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Chapter 296
🕑 Added 2023-12-22 19:58:01 +0000 UTCChapter 296
Matt was a little surprised when he got a non urgent message about their next mission. He had been waiting on tenterhooks to receive a message that they were being called in to solve some crisis, when he got a message telling him they would meet up tomorrow afternoon to be deployed again.
Getting hours to look over his new armor and weapon just felt odd after their last few missions, where they were being used to put out fires.
General Darrow nodded to the three of them as they arrived and they took their seats with the others who arrived.
Dena leaned over to Matt and whispered, “What do you think they are going to want us to do? Any ideas?”
Matt shrugged. “I was going to ask you that same thing. You've been doing this longer than we have, after all. Is being warned a day in advance normal?”
Eric agreed. “When they can, they like to give us that much time, so when it's not an emergency, yes. But we’re a rapid response team, soooo…”
Matt agreed with Eric. He probably shouldn't count on such warnings in the future.
When Allie and Zack arrived, the former being dragged by her elbow by the latter, General Darrow started the briefing.
“While it's been a few months for us, it's only been two weeks in real time since our last mission, and we can already see it's been a rousing success. The entire push has stalled out thanks to the lack of supplies in that sector.”
A number of images appeared on the screen behind Darrow and Matt scanned through them. The war front was filled with yellow contacts with the occasional orange, and with only a handful of red, which was a good thing. Yellow meant the Empire defenders were under siege but not in immediate danger of falling. Orange meant they were struggling and expected to fall within a decade, and red meant they were expected to fall within five years if nothing changed.
When they had gone out for their last mission, most of the war front had been orange or red. So, seeing that situation almost completely reversed, it meant their attack on the supply depot had been the right call. It meant their fight with Maven had been worth it. It meant their weeks of suffering through chaotic space had been worth it.
It was satisfying to see their actions having such an immediate impact.
Darrow let them peruse a little before he moved on. “Our actions even allowed three Tier 35 armies to be encircled and they are slowly being ground down.”
Matt looked at the indicated spots and smiled. That was the danger of advancing one Tier of the battlefield beyond the established battle lines. Without support from the surrounding armies, you were vulnerable to being collapsed on by a dozen armies at once, which was exactly what happened to the three worlds Darrow highlighted.
Odds were, once it was clear they weren’t going to be rescued, the armies would surrender. Then, they would either be traded for prisoners or kept as long-term prisoners to reduce the number of Tier 35 combatants on the enemy's side.
Matt was just proud to see their mission having a greater impact on the overall war. That was what Ascenders were supposed to do.
“As for our next missions, High Command believes that our expertise is best utilized in two places at once. To that end, we are splitting Team Zero in half, with the Ascenders being the cores of each team. Light, Shadow, Origami, Torment, Bulwark, and myself will make up one team, with Torch, Quill, Scoop, Stick, Stone, Bolt, and Drifter on the other. We will make a joint strike to Isseral and Qubai to relieve their respective sieges. Then we will diverge to our own separate missions.”
Allie leaned forward like that would make General Darrow tell them her mission faster. “The team that is going with me will be hitting three other planets in short order before we slip behind enemy lines to scare them into thinking we will attack another supply depot. If that scares the enemies like we believe, we will go and attack…”
General Darrow indicated a place deep inside Federation space. “Selkor Nine. It's a Federation training ground, and they train almost a twentieth of their Tier 25 armies in that system.”
Allie slammed the table. “Fuck yeah! Now that’s a mission! What if they don’t reinforce the local supply depots though? Are we going to hit them?”
General Darrow nodded. “That is an optional secondary objective, though it's deemed unlikely for obvious reasons. If such an opportunity does arise, we will most likely just burn the place down rather than trying to secure any goods. The enemy Great Powers will have counters in place to prevent what we accomplished from happening again so easily.”
Zack raised a finger indicating he had a question, and once Darrow acknowledged him, he asked, “What opposition do we expect from the Federation in Selkor Nine? A training ground can’t be so undefended that we can do as we like unimpeded, no?”
Darrow waved his hand, and a system read out sprung up. “Selkor Nine is part of a sector where life developed early, which means star systems are only a few light years apart and still moving in chaotic patterns. While that has its advantages, it means the system gets semi-frequent asteroid storms. Our current idea is to silently drift in along with the asteroids and then burn as many transport ships, training halls, data banks, and most importantly, newly formed battalions, as we can before we are forced to retreat.”
Allie looked like she wanted to object at the idea of retreating, but Darrow highlighted a system next to Selkor Nine. “Selkor Eleven is a healing center that’s stationed close by. They will be able to bring in millions, if not more, of well trained troops as reinforcements in a matter of hours. There is no doubt that we will be forced to retreat in short order.”
Before Allie could complain further, Darrow pointed to Selkor Eleven. “As we retreat, we intend to swing by Selkor Eleven and see if we can make any attacks of opportunity there, but it's unlikely that the Federation commanders will send out all of their troops to Selkor Nine. If they did, we will take actions that I decide are appropriate based on the situation we encounter.”
