Maneuvering
The room they stood in was small, and incredibly secure. They had purchased the entire building from the Frawork as they didn’t have the ti to actually build it the old fashioned way.
“It is the sa as the others,” Valthua announced to everyone. “Though it is not of the sa batch.”
Ryun narrowed his eyes. He didn’t like where this was heading.
“Not the sa batch?” Selia asked. “They couldn’t be mass producing them already? They wouldn’t dare.”
“You would be surprised by what the Exalted Empire would dare to do,” Vryull added as he shook his head. “Their only goal is to advance what they believe to be the true science. Their understanding of technology.”
Ryun glanced to the side where Erdania stood with her hands crossed, glaring at the items on the table. Anrosh cleared her throat and brought Ryun’s attention to her.
“The issue that I see is that we have them. How? They cannot be so incompetent that they lost four of them. Nor can we be so lucky that we had gotten all of those that were stolen.”
Vryull’s face tendrils twitched. “You are, of course, correct, Sect Leader. They wouldn’t be so incompetent as to lose them. One of these was stolen by soone who worked on the project. That one I believe is understandable. Betrayal from within can circumvent many safeguards. But these three,” he said, pointing at the three small cylinders in the second box. “How did this end up with the Unchained?”
Ryun grimaced, understanding what he ant. “Naha only said that the Unchained were trying to hide them when she stumbled onto them.”
“The Unchained are, were, a terrorist faction set on killing High Rankers,” Erdania started. “They had a lot of connections everywhere in the Core. They couldn’t have survived as long as they did otherwise. It is possible that they stole them.”
“Or,” Selia narrowed her eyes. “They were given them with specific targets in mind. The Exalted Empire was too far away to co in any real contact with the Unchained. There would be little bad blood between them.”
“Possible,” Valthua said. “But if they had decided to sell them, or even just provide them in return for a service, it ans that they’ve reached a point where they no longer fear retaliation from the other factions.”
“They have swallowed up a large part of the Core,” Vryull added. “And they continue to expand.”
Ryun turned to look at Valthua, their resident researcher, teacher, and scientist in charge of all things related to Essence. Her school had grown much from what it used to be. The Sect had poured resources into her research, and it had borne a lot of fruit.
Valthua t his eyes. “I fear that Vryull is right, this,” she waved a hand at the miniaturized Reaction Engines. “—is not experintation. This is the finished product. They’ve made weapons that can be mass produced.”
“How dangerous are they, did you figure it out?” Selia asked.
Valthua nodded. “Everything is Essence, and so interactions between Essence are as varied as their number. A Reaction Engine, is a bomb made out of different types of Essence, a device that compresses them and forces their shells to interact in a way that exerts a powerful influence on the core of an Essence particle, making it crack and creating a chain reaction that shatters every Essence particle it co in contact with. But it can only sustain that reaction for as long as it has fuel. So it gets from the surrounding, the Essence that it shatters, but most of it cos from the device itself.
These smaller versions have nowhere near as much fuel. They will not produce Reactions as large as those of the previous version. Their range is smaller, if I had to make a guess, not larger than this room, with perhaps weakening effects slightly beyond it. But ultimately range doesn’t matter. The power of a Reaction Engine is sothing that only the most powerful defensive asures can oppose, and even then it is unlikely that they will survive.”
Ryun was thinking, trying to put the pieces together. A Reaction Engine was powerful, yes, but there were people out there who could do just as much damage with their own power. He was one of them.
Stolen novel; please report.
Why would the Exalted Empire do this, he wondered. The answer didn’t elude him for long. People who could do the things a Reaction Engine did, were rare. A weapon like this could be used by anyone. And if they were mass manufacturing them. They intended to arm many.
“They are preparing for war,” Ryun said.
The others looked at him, but it was Vryull who answered. “They hate everyone that doesn’t follow their doctrine. Enlightening others is built into the core tenets of the Machine God. The supremacy of cold logic and technology. The Pure are… they seek what the Cthul had lost. The rule over reality itself. All that they do is service of that goal. It is why the Pure don’t allow anyone in the Empire to take on Classes and Paths that expand on the knowledge of the Aspects. No understanding and utilizing nature around them. Only control, command, regardless of usefulness. A Class like mine, which gives power over the Void, is a crutch that binds to the Frawork, to them it ans that I have no knowledge, only faux understanding given to by the Frawork.”
