I asked Lysa.
I didn’t need to ask with the whole identification code, but this was training, and other adepts she'd work with in the future might. It was easy to find, partly because there were only a few bionic arms in the room, but also because she could dive into the noosphere to see which one.
She said back enthusiastically.
I still hadn't broken her habit of doing that, and I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to.
I noted with pride as she scanned and inspected the arm as she brought it over. We were in Solvexa's private workshop, just off the Skitarii barracks, so I knew there wouldn't be any problems with it. I had put it there myself, but I was pleased she still checked.
Around us, a handful of servitors and servos skulls moved to and fro, helping with the operation and all under my control.
Lying down at the centre of the room was the final Skitarii we had to process.
She was strapped and bolted to the table to stop her shifting around.
I had disconnected the signals from her body to her brain so she shouldn’t shift during the operation or even feel pain, but I had learned long ago that what should happen and what actually happened were two very different things. She was awake for the operation, but I was carefully monitoring her through my mechadendrite, which was inserted into the base of her skull, connecting to her spinal column.
It was part of the reason I needed Lysa to assist me, or that was the excuse I was using. I didn’t really need her; the servitors around me could do the job, but it helped her learn. Kellen had already helped me and was now in the next room sparing with Sygex and Ro. They were the only two I trusted to train him right and not teach him bad habits.
I had seen how some of the others fought, and I wanted him to pick up nothing from them. I actually wanted him to survive long-term and not sacrifice themselves for the Machine God.
I was very much a part of the school of thought, although I couldn’t remember where I heard it from; 'No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.'
I said as she passed it over. One of my BH-AT scooped it from her and hovered over to lock it in place.
Before slotting it onto the metal nub at the end of her arm, I checked to make sure the metal was properly fused to the bone under it. Happy it was, I directed the BH to slot and connect the arm, fusing it to the metal cap and locking it into place.
Now secure, we started the slow process of connecting it to her nervous system. I say slow, if you rushed it could be done in minutes, but I held myself to a higher standard. If it wasn’t connected perfectly, the bionic might not function at 100% or even cause problems. I knew some Skitarii who had rejected some augments for that reason.
Many I had looked at over the years had bionics that were as low as 60%, making the bionic sluggish to respond. Although I would admit the average was higher at 84%.
That was the optimal number for efficiency.
Once it was tied in correctly, we sealed the wound, glueing the flesh to the metal. I made sure there was a full seal; even the smallest gap could get infected and would require my attention. The flesh looked pink and raw, but I would monitor it in the coming days to make sure it settled and stayed bonded to the new metal augment.
With the operation completed, the servitors swept in and started to scrub and clean the room.
I ran a few last checks and was just about to disconnect from my patient when I noticed something odd.
There was another high-level command code built into her operating system.
There were the three I expected, which, when used, made the Skitarii follow their orders, but this one sat outside these. There was the Fabricator Generals, Fabricator Locums and finally the Prime Magos Dominus in control of the forge worlds' legions. The one I just noticed, hidden from view, superseded all of these.
I didn’t mention it and sent the Skitarii on her way. Lysa too, who went to find Kellen and called in another Skitarii.
Solvexa had her Skitarii number bumped up to twenty-four. All the most recent alumni that just finished training were spoken for, so she was assigned some from the legions. She had some control over who she got, but not as much as she wanted. She never said anything, but I knew her well enough to pick up her irritation.
The Skitarii only had the basics, and pretty poor ones at that, so I had been going through replacing what they already had with better quality bionics, or if I could, better models entirely.
The twelve that survived the death world had seen significant upgrades when they got back, not just in the quality and number of bionics but also more specialised patterns, allowing them to fulfil their roles more easily.
Over the next few hours, I scanned every skitarii and found about a third of the newest members had this new command. Only one of the original sixteen had it, and he was one of the newer recruits. I had no idea what to think, but my alarm bells were ringing.
For now I left it there, but put in an update. Now, if it were ever activated, it would first ask Solvexa if she accepted the change of authority. She would also be able to retake control of them if she needed to.
I wanted to investigate the noosphere, but would do that at home. Collecting the kids, we started back, a BFG walking beside us.