Darrow then turned his attention back to the other half of the room. Matt’s half. “As for the rest of you, your mission is a little more… Delicate.”
Matt raised an eyebrow at that, and his confusion was reflected by the rest of his half of Team Zero.
“Your mission is going to take you into Guild territory. There, you will link up with their commanders and assist them. We believe that they want to take and hold a shipyard to starve out a section of the battlefield, but the real goal will be…”
The screen Darrow changed, and a profile appeared with five people on it.
Klix Vutru, Fred Baxter, Cameron Chime, Dame-Askor, and Jastor Keys.
The five of them were old Federation elites on the level of Maven before her buff, but more than that, Klix and Dame-Askor were known for their similar Domains that slowed speedsters and teleporters alike. They had also set up a forward base deep inside Guild space, and the Federation was using it as a springboard to launch attacks on the supply lines.
Normally, the Guilds would have crushed such an outpost with numbers or sent their own peak elites to counter those stationed there, along with an army or two to outnumber the defenders. They had tried, but lost one of their own peak elites thanks to two of the Federation elites hiding their presences. Guild information sources suspected the Federation had at least two more peak elites there, which was why they were keeping the system contained rather than wiping it out.
Matt checked the dates and understood why Allie and Zack weren’t being sent to handle the situation. She could probably counter or at least deal with the anti-teleporting Domains, but the Federation had laid this trap for a decade and hadn’t sprung it or repurposed it yet, which almost guaranteed there was something more to it.
But a trap meant to take out Allie and Zack wasn’t going to be built to take out Matt and his team.
If things went well, they would spring the trap, take the bait, and kill a few peak elites in one fell swoop.
The idea was enticing.
“Your mission there is to spring the trap then kill as many of the peak elites as possible. Then, you will move with Guild forces and target a few of the more stubborn enemy stations.” Darrow opened his mouth but said nothing for a long moment. Matt wondered what made the usually steady man so conflicted, but he got his answer when Darrow half shrugged. “This is nothing more than a rumor that has made its way to me, but there is talk about the Guilds making a strike at Tera Torment as a tertiary objective. You will most likely be asked to assist in said strike.”
Matt looked at the provided information and winced as he saw Tera Torment was a Tier 26 peak elite, known for her curse spells that inflicted debilitating amounts of pain before killing the victims. The war had interrupted her advancement to the Tier 30 brackets, but she had continued her rampage in the war before popping in and out to advance her cultivation. If their information was correct, she was nearing the peak of Tier 26, which explained why the Guilds wanted to take her out before she was able to stabilize herself at Tier 27.
That was not going to be an easy fight, but if they could take her out, they could score a significant blow to the Sects.
“Officially, you will fall under Guild leadership, but you are free to accept or deny the mission as you see fit.”
Liz leaned forward and asked, “Is this why you’re not going with our half?”
General Darrow’s face remained expressionless as he said, “It is standard operating procedure to keep high level field commanders out of allied territory to prevent confusion in the chain of command. That said, I don't know enough about the situation to give an answer as to whether or not the secondary mission is a good one or not.”
Matt snorted. “The fact there are rumors means it's not a secret at all.”
Darrow grinned. “Exactly. And the Guilds know that. I’m sure even if their target is Tera Torment, the plan isn’t so simple as rumors are to be believed. You have discretion and can act as you see fit, but remember, the Guilds are our allies and aren't so foolish as to throw away millennia of goodwill by getting the three of you killed in a foolish strike. Still, they also have their own plans and objectives.”
Matt pondered the situation and came to the conclusion that Darrow didn’t know anything more than they did, and was powerless to change anything even if he could come up with a better plan.
That wasn’t a great feeling, but it also wasn’t unusual. They were Ascenders; they were expected to be able to handle themselves.
They ended up asking a few more questions that Darrow didn’t have the answers to before they were loaded up into their respective ships. Matt was happy to be traveling with Joy instead of the replacement pilot the other half of their team was going with.
Allie had to make two jumps, but she teleported both teams near their first objectives of Isseral and Aenixar.
One jump later, Matt heard Drifter call out, “Prepare for fire!”
Hearing that, Matt jumped to his feet and spread his spiritual perception.
Thankfully, things weren’t nearly as bad as he feared. Aenixar itself wasn’t under fire, which was his initial worry after hearing they were under attack the moment they jumped into the system. While it was incredibly rare for an inhabited planet to fall directly under attack, there were always exceptions to the rules that prevented such things. The easiest and most likely was if the Empire defenders decided to retreat to the inhabited planet for some reason, but that wasn’t the case here.
No, they had simply been redirected into an ambush that grabbed any people or ships who entered real space and pulled them away from the inhabited planet into a location deeper in space.
That was fine, though. Their shields could handle such an ambush and Drifter’s cannons were more than enough to cut a hole through the attackers.