“I know that they take Classes that allow them to control their machines better. Is that not the sa thing?” Selia asked.
Vryull shook his head. “The only Classes and Paths allowed to the Pure are those that improve the self. Make them smarter, that improve on their own skills, that allow for control or linking with their machines, but no use or actual control of other Aspects.”
“Isn’t that… the sa thing?” Ryun tilted his head.
Vryull grimaced. “Not in their minds. Because the machines they build are not arrays, they are not formations, though they use so of them. The machines they build are based on the concepts of natural Essence interactions. Things that happen without the use of powers. They seek the mastery through knowledge, not gifts from the Frawork. They an to rule over it, not be ruled by it.”
“You’ve ntioned the Machine God before,” Ryun had never pressed Vryull on the details of his banishnt from the Exalted Empire, or his escape. All he knew was that he was a Pure, aning that he knew his bloodline back to the old world, and that all in his line ca from the sa Iteration. He had defied his people by taking a Class that broke with their tradition. And so he escaped and moved to the Core.
“It is the being that rules the Exalted Empire, our creation, an artificial life that sees reality in ways that we cannot. I don’t know much, few are ever allowed in its presence. It speaks through others, the Herald of the Machine serves as its primary voice.”
“An artificial intelligence?” Ryun asked, intrigued.
Vryull nodded. “Every Cthul Iteration had one. When the reality changed, when the Frawork arrived, the Cthul lost much. We were a space faring people spanning dozens or more stars. The Frawork took all the people living in space and dropped them on different planets, it took from them, from us, our technology. The Machine God included. I know that my ancestors had it… rough. All Cthul Iterations always do. When we arrived here, our only goal was to recreate what we lost. It took us hundreds of years, but with the help from other Cthul Iterations we managed. I don’t know how it was done, but I know that we have most of the knowledge our old worlds had. The rules had changed, but the principles are similar. We’ve regained much.”
“So,” Ryun started then glanced at the Reaction Engines on the table. “You think that this is another step in whatever their Machine God’s plan is?”
“Military power is required for any Empire’s survival,” Vryull answered.
Ryun kept looking at the Reaction Engines, thinking. Their plan had been to keep them and research, learn how to make them. They were powerful tools in any faction’s repertoire. And Ryun had signed no deals, even though most would probably believe that with his position he should be held to those agreents. Still, it wasn’t like he planned on making many of them. He wanted to understand what kind of a threat they were. But that was before they knew who had created them.
He raised his head and looked at Anrosh. “We are going to have to talk with the other Sect Heads, aren’t we.”
Anrosh nodded. “We can’t keep it a secret if they are breaking the agreents. World powers must know. Especially if there is a threat of a war.”
Ryun sighed. It seed that there was always sothing.
“Send word to Hitor, tell him that I’d like a gathering of the Council of Sects,” Ryun ordered.
“A gathering of all the mbers will take ti, months,” Anrosh warned.
“It’s a big accusation,” Selia interjected. “We’ll need ti to prepare anyway.”
Anrosh nodded. “I’ll do it. Do you want to warn anyone ahead of it?”
Ryun shook his head. “We don’t know how far the Exalted Empire’s influence spreads. I don’t want us knowing about it to spread. It might make them do sothing about it.”
“We already have their people. They must know by now that they are here,” Erdania interjected.
“Probably,” Anrosh added. “Though from what Marianna has said they made sure to destroy all evidences of their theft. The Reaction Engine they stole was reported as used in a test. They shouldn’t know that we have it, let alone the three other ones. At most, they can accuse us of sheltering criminals from their Empire.”
“That should buy us enough ti for others to gather,” Ryun said. “Once I fill them in and give them the proof it will be up to them to inform other world factions. Then it is their problem.”
“You don’t want to get involved?” Vryull asked.
Ryun shrugged. “I have no reason to. I didn’t sign any agreent and I have no real grudge against the Exalted Empire. I am obligated to let the Sects know about a possible threat, nothing more.”
“No grudge?” Anrosh asked with a look that Ryun knew very well.
“My personal feud with the Herald doesn’t extend to every mber of the Empire. I am not that petty.”
Everyone in the room looked at him.
“What? I’m not.”
“Sure, Ryun, sure,” Anrosh shook her head. “Well, I’ll head out and send that ssage to Hitor then.”
Slowly, the room emptied, leaving Ryun alone, looking at the Reaction Engines on the table.
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