Ever since the attack on my sanctum, I had upped my security. I called in a few favours and got another body and made a replacement BFG to the one I lost, as well as increasing my number to three. One would stay guarding my home while the other was always with me and the kids. I also stopped Kellen and Lysa from wandering off on their own, or even with Snuffles if it could be avoided.
I felt safer with the BFG in tow, but it was very conspicuous, and I could feel the eyes of other adepts on it whenever we moved through the corridors. Which was why I had been developing another servitor.
They were still in testing, but they should be ready by the end of the month.
These new ones were made to be disposable. They were disguised to look like any other non-combat servitor, from monotask to industrial servitors. But this was only surface level, and under it was a servitor designed for one thing.
War.
According to the investigation into the attack, they weren't there to actually kill me. They had several arcano tech that would have disabled me and also cut off my connection to the noosphere, which might actually be worse if I were honest.
I couldn’t think of a good reason for them, whoever they were, to want me alive.
I wasn’t the only one to be attacked. A couple of dozen other adepts were attacked in the same fashion; it was just that their defences were worse than mine. This was only found a day or so later, when they didn’t respond to comms. Weirdly, several sanctums had the hallmarks of being breached, but the adepts in there were fine and reported seeing nothing.
I had my doubts, but had been unable to investigate them. I was still looking for a time when I could disable one and do a deep dive into them. But that would have to be later; everyone was on too high alert for me to risk it. And it wasn’t just us on alert; the attacks had sent a shockwave through the forge world and beyond.
I had been keeping an eye on them, however, as I didn’t trust them, and from the other entities I sensed in the noosphere, I wasn’t the only one.
The dead adepts and Skitarii came back to the other Locum of the forge world, Locum Deltor-9o/0. As soon as Viel saw this, he was convinced that the Locum was trying to muscle him out again. Using underhand tactic like last time. Which, strictly speaking, wasn’t true. I had looked into it, and he was just better.
Smarter, more learned, larger faction, and so on. He was just better in every way, and he deserved the role. Although Viel was right, he did use some less-than-fair tactics to get it, since Viel had positioned himself perfectly and was likely to get the role if nothing changed.
Either way, he was convinced it was Deltor-9o/0 and would accept no other proof.
I, on the other hand, had done my own investigation and didn’t like what I found.
There were thousands of little groups within the forge world. Some larger, like Viel's Collegex and some smaller, like the Morari adepts. Some were harder to detect than others, with their members protecting their identities, and when I started to investigate the adepts and Skitarii that had tried to break in, I found another pattern.
One I had missed before.
The longer I looked into the group, the more concerning it became. The faction wasn’t structured as most others were; it was in small, separate cells, each closed off from the others, and the more I looked, the more cells I found.
From the lowest amongst the hive all the way up to the archmagos's.
Another thing I found was that Locum Deltor-9o/0 had also been hit. Under almost the same circumstances. More troubling was that several of our missing adepts had been found in the break-ins. The similarities were startling.
I spent weeks building up a clear picture, and when I had it, I wasn’t sure what to do. I knew I needed to give it to someone, but Viel was on a warpath by this point and didn’t give a shit. Deltor-9o/0 might listen, but who knew? I certainly didn’t want the data linked to my name in case there was any retaliation.
So I just sat on it for now.
I got home and immediately dived into the noosphere to investigate my findings on the Skitarii.
First, I started by looking for similarities between the skitarii. Their training academies were different. So were the adepts working on them, so that was out.
I dug deeper and deeper until I found a trail.
A commonality with an adept within the academies.
I was passing through a minor pathway. One of the weakest I had been on, some of the paths leading off it were weaker still. Some faded in and out as the data connections flickered. The adept's trail had led me there, so I hoped there would be something.
I was about halfway down the pathway when I could see a large data vault off in the distance. It was only now, when I was closer, that I could even see it, otherwise it was hidden from the rest of the noosphere.
A clever idea and one I would be copying.
Unlike the surrounding pathways, which were dim from the lack of data flowing through them, the vault was pristine and glowed with power. Clearly, it was heavily in use.