More units moved in to engage with them, but Matt knew how to fix that. He poked his head out of one of the side hatches and shot a [Breach] at one of the chasing ships. The ship was too close; it simply evaporated as it was crushed by the siege spell that struck it head on.
That caused the rest of the pursuing ships to scatter, which meant they were free to fly to the outermost planet of the system that was under siege. The trap they had been pulled into had put them on the other side of the sun, which meant it took them a full two days to fly to the besieged plant, giving the attackers plenty of time to defend.
That didn’t mean they were any more prepared for them. As this was a Tier 25 world and there were no reported elites in the army, they fell like wheat under the farmer's scythe.
The battle was so quick and easy, it felt almost anti-climatic after their battle with Maven and her elites.
Those cultivators had been damn strong and had put up stiff resistance, while these troops were little more than spell fodder. Even their officers couldn’t stand up to more than a blow or two before falling.
And they weren’t even using their new weapons and armor, as they were saving those as a bit of a trump card for their attack in the guilds.
Aster could have killed her way through the army alone if she had wanted to, if she was using the boosts from their new gear.
Thankfully, the enemies were republic fighters, so they surrendered when it was clear that there was nothing they could do to stand in their way.
It was there that Matt really understood why Duke Waters disdained to fight at his own Tier. When most people were so much weaker than you that ending their lives took no more thought than killing a fly, it was hardly exciting to do so. It was just bullying the weak, and none of them could be bothered with that.
Once they relieved the siege of Aenixar, they reentered chaotic space and waited for the other half of Team Zero to meet back up with them.
To keep up the deception that it was Joy teleporting around the Empire with her ship instead of it being Allie and her Talent, the teleporter in question would be joining them just long enough to jump them into guild territory, then returning back to Empire space.
Allie sauntered onto their ship then flopped onto a couch. “Are you all ready?”
Joy laughed from her cockpit. “Are you?”
“I was born ready!”
Aster kicked the teleporter's booted foot nearlying causing her to stumble. “To be our taxi?”
Allie’s mood instantly turned sour and she tried to stab Aster, just to catch a face full of ice. Once she cleared her face of the ice, she grumbled, “Bunch of comedians around here.”
With a lurch, Matt felt their ship chance teleport, and the moment that happened, Allie popped to her feet.
“Well, have fun with the Guildies. Don’t come home wearing a cape, or I will judge you. I—”
Aster interrupted Allie once again, “You have a cloak, what’ss the difference between a cloak and a cape?”
Allie clenchedher heart and fell back like she was having a heart attack. “Betrayed b—” but before she hit the couch, she vanished.
Aster whooped, “And I got the last word in! Success!”
Matt shook his head and stepped away from his bond, expecting some prank to come down on her, but when nothing happened, he was even more impressed.
Tapping into the ship's sensors, Matt scanned the areas around them and got his bearings to their new location. Allie had only teleported clear across the Empire and five worlds into the Guilds territory in a matter of seconds. It should have taken them close to a year to cover that much distance if they needed to fly manually, but she had managed it without any real strain.
Sometimes, Matt wished he had her Talent rather than his own.
That level of utility was just insane.
It still took them another week of flying to reach their appointed meeting point, but they all used that time to work on their own personal projects.
Liz spent most of her time poking at her garden orb while Aster worked on her bloodline, as she intended to make the jump from winter to aurora in the coming days, while Matt was pulled into a project with Dena.
She wanted to find a way to integrate small mana stones into her wrap coverings and had enlisted Matt to help since Ai'la wasn’t there.
Matt had come to accept that he wasn’t a fantastic enchanter, but he was decent enough to help create small but slightly unstable mana stones that could be wrapped up in the cloth wraps that Dena preferred. Ai'la probably could have actually merged the idea into Dena’s wraps, but Matt wasn’t nearly so confident to touch the highly specialized cloth that was her armor. If he messed up, she would be weakened for the oncoming fights.
It was still a fun project, and spending the time with Dena and Eric was worth it on its own. And in the end, they did figure something out. Dena could flick small half a million mana stones at the enemies which would explode on impact.
She’d need the craftsman at Firmament to make a scaled-up version, but if things worked out as they wanted, it would give her a little extra utility.
They had mostly finished up when Joy called from the cockpit, “Time to perk up boys and girls. We have arrived at our destination.”
Matt tapped into the feeds to watch as they neared an ember in chaotic space before they slipped into real space.
He didn’t know what he expected, but a perfectly normal-looking system with a yellow star and standard planet was a bit of a letdown.
They weren't here on a sightseeing expectation, but he had still expected something more from his first visit to another Great Power.
From the little sigh Aster let out, she felt the same way.
There was only a single man waiting for them. His armor looked like cloth, or maybe latex, but Matt’s [AI] identified him as ‘Quicksilver’, which made him one of the Guilds’ strongest peak elites at their Tier.
The man seemed to split into six as he shook all of their hands. “Nice to meet you.”
