. “We’ve got problems,” he stated. “Star Pops is gonna burn you as an asset.”

“What? Why?” Quinn felt her heart racing.

“Nebula Alliance figured out that you were coordinating intel for the Dark Between Stars Signers. They said that unless the Star Council disavows you, there will be conflict. And Star Pops doesn’t want that, especially when an asset like Earth is still on shaky ground.”

But…I can’t help out. I don’t get to access the market. She felt immense sorrow at being told, effectively, that she was fired. As if to confirm this, her fingers lost their slight, golden glow.

Mizarion grimaced, “I’m sorry, Quinn. But he can’t risk faction war. You need to sign up with another faction, ASAP, to get their protection. Maybe the Pulsar Coalition.”

Quinn felt tears welling up in the corners of her eyes and she wiped them away. “I’ve got options, and this place is safe. They can’t find me here.”

Mizarion grimaced, “About that…”

“What?”

He shook his head, “Part of burning you as an asset is giving you to the Nebula Alliance-” Mizarion vanished, warped away in an instant.

In his place, Xera popped into existence. “I apologize, Quinn. I took the liberty of removing your products from the Star Market: covertly, of course: and have moved the apartment for the safety of my Signers.”

“Did you have something to do with this?” Quinn asked in an accusatory tone. “You wanted me as a Signer, was this you manipulating someo-”

Xera shook her head and crossed both pairs of her arms in front of her torso. “No. The Nebula Alliance did figure out who you were, and your role in helping my Signers on Earth. The Star Council had to either burn you as an asset or risk an all-out faction conflict. And Star Father is not going to risk progress on Earth when it has such potential to help his other worlds with off world mining.” She frowned, “I’m sorry, Quinn. I know that being removed from a place you feel like you belong can feel…harsh. I’m around if you want to talk.”

Quinn shook her head and wiped away another few tears that had made their way to her eyes. She felt her heart fluttering and discomfort in her stomach. A churning roil that made her feel like she had to vomit. Running to the restroom, she got into the hygiene station and activated it: thankfully removing the need to empty her guts.

Xera was waiting outside, holding a cup of tea that she handed Quinn, “This is good for the stomach.”

Quinn took the cup shakily and sat down at her console. “I…The Star Council made me feel wanted. For the first time in a long time.”

Xera leaned against the wall next to the console, “I understand your feelings. And now they discard you for their own interests.” She smiled softly, in a near-motherly way. “You are not unwanted. Your support has been invaluable and saved me vast time and resources. I would be privileged to invite you to join my faction, officially.”

Quinn nodded slowly and took a sip of the green tea. “I…I’ll be your Signer.” She looked up at the apartment ceiling. “Other than my parents, the people in this building are the closest thing I have to family.”

“Oh, believe me, they feel the same,” Xera replied as she waved her hand. Quinn saw her fingers become a slight purple hue. “Welcome to the Dark Between Stars, Signer Quinn.”