I was just about to start moving closer when my defensive algorithms shouted a warning. It was a moment too late, and an attack hit me from behind, scratching across my defences. I winced as pain rippled through me. Even though my defences held it with ease, it was still me getting attacked.
If it had gotten through… well, good things wouldn’t have happened.
I spun and came to face a cyber mastiff avatar. At first, I thought it was an actual mastiff, but then I looked past the avatar into the programme's core, and I realised it was a guard programme. Something I had found was called a data-djinn.
I watched it as it fired off another attack, the frequency of its attacks changing slightly so its attacks were that much more effective. I hissed as it dug deep furrows into my defences, still nowhere near through but doing more damage than I expected.
With clenched teeth, I started chanting.
I didn’t know who was watching or what they might see, so I couldn’t cut loose and stuck to the officially recognised chants and commands, all muttered as fast as thought.
Another shield sprang up around me, blocking another attack. It cracked the shield, but I felt no pain, which was a step forward.
Judging that the shield had a few more attacks in it, I went on the offensive.
Rapidly muttering the chants, as fast as my mind could process them, which with my enhancements was rapidly. But even as fast as though I was no match for the djinn, which unleashed a wave of attacks, blasting through my shield and striking my mind's personal defences once more.
Bastard. Another splinter of pain shot through me. But I didn’t allow it to distract me.
If I fully went on the offensive, it stood no chance. Even with my hands tied, I started to make ground, but I could already feel the alarms pulsing along the data streams. Off in the distance, I could see other djinn and adepts rushing over.
Retreat it was.
I needed to do it in such a way that they wouldn’t think they had been discovered. I chanted another command, and a new wall appeared around me. It lasted as long as the last, but it bought me a few precious seconds.
Two specialised chants blossomed around me.
The first cloaked my avatar in a second skin. Displaying the looks and data of a roving machine spirit. This far off the beaten track that should be common.
The second would let me slip away.
Then my shield shattered, and the attacks hit my avatar. It immediately dimmed, as if damaged. Still fully opaque, so couldn’t be seen through. The next strike shattered it, casting its code in all directions, revealing nothing inside. The code was quickly swept up by the data pathway before anyone could investigate it further.
I, on the other hand, had already moved away under the cover of my distraction.
I released a big sigh as I disconnected at home. I was tempted to leave it be and bury my head in the sand, but I couldn’t. More importantly, the noosphere was my domain.
With a mental flick, I was back in the noosphere traveling fast towards the data vault once more. But this time I wasn’t in my Aleric-007 identity. And with this one, I had no compunction about using every trick in the book.
A vaguely humanoid figure with dozens of arms and multiple faces, one on each side of its head, blossomed into being. It was cloaked in a loose, frayed black robe with its hood pulled up to hide its face. As I appeared, my defences activated and a cloud of mist started to swirl around me, getting thicker every second.
It of course wasn’t actual mist; I only perceived it like that. In actual fact it was an incredibly complicated code that stopped anyone from piecing my disguise.
As my new avatar, which I had taken to calling Shadow, edgy, but not inaccurate, and shot off for the vault. Even now, I couldn’t perceive it, even with knowing where it was.
I retraced my steps and shot along the data pathways, slipping through them with no one any the wiser. Few, if any, would even be able to detect me, let alone pierce my disguise.
Although according to the noosphere, it wasn’t a disguise.
There should be little to no connections to my Aleric Identity. Only my search engine would have hints.
This time I was ready and watched the djinn strike, splashing harmlessly against my defences. They were so strong that I barely even felt it. Just a small pinprick.
Annoying but inconsequential.
I still created a shield around me; it wouldn’t do to get cocky.
With no reason to hold back, I didn’t chant slow commands out; in this avatar, I didn’t need to hold back. So with a flick of my mind, I activated two specific scripts.
I had started off with dozens when I first started to explore the noosphere, adding to them each month until I had hundreds. One for every eventuality. Or that was what I was aiming for, but I of course wasn’t there quite yet.
But I had several that were perfect for the job.
The first spun an impenetrable defence around me, a shield made from hundreds of tiny hexagonal plates. Each shifting and swirling around me in a seemingly random pattern, with the plates overlapping and even doubling up at points. No part of me was undefended.