Matt whistled at the show of power as he looked off to the side, where there didn’t seem to be anyone. The man hadn’t created clones of himself, he had simply been moving so fast that even Matt couldn’t see the blurs of his movement with his vision. He was only just able to catch the man’s movements with his spiritual perception, and through it, he noticed that the “real” Quicksilver was positioned a few feet away from them.
The hand he shook didn’t even feel wrong.
That thought tempted Matt to flare his Intent and see if he could lock the man down, but that would be an awful idea.
From the grin Aster shot him, he knew she felt his idle thought, and from her projected thought of freezing the hand engaged with her own, she had a similar thought.
Thankfully, Quicksilver dropped the act before it grew annoying and appeared where he really was, standing off a few feet to the side. “Sorry, it's so rare that I get to meet new people who don’t already know of the trick. I’m impressed you all picked up on my real spot though. Few do.”
Matt smiled in return while Liz asked, “I assume that you are acting as our liaison for this mission?”
“That is correct. You are a little early, so while we can just go to the headquarters and sit around, I figured it would be far more interesting to show you guys around the planet below.”
Joy shook her head. “Count me out. I appreciate the offer, but just point me in the direction of where your pilots hang out. I spent a deployment on a Guild border planet, so nothing of this is new to me.”
Quicksilver must have expected that, because he tossed Joy a small coin. “That will let you tap into the local AI network. As long as you stick to the green areas, you can go anywhere you want.”
Joy fingered the coin even as she turned and walked away, waving her thanks. That was a little more antisocial than Joy usually was, but he expected she wanted to pick the brains of the other pilots. The woman lived for her ship and ships in general.
Quicksilver looked around to the rest of them, and when none of them raised any objections to seeing the planet below, he led them to a teleportation formation. When they appeared on the surface, Matt let his spiritual perception spread.
He was initially worried the city was under attack, but seeing Quicksilver didn’t even flinch at the displays, Matt just watched.
The city itself seemed fairly similar to the Empire. This was a Tier 22 planet, so spatial expansion was used fairly extensively, but it wasn’t any more aggressive than what the Empire used. He didn’t recognize some of the shops, but most things, like armor and weapon shops, were standard enough that he had little issue recognizing them. It took him a little longer to realize that the building with a large vault containing slips of paper inside was a bank. Why they had that much physical currency, he didn’t know, but he saw at least two of the banks being robbed across the city.
And that was the largest difference between an Empire city and a Guild one, as far as he saw.
People were actively fighting each other all across the city. That would have never happened in an Empire city. As he watched, Matt almost thought it was an elaborate play, as everyone seemed to avoid killing each other. More importantly, they took special care to avoid the civilians, but the injuries they were taking seemed real enough. That, and while the civilians weren’t being harmed, some of them seemed seriously annoyed by it all and cursed both sides of the fighters.
Quicksilver chuckled at their expressions. “Ahh, that's perfect. Sorry, but everyone always has that reaction. This is part of our Path equivalent.”
Matt had to check the translation software but it hadn’t misstranslated Quicksilver's words.
“So you guys just fight each other in a city? I don’t get it.” Eric asked the question they were all thinking.
Quicksilver chuckled. “They are heroes and villains fighting it out for the hearts of the people, for fame, for clout, for power, for riches, for a million and one reasons. But yes. Our version of The Path isn’t so limited as yours. Let me back things up a bit, though. Our Path has people choose a side and then join a city where they fight for control. This is a Tier 6 through 10 city, which indicates the Tiers of anyone participating. You must choose a side first, heroes and villains are the largest two— though there are always independents, or Grays, as we sometimes call them— and then you fight each other for control of the cities. Villains steal resources which they can use to advance themselves while Heroes work to stop the villains, and if they are successful, they can take a portion of the goods for themselves. All of those actions earn the faction points. At the end of the month, the rifts around and in the city are distributed to the factions who give out rift slots to those who earned their side the most points. That's the basis of our Path. It's very combat-heavy, but those who do well earn fame and riches.”
Quicksilver gestured out to the left, and Matt focused on the group of people who were fighting a few streets over. “Do you see the small golden emblem on the girl in black suit? That means she is still a Hero candidate. That means she needs to source all her resources herself, similar to your own Path. If or when she falls off, she can trade that emblem for a silver one to show she was a Hero.”
Matt knew that system from the crafters on the Path of Ascension.
Dena nodded along before asking, “And the black emblems mean they aren’t on the Hero's path or whatever? How does that work?”
Quicksilver flexed his spiritual perception, which they all felt, and focused on the black emblem. “The black emblem means exactly that. They can participate, fight with the Heros and Villians, and do everything they can. They can and do get sponsored by companies, their families, Guilds, or any number of outsiders. It ensures there are always people for those still advancing as Heroes to fight. You must know how empty the brackets get after Tier 15.”
