Meet the Antagonists: Null
Securing external locking mechanism...
Neural-net established.
Extending neural-net interface...
Now monitoring brain wave pattern...
Linking neural-net interface...
Pattern GREEN, continuing operation.
VOID-shift device status: ONLINE.
CLOAK-tech device status: ONLINE.
Primary system status: ONLINE.
Backup system status: ONLINE.
Current energy capacity: 500000.All systems operational. Welcome to SpiderOS, [NULL].
My eyes snapped open, the retinal displays scrolling information by at a blinding rate. All systems were green and active. I stood up, the flexible powered armor suit flexing powerfully as I pulled myself from the Containment Unit. My mission was a simple one, as these things go. Normally I'm not released from Containment except for in extreme emergencies.
Threat level on this mission was low, almost insultingly so. It was rated as extreme importance though, so I blink-clicked the specifics into view. Assassination of a specific Nanotrasen official, one Lorenzo Helsbrecht. Situation requires obfuscation, control recommends massacring the entirety of the Command staff at Lorenzo's location. I review the station blueprints. It's a Metastation Mark Seven, one of the largest Nanotrasen produced stations. Crew number is roughly three thousand, with forty-nine Command staff of note on station. Approximately two hundred and forty Security staff to contend with, armed with standard NT gear.
I click confirmation of control's recommendation, and send a query as to transportation.
I felt that familiar, horrifying feeling of being phase-jumped long distance, like my whole body was made of superheated mercury. Typical. Can't even give me a head's up that I'm about to be ripped through a hole in reality. Just throw me somewhere.
I take stock of my surroundings. I'm about two thousand kilometers away from the station, it's massive bulk looming comparative to the nearby planet. A burst from my suit's attitude thrusters sent me soaring forwards at a quick rate. I checked my gear once more manually as I closed the distance. Everything was in order. I checked the one item that wasn't computerized and that remained sealed in it's special nullification field-case. All was well in my universe for a moment as I prepared myself for combat.
I opened the medical screen and sent a variety of high power combat drugs into my system, then activated all my implants and checked their status. Once more, everything was ready, and I felt the surging aggression and brutal need to do violence,
now. At one kilometer distant, I activated my short range phase system. I appeared in a maintenance shaft with a whickering noise. Most people thought that the sound of phase shifts was air movement. Maybe the vents were acting up and blowing more air than usual. My feet carried me soundlessly as I ran effortlessly in the dark, picking up heat signatures all around me through the walls.
I categorized and dismissed everyone in a hundred meters within a few moments, and shifted again, deeper into the station. I came out in a Security checkpoint, behind a chubby man in a Security Corporal uniform who was grumpily filing a report about something. I paused for a moment, and said, "You misspelled 'gruesome'. It's got an e before the s."
He frowned at it and snapped, "It's misspelt, you ar-" and I was gone again, even deeper this time, before he could realize he was talking to no one.
A cruel trick, but the least cruel I'd play this day, I think. All things considered. I appeared in a cafeteria, crouched atop a table, and my cloak went up in an instant. I ran down the table, and whipped out an energy blade from one finger, letting it grow to six inches of lethal green plasma. Then I threw it. I shifted before I saw the result, but I knew what would come of it. The Personnel Chief of the station was now headless, and perhaps someone behind him had lost a hand or a leg, and no one could explain it.
I came out of my shift in a garden set in an observation bubble, so you could see space beneath the roots of the plants. It was actually quite beautiful, so I dropped the block of C4 I was holding, and remote-activated a ten second timer. I strode forward and deactivated my cloak.
Four security officers and twelve command staff. They were having a picnic for their meeting. Cute. One of the command staff, a Security Administrator, saw me and his eyes went wide with terror. He wordlessly pulled his pistol in an instant and fired a laser blast at me, the goddamn prick. I sidestepped and kept moving forwards.
He fired again, and the rest of them seemed to understand they were under attack. The Security officers pulled tasers and looked around, then aiming at me confusedly. I probably looked ridiculous to them. The armor looks like... A black body suit. I was unarmed and apparently charging them with the intent of beating them to death with my bare hands.
I could do that, but I had a different plan. They fired their tasers, and my suit absorbed the charge to replenish it's stores. I let out a howl and phase shifted forward, three times. I jumped into three different people, and they exploded into a shower of gore. On the second jump, I whipped my hand out and sliced off the Administrator's hand with an energy blade. He bent to pick up the hand while the rest of the group started seriously panicking.
I kicked out, snapping a man's leg with a crunch, and I let my momentum carry me forward, spinning over him and lashing out with a throat punch at another man. I dropped a poison dart into one hand and threw it into a Personnel Manager's eye, and he dropped with a scream. I shifted out, the game no longer fun, and behind me the whole observation dome exploded and vented to space, taking the mutilated and mauled group with it.
I was on the bridge.
Goddamn, did these guys know how to build something ugly. The bridge was a monument to bureaucracy. Rows of computers and screens and desks full of paperwork and office drones. In the center of all this stood a man with a startlingly impressive hat.