This made it almost impossible to create a weak point by targeting one of the plates and then breaking through. If a plate got too damaged, it moved to the back, allowing it to 'heal'.
Even as that worked, another script activated.
A wave of data rippled out of me, all attacking the djinn. The first were just weak probes, plinking against its defences, finding weaknesses and analysing its defences.
Then the next wave arrived. Slightly stronger but still mainly probing for weaknesses.
The third wave crashed into it, now fully adapted for the shields and ripped it to shreds, destroying the programme entirely.
When the script detected the target was destroyed, it stopped, slumbering. It didn’t release the next wave of attacks, which would have been the same as the third, only further specialised. The script was particularly effective against the static defences of the djinn.
Against an adept who could modulate and change their defences, it would be far less effective. Not that it mattered, I had a script for that as well.
With the djinn dealt with, I scooped up its fragmenting data and analysed it. Pulling up its detection matrices and whitelisted identities.
I quickly modulated my defences to hide more effectively from it and then moved closer to the vault. I slipped past dozens and then hundreds of layers of protection, as well as the few adepts I saw. Some I could see their identification, but others were better obscured, with more of their data hidden, and some were very sophisticated and completely hidden from me.
Not even traces to follow, just a void.
The only way to find out who they were was to follow them until they arrived at their body but even that wasn’t guaranteed.
I moved through the vault, although to be fair, it was more of a fortress, looking for information. It took hours; there was so much data to pick through, most of it heavily encrypted, and then I found it. The next piece of the puzzle.
It directed me to another vault.
With that, I slipped out once more, making sure to leave a back door in case I needed to come back.
This led me to another clue and another, like breadcrumbs.
After the seventh and dozens of hours later, I paused. I had other tasks that needed doing and this was turning out to be a slow investigation. But I would pick it back up later. By my estimates, it would take at least weeks if not months to pick apart the data and follow the trails.
But with this new information, my path was clear. Still as my Shadow I created a digital fortress in the noosphere, subsuming other systems and processing power to make it.
I spent a full week making it, but it was worth it. The interior took on an old, dusty crypt look, with the outer shell a huge Gothic cathedral. Smoke filled the winding corridors, obscuring data, making it hard to navigate to the centre. I also added all the defences and firewalls I could think of.
Finally, I copied the vaults I had found, making it impossible to detect unless you were in its vicinity, and this far out, that was unlikely.
Few adepts would venture this far out into the noosphere without cause.
Then I was ready. I sent two data packets. I didn’t actually need the fortress; I could have sent it and just bounced it around, making it impossible to trace back, but I wanted to build a reputation with my separate identity and to do that, I needed it to be traced back to him.
I also had several other plans for the fortress. In time, I could set up an information exchange, inspired, I will be the first to admit, by the gang. Even if I didn’t already believe information was power, that had been a clear demonstration. It should also allow me to do things with the identity.
Largely order more supplies that couldn’t be traced back to me.
The packets of data contained all the information I had found about the attacks. One went to the Locum Deltor-9o/0 and the other to Ferrix and Xaldris.
The response was immediate.
---
Imperium: Hive Cities Scavenger (Tier 2) - IIWarrior (Tier 3) - VIImperium: Hive Cities Danger (Tier 2) - IIIHuman: Hand to hand (Tier 2) - IIITerra Federation: Technician (Tier 3) - XTerra Federation: Software (Tier 3) - VSharpshooter (Tier 3) - VISelf (Tier 3) - XIReverse Engineering (Tier 2) - IImperium: Canine Handling (Tier 2) - IVAkashic Throne (Tier 1) - IBlade Mastery (Tier 3) - VIIPhysics (Tier 1) - XIGlyphcraft (Tier 2) - IIBlueprints (Tier 3) - IIIActing (Tier 1) - IMathematics (Tier 1) - XIBiology (Tier 1) - XTeaching (Tier 2) - IIMachine Spirit (Tier 1) - IChemistry (Tier 1) - VIIIEngineering (Tier 1) - VIIBionics (Tier 3) - IIII