Morgan gestured to the other side, where a group was robbing a manufacturing company a few streets away. “What about the ‘villains’? They seem more disruptive than anything else. Why tolerate them at all?”
Quicksilver chuckled. “That's a common question, but ask yourself, are people uniformly good? Are all people trying to help others? No, of course not. Besides, how can you have a hero without a villain? Darkness is nothing without light, and light means nothing if there is no darkness. You need contrast and conflict for growth. I was a villain when I was in the games.”
That surprised Matt and Quicksilver chuckled at their expressions. “I was a small child who was a little too hyper and not very socially aware. That got me bullied. It should have stopped there, but things escalated when there was a wanna-be hero who saw me as a wanna-be villain. He painted me as worse than I was and then tormented me with everyone's approval, simply wanting to be liked by someone they thought would be a great hero. I tried to deny it, but few villains admit they want to be a villain, especially at that age. When they didn’t listen I started reacting, sometimes violently, but that only made me seem even more like a wanna be villain, which proved his point. It wasn’t helped by the fact he kept escalating things any chance he got, and when we were given the opportunity to join the games, we both did as everyone expected. And so, I became what they expected of me. A Villian. He became a Hero, and people loved him for it.”
Matt felt like another shoe was about to drop and waited. Quicksilver didn’t seem bitter anymore, and Matt had seen the socially awkward kid get pushed out of social circles at the orphanage. He hadn’t been one to do it, but he had seen it.
“Eventually, he showed his true side when he captured a Villian, Heratio, and he skinned her alive. He saw nothing wrong with it because she was bad and he was good; therefore, anything he did was justified.”
Quicksilver raised his hands as if expecting them to object, which Matt was about to do. “When that came to light, the higher-ups came down on him like a ton of bricks, but it proves my point. All who wear white aren’t good people, and those who wear black might not be evil. About fifteen percent of Villains are just on that side because it's fun to be bad in a controlled way. As long as they follow the rules, no one will punish them for knocking over a bank or doing other such things. Frankly it's a great stress relief for kids like me, who just needed a bit more time to grow up and an environment where we could burn off some of the resentment we built up. I mean shit, I wouldn’t like young me that much, but that kind of realization only comes with age and experience.”
Aster leaned forward to peer around Liz and asked, “What about the civilians? Aren’t they bothered by all of this?”
Matt expected Quicksilver to deny it, but he agreed with Aster. “They definitely are, but they signed up for this. Only a few cities on a planet are given over to the games, and civilians flock here thanks to the economic opportunities here. Look around, and you will notice nobody is under the age of twelve. Like your own Path, it's opt in.”
Morgan cocked her head at that. “You've said that a few times now. Have you been to the Empire before?”
Quicksilver laughed. “Exactly right. I spent a century making my way through the Empire when I reached Tier 15. It was part of my guild’s training exchange program. It was a good time, and was part of the reason I’m personally doing introductions. I understand Empire culture pretty well, and I won’t get offended if you ask questions that might be taboo.”
Matt laughed slightly and asked what he thought might be of one of those questions. “Do you guys stop the villains or grays from winning back to back or too often if they are on a winning streak that doesn't seem able to be defeated? You know, to keep the idea that good always triumphs alive in the watcher and civilians?”
Quicksilver denied that with a shake of his head. “Maybe some guilds who oversee a city do that, but I’ve never heard of it. In fact a city falling completely to one side makes it a prime target for reconquest for the other cities. It makes for a great show, siege, and points. Frankly, everyone loves when it happens, as we haven't seen a city locked down like that since the last true, Hero One Step Behind, rose to fame. Though, he was a gray who always played for whichever side was weaker in whatever city he was in, so it didn't happen often. But every once in a while, he would just crush everyone and stand undefeated to remind everyone who was really in charge.”
Aster leaned forward and asked a way better question. “What about bonds at low Tiers? I know I was still pretty aggressive when it came to fighting and would have happily killed anyone I saw as a threat or hated. I remember wanting to kill most fire based beasts even out of a fight, but during a fight there was little holding me back. Seems dangerous.”
“Fun question. Generally, collars that can freeze a bond are worn until they get enough mental faculties that they can control themselves. The collars don't hurt them but can make them go limp for a moment, which is usually enough for them to wake up out of any bloodlust they might be in. if they go in for the kill a second time, they just get sent into dreamland.”
They spent a few more hours walking through the city and seeing the sights, but all of their attention was drawn to the constant battles between ‘capes’, as seemed to be the catch-all term for the villains, heroes, and neutrals.
After all, the city was massive and there was always something going on.
Watching low Tiers fight should have been boring, but Matt was incredibly entertained. Everyone here was low Tier, but it was fun to see people return to the basics and see those with an early Concept running around like gods until they ran into a larger group, and were forcefully reminded that a Concept was just a portion of one's power.
They even started betting on which side would do better, which made Quicksilver laugh, as that was a common habit of spectators both foreign and domestic. Betting made one feel like they were part of the game and got people far more invested.