I knew I was looking at the Commander of the Station, just judging by that goddamn hat. I activated my voice system and boomed out a greeting in a deep-intimidation voice mode. To them, a demon was speaking. I probably had a freaky reverberation effect going, but I couldn't tell. My suit filtered it out.
The Commander was moving before most of them had even realized someone was speaking. Paranoid motherfucker. Smart as hell though. I was moving forward again, letting each finger grow a long energy claw from the projectors. I slashed them through whole desks and people and computers, carving great swathes through the bridge near me. I teleported once more, blades lashing out violently.
Imagine an angry black hole lashing out with gamma radiation at a nearby dying star system. Now imagine lots of body parts, like fucking everywhere. The Commander was gone somehow. Bluespace probably. A quick scan confirmed it as I continued the slaughter. He was on the other end of the station, the bastard. Well, that's okay. He was only a secondary consideration. This was all optional, really.
I teleported to my target. He was alone, sitting in his personal office near the bridge. A Personnel Executive Officer. One of the three most important people on station, and one of the seven most important people in this
sector. Alone and unguarded in an office with me.
He didn't look up from his paperwork at me. He gestured at the chair. "I've been expecting you, Null."
Fuck. I sighed, and sat in the chair, my link to control going nuts as I felt a phase jammer locking in on me. Okay, let's play. "Lorenzo Helsbrecht, I'm here to kill you." I said. I knew from personal experience that my voice, unfiltered, was at best uninteresting. He nodded at me as he signed the sheet and slid it to a pile of other sheets.
Lorenzo set the pen down and looked at me. "Best do it neatly. Don't disturb the paperwork, or I'll haunt you til the end of time." He cracked a humorless grin, displaying a neat set of teeth. He gestured with his mechanical arm at a series of decanters and bottles and cups. "Obligatory alcohol?"
I nodded gratefully and he poured me a large slug of brandy, then one for himself. I stuck my straw into it and drank the drink in an instant. I wouldn't get drunk, but at least I could pretend. Lorenzo savored a sip of it, then set his glass back down. "Do you know why you're to kill me?"
"No. And it's completely irrelevant. I have a feeling you're going to tell me anyway. Before you try to kill me." I said all this, barely aware of the conversation. I was scanning my surroundings with every view mode I had, my passive sensors reaching out and finding the jammer. It was not far.
Lorenzo shrugged, "I'm not a violent man, normally." He smiled again, and continued, "Normally. You're here to kill me because otherwise the prophecy won't work. Spider Command won't allow that, above all else. They NEED the prophecy to be true."
I nodded absently, then asked, "What prophecy?"
Lorenzo coughed into his hand and shook his head. "No, you should know already. I'm not going to tell you. I'll take that spiteful vengeance on you." He stood up and walked over to a display case behind his desk. "I guess it's that time, Null. En garde."
Lorenzo turned, holding an ancient Spanish rapier. I smiled under my suit, reaching for my void case, my hand deactivating the locks and slipping inside to draw my katana. I'd tell you who made it, but you might not believe me. He's famous.
I crossed swords with him, then took a step back. He lunged forward, his sword unexpectedly passing my careless guard and jabbing me in the shoulder. It penetrated my armor at the joint, ripping into the nerve cluster. Goddamn it. I hate these jobs. I howled furiously, and batted at him with my blade like it was a club. Lorenzo effortlessly ducked it, and pulled his sword out of my flesh and armor.
I blinked away the pain and rage-drugs, my enhanced mind suddenly dropping into the cybernetic interface to insulate me from the damage to my human body. I retracted, dancing back a step, and Lorenzo stepped after me, his sword jabbing at me, trying to stab my hands. I swing my sword at his like a giant fucking amateur would, but my armor and musculature are swinging the sword much harder.
In reality, swordsmen don't swing swords at swords very often. It's not good for the edge. Blades can be broken rather easily. Like his did, just now, as I fucking broke it right in half. I stepped forwards suddenly and grabbed him by the wrist, pulverizing it. The human wrist. Then I twisted it around him, plunging his broken sword into his own spine. I let him drop dead onto his desk.
I shook for a moment, my whole body wracked with minor spasms from the side effects of the combat drugs. I reached into the phase net, feeling that awful jammer. Somewhere nearby. Couldn't be far. I summoned a large energy blade and swept it through the bulkhead to one side of the desk, slashing a great divot into the next room. I stepped through my impromptu door into a darkened maintenance shaft.
I followed this shaft for awhile, padding along silently with my cloaking device deactivated. I viewed the shaft in thermal with light amplification. To me, it was lit up as bright as day, and I could pick the mice out at thirty feet. I followed the shaft for awhile, then I saw something... Something that scared me.
Just at the edge of my view range was a familiar, strange distortion in the thermal imaging. It was about eight feet tall, with a whip-like tail as long or maybe longer than it was tall. It's head was three feet long and banana shaped, but it was black as night all over and it's teeth gleamed silver under visible light. I knew these creatures, and they were dangerous. Even to me.