Sadly, their sightseeing only lasted two days before they were brought back to the moon, where they got their debriefing.
There was still a war ongoing.
Maybe they could sightsee after the war, but first they needed to end the war for that to be a possibility.
***
If anyone has any cool mission ideas throw them in the comments.
Comments
Crjourdan
Matt could create rifts on an enemy base and cause rift breaks of high tier monsters.
Zadar Thule
The Emperor could just copy it from 3 system away.
Pannath
There is a good chance he could become Emperor, or by the time he's that tier the Empire will already have at least 1 tier 50 world from his efforts and seriously overpower the other 'great' powers... so Matt will probably be able to get to tier 50 before he Ascends, if he doesn't he's pretty much screwed. Even if he pulls a Sword Saint and Ascends with an Inspiration to get to tier 51, that's like being a tier 2 in the Higher Realm... at that point people will have heard of him from other Ascenders unless the Empire can somehow kill everyone hostile to Matt from other powers once the information on his talent gets out until he's able to Ascend himself... which is pretty much impossible. Matt will be in a Race to gain tiers quickly and stay off people's radar unless the higher realm has powers and rules that prevent higher tiers from fighting with lower tiers.
Nicholas Grey
Then they find out what it actually does, and it’s actually really good - so now they have to make the choice between using it (and cringing internally whenever they do), or earning a huge favour from Mara and Leon…
Nicholas Grey
“There *used to be* a mountain called Mt Tai here… until Matt saw it.”
Nicholas Grey
Yeah, that’s actually a reasonable concern. Doesn’t matter if he becomes powerful enough to protect himself, if there’s going to be an inevitable power rank reset when he Ascends. He’s going to have to ensure he’s allowed to Tier up as high as possible before Ascending. (Ie, not Ascending at 45, but preferably at least 47. Maybe special dispensation to Tier up to 48-49)
Richard Loveless
Mission: ambush part 2. Basically MLA get caught behind enemy lines. The Sect try to bury them in bodies. They try to run them out of resources. MLA show what being endless really means. The top empire generals stop considering them unseasoned ascenders.
Donan The Barbarian
Kinda but also not really, they're attacking military training grounds and hospital systems, I get the feeling they're only targeting the facilities but not actually any non active combatants in said facilities, sure the hope is that many of the less well trained individuals in the training grounds will attempt to stop them so that light and shadow can eliminate them as well as for partially healed troops to attempt to intervene so they can be injured further so they're stuck in the back lines longer their not really counting on more than damaging the facilities to show the training of new combatants and the return to the front of the injured.
Richard Loveless
Mission idea: Team up with Duke waters, and attach a Ship Yard deep, deep, behind enemy lines. They have to team up with Duke waters because the ship yards are T15 -T35. MLA fight those T25-T30. Duke Waters deals with everyone T31-T35. Those below T24 are spared. A large part of the mission is judging the tier of their opponent so they don’t accidentally punch up too far or punch down.
Richard Loveless
Mission: bribery? A rumor is started that Matt would be willing to switch sides for the right price. Matt takes the bribe, but doesn’t switch sides. He has to fight his way back to the empire territory.
Richard Loveless
A quick brainstorm of mission ideas. Mission: deploy a need of spy drones deep behind enemy lines. Mission: sneak onto a cargo ship and ride along to a supply depo. The trick is not getting caught since they don’t go directly to the depo. Mission: mana battery. Matt get stationed on a crafters world to pump out mana with his concept which is well known about. Matt gets bored and attacks the nearest T27 battlefield to relieve the stress. Mission: civil war? Matt and the team engage in a little diplomacy get a vassal kingdom to switch sides during the war. Diplomacy starts civilly, but ends up being aggressively negotiations. Mission: Matt learns to fly. They set a trap instead of trying to trigger a trap. Matt hides as a normal pilot in the regular troops. When attacked he reveals himself. Surprise!!!!
Ian Goforth
Using the espionage skills to crash an event to discover the identity of a high ranked spy.
James Meredith
Mission idea. What about a POW rescue?
Jacob Cox
Is light and shadow's mission to attack schools and hospitals? Could be a way for enemies to spin things for propaganda.
Kenneth
I am officially petitioning for a resident visa on one of these worlds. This sounds AMAZING.
austin kutz
No echoes chapter today?
Caelum
Mission Idea: One of the enemy's elites just became tier 25 and their space manipulation talent has evolved to let them control and redirect chaotic space. They are being used to create shortcuts to the heartland of the empire. New hit and run tactics are severely damaging R&D bases, supply and ship yards. This is a major set back for the empire. Mission: capture the individual who has this talent and bring him to the emperor. Kill only as a last resort.
Haikaiko
The Sect is not known for their tolerance of foreigners, nor for their wasteful largess, so Planet Euphoria is a bit of a strange outlier. Technically part of the war effort and responsible for supplying luxury goods for trade, Euphoria has always maintained the policy of allowing anyone -- whether Empire or Guild or even from the Kingdom -- to visit and enjoy taking in a heavily airbrushed version of Sect hospitality, culture, and heritage. As Torch and Quill have known experience busting Sect cults and rousing up influencers and infiltrators, they have been sent with Shadow on a two month vacation to Euphoria to unwind after their contributions so far, and as a token gesture to pretend that they are more injured and exhausted than they're letting on. Along the way, they'll also extract or execute an Empire defector suspected of selling secrets to maintain their lifestyle, continue a line of communications with HQ and return to base for odd missions between public outings, attempt to unveil Euphoria's dirty Sect laundry, and of course bring Light back a souvenir, seeing as how Euphoria's governor possesses the only known example of the Tier 3 "Pitch" elemental nature and attempts to reverse engineer it have all failed.
MinE
P.s Robots definitely exist since during one of the challenges in The Forge they mentioned how annoying space age non-essence civilizations were.
MinE
Murder trees have right, so I assume any robot/golem with intelligence that isn’t inflicted with rift madness is good.
Bob Bryan
To risky, especially for Matthew. If something goes wrong and they figure out his talent to early, things go bad fast. Would be a very cool idea though..
Sawyer
A little late but an escort mission to bring in a bunch of defectors who are willing to give away sect and federation secrets. Plus be cool
NeverNaught
Mission: destroy main highway hub. Target: teir 28 sects or republic planet with a ridiculous amount of connections to other planets, and so far into their territory that even if it disrupts space highway they can go reroute everything around. But since accenders offered themselves up, Enemy surrounds planet with hundreds of thousands of backline and reserve units. MLALS disrupts teleport network and deploy BFG that matt uses to shoot anything coming into system. Once Enemy undoes teleport sabbatoge they initiate human wave tactics to berry them in bodies. It's not a war crime the first time: severing a systems connections to other worlds should be a huge crime b/c of possibility of loosing said planet in chaotic space is loss for all and would set bad precident. Matt use Aster aspect to freeze connections. Once blitz happens it's has "unintended side effects" of collaping the connections b/c of ridiculous amount of enemy's porting in system. Could have the planet completely adrift in warp, or could also "accidently" streagthen its most out in the boonies connection to make the planet drift out of position and ruin the network. Effect: reroutes and strands hundreds of thousands of teir 25-28 well into the back lines on a planet drifting out of network. MLALS avoid war crimes b/c it was technically the massive influx of enemy's that broke the connections. I would think the sects would fall for this one better than the republic, and the federation is like punching down in this war.
Noah Swanson
A mission where they have to go undercover as villans/heros to find enemies that are hidden in Guild territory. Maybe have them going off script and conquesting the entire city for fun.
Pannath
I just realized something that hasn't been mentioned. Matt was afraid of being put in a box, and he has people like the Emperor looking out for him. And they are afraid of the above tier 35 war that will break out once his talent is found out. What they didn't mention is that once his Talent is found out they have to STOP EVERYONE that isn't on his side from ever ascending. Because even if the Empire wins but someone is able to Ascend to get away from them, once he Ascends and becomes tier 51... he'll be in the higher realms with tiers 51-100 and there the previous Ascenders could have warned others about him. He'll be like a tier 1 again in a new realm of people who want to put him in a box.
Violet
I think it works better as a counter quip once the mountain is gone. "You have eyes, but you cannot see Mount Tai!" "Well, not anymore..."
Pannath
I am curious what the limits of resources they can get their hands on by robbing banks and taking over cities, if it's only limited money at a tier which pretty much has to be used for Rift access. Maybe the sponsorships are like having a management team? Anything more would seem like cheating the system. I'm not sure though
Tommy
Would love to see some sort of mission where Matt and team sneak into occupied territory to liberate high worth individuals. They get them out but then Shit goes sideways, Aster gets into trouble and Matt unleashes the absolute fury tearing the planet in half
Tommy
They aren’t going to dispute it being better because they know it isn’t, and they are aware that their system being the best and Matt being a mana fountain will soon Lead to a realm wide mega war (I think)?
Tommy
As long as Matt says when he see’s it “I had eyes but I could not see mount tai… until now!” Or something similar 😂😂
Violet
More like Mount Tai'n't
Bob Bryan
Also in book 5 chapter 35, wherever that would have equated to in the chapters before they were taken down. Carol lists out all the different groups from all the different factions to queen. Pg. 529
Jana
Another Idea - Light can change his manatyps and he is ascenderlevel good at it. There should be a mission to secure manasamples of elite enemies, so he can learn to imitate them. That would allow him to imitate these elites and place false traces of possible treason or redirect espionage accusations towards certain enemies. - maybe mix up the Ascender teams. Yes the synergy would likely lack a little as they didn’t fight together for so long. But I would the sheer possibility would make it even harder to plan traps for the Ascender teams.,
Mister Cakers
Mount Tai’n (pronounced mountain)
Aaron Hardin
One of the Sect planets has a mountain called Mount Tai. MLA have a mission there and they blow up the mountain after being told they are courting death.