These Nanotrasen fools were experimenting with
I. Raptus?! What idiot would ever dare go near that horrifying monster willingly? The creature calmly watched me through the walls, perhaps sensing I was different somehow. I was struck with a cruel, abhorrently evil idea.
I primed my last C4 charge, and set it at an appropriate distance from the wall holding the
Raptus back. I set the timer to 240 seconds, and started running. I tried to close in on the phase jammer device that had locked on to me. Finally, I could see it through the walls, seeing the technicians monitoring it's functioning. I let a feral grin twist my pale lips, and moved to examine the walls around the room they were in.
Oh, they had guards too. There were eight in the room, two patrolling in the hall, and there was the suddenly very still caricature of one that had been patrolling the maintenance section, but was now mostly empty of blood and devoid of life. I closed in, and heard a tremendous
BANG down the hall, greatly distant. I knew the
Raptus would cause some serious havoc itself, but I could only hope it stayed away from me.
I activated a large energy blade and swept it through the wall, then threw it. The arc of green energy slammed into the jamming device like a guillotine into flesh. The device stopped whirring and the technicians froze. The guards turn and leveled their oversize laser cannons at the wall I was behind. One, an officer, hit his communications device and said something I didn't intercept.
I didn't care either. I had phase. This place was my
bitch again. Control blew my line up near immediately, but I sent back a wall of SHUTTHEFUCKUPANDGETMEOUTNOW. For once, Control flat out impressed me.
Because with a painful, rifting jump, I was in a nondescript blank titanium chamber, with a bank of Containment units along the wall. A single human stood about ten feet from me, dressed in a exceptionally nice black suit with a blood red tie. He was utterly nondescript, brown haired, brown eyed, about medium height and average weight.
There has literally never been another living creature in the Containment Center before, at least not while I was not in a containment unit. I eyed this man carefully throughout the spectrums, only noticing that some discrepancies in his weight indicated he had implants of some sort.
He eyed me steadily, not moving much, other than to sip at a cup of coffee. "Are you control?" I asked, in my unfiltered voice. A sign of respect among Spider Clan.
He nodded slowly, "In a sense, yes. I am part of control." He took another sip of his coffee.
"Why are you here?" I asked, feeling as if this was all a dream. My cybermind knew that this was a result of the drugs, and I was coming down hard. My suit administered countermeasures, leveling my imbalances out. I still felt distant.
"Do you have any questions, Null?" He set the coffee down and crossed his arms.
I looked at him for a long moment. "Yes." I admitted grudgingly.
"This is your one and only chance to ask them. Your next mission will be the death of you." This strange man said this to me as if it were written in stone. Perhaps it was, but I didn't care. Death would be a release from the hell of my life.
I nodded slowly, and said, "What's your name? How come the feeding paste tastes like turpentine? Where was I born? Was my mom pretty? What prophecy was that Helsbrecht guy talking about? Who is the 'Kal-tikar' that Morpharil Agrohl told me about? What does sex feel like?"
The man paused for a moment, considering my questions. He said, "Perhaps I'll have you write a list before you go into containment, and I'll answer ALL of them then. We have a bit more work to do after this. As for you questions..." He looked down, "My name is Orpheus Ironmonger. The feeding paste tastes like that because of the high-complexity protein complex. You were born on Antioch VI to Sarah and Alvin Commodus, and she is and was a very beautiful woman. Morpharil Agrohl was suffering extreme delusional disorder, the Kal-tikar is a myth. Sex will be covered with other written questions later." He paused. It was a long pause.
I waited for a moment, then prodded, "The prophecy?"
He nodded, "The Prophecy of Thirteen states that on the Nanotrasen Station number 13, Urist McStation class, two rivals will come to face one another amongst the greatest calamity to befall a station of Nanotrasen. This battle will determine the course of history in a great and complicated variety of ways. It would be difficult to explain exactly how, but we want a particular rival to win."
I looked around slowly, then settled my gaze back on him. "Who?"
Orpheus hesitated, "I will not say yet."
"What if I kill you?"
"I'll be cloned, and you'll be terminated to our
extreme regret. You've been so unutterably useful, valuable, and cooperative." Orpheus smiled at me. "Now, get a pen and paper and we'll start a list of questions... But first, turn off and take off your armor. For the first time."
I felt a single tear well up in my eyes. I have never felt air upon my skin except through a rent in my armor. I activate the de-initialization sequence, the feeling strange and new...
Now de-initializing...
Logging off, [NULL]. Shutting down SpiderOS.
Primary system status: OFFLINE.
Backup system status: OFFLINE.
VOID-shift device status: OFFLINE.
CLOAK-tech device status: OFFLINE.
Disconnecting neural-net interface...Success.
Disengaging neural-net interface...Success.
Unsecuring external locking mechanism...
Neural-net abolished.
Operation status: FINISHED.
Author
Topic: The Lillian Helsbrecht Story (Read 28673 times)