Jonathan Robichaux
This one!!!
Neil
This is actually a great idea, could fool them into believing his talent is infinite mana pool or something.
Dion Crump
The sects have a T27 planet that is about to bloom the never blooming Lilly, only blooms once in tens did thousands of years. It beats with the pulse of a planets core. MLA sneak in and steal it before the sects get to utilize the resource
Jeff091
hi, thanks for the new chapter typo fly to the besieged plant, plant-->planet --------------------------- ia-->ai 2* Villian-->Villain Villians-->Villains -------------------------- All who wear white aren’t good people, currently i read it as "Of all who wear white none is good people," -->Not all who wear white are good people, or-->Those who wear white aren’t all good people,
Pannath
When Quicksilver claimed their system was better than the path, I'm surprised Matt or Liz didn't point out the big discrepancy. The Hero's / Villains are stealing/recovering extra resources Pathers don't have access to, and can get outside assistance (sponsorships) that Pathers don't have access to... doesn't that extra advantage make them weaker than someone on the Path who had to make their own way? Also can't they use rift mana stones/resources as currency to buy rift slots or are they forced to do this extra layer?
Jana
If you lack information you shouldn’t accuse others of spouting „Bull“ - it’s your mistake so own up to it instead of sarcastically downplaying it. You were wrong.
bioenthusiast
What about a mission where we see the guilds versions of nobles, like an undercover working with the enemy type thing.
Envoy
You must have meant "a sightseeing EXPEDITION" instead of expectation right? You said that right when Matt's team arrived in guild territory and he's let down by the sight.
E S
Rogue space being (like the celestial dragon only less OP) interrupts a battle and MLA, guildies, corporation mercs, and whoever else have to team up to take it down. Still fending off occasional non-friendly fire but having to prioritize taking the space leviathan down overall leading to some minor overtures. Or feuds, depending on how it falls out
Valter Anunciação
Ho you mean the literally l skipable filler stuff that doesn't matter... Sure huge reveal
Jana
During the minkalla arc, in the recap of folded reflections for other participants- one of the runesoldiers has a life as a Guild Hero, he joins the Guilds as a result - so yes, the reveal was long ago.
Collin Straka
Use missions as a chance to explore different writing styles? Casino heist Noir PI Time loop Computer game (I want to see more about that VR situation) Large battle command vs individual power
Havokk
Id love to see them get a mission to rescue a high value defector who just happens to have a skill shard for "Vigorous Thrusts of the Rooster"
RedeyeA
But what is with the "my real spot" thing then? If he is just rapidly repositioning to create the duplicates, how is the real spot any different than the other spots? And why would it be less noticeable? Does he create a clone that can move really fast? Or maybe he creates a bunch of clones and applies illusions to make it seem like he is doing speedster duplication for some reason.
Allen
A couple of mission ideas. POW rescue operation. Or maybe have someone get captured like Dena or Eric and the mad dash to get them back. A false flag operation to get the other GPs thinking they are going to invade/big operation in one sector, but really they are invading from another side. Another idea would be getting a "Enigma Machine" type of mission that helps the Empire intercept messages/codes for enemy mail.
Wool
If it was a civilian planet, I’d agree. If it’s a battle planet / moon, they’re fair game.
Alex
Thank you for the chapter!
Zachary Blevins
And I remember one of the child soldiers defected several books ago. We never got an update on that kid. I’m sure that’s a future story, but it would still be an interesting update. What is the programming been like does he just want to live his own life or does he want to go in save his brothers and sisters who are still being brainwashed, good little soldiers for their uncaring master
Zachary Blevins
An update on what her older brothers and sisters are doing I think I’d like to see something like a mouse trap like Matt and Elizabeth and scoop love that name by the way are on some kind of layover when a attack, takes place, and the enemies are all like we got this in the bag blah ha, ha, ha, ha and then holy crap Where did these ascenders come from?
Bob Bryan
Actually maybe one of the groups have a shipment of rare or unique skills that are only available in their section and are using it to pay one of the other powers for something. Matt and the rest can steal them causing issues between the enemy powers while also getting stronger
Valter Anunciação
Bull. Say the chapter cause no it didn't.
Bob Bryan
Mate this revel that the guilds were heroes happened years ago by this point. This is kind of like getting mad at an aquarium because you didn't know it was full of fish.
Andre cook
Have we got to there ascenders names yet or are they staying the same
Andrew K
A series of deep strikes to massively disrupt operations in some set of systems that collectively act as a key transit/logistics bottleneck for a major front. Long-term disruption could be justified by doing something that makes entering/exiting the systems in question much more difficult (e.g. using some sort of experimental devices with mana costs anyone by Matt would consider ruinously expensive, or maybe something involving Matt collapsing some stars). Not really a mission per se, but if there are any infiltration missions or the like, I'll be disappointed if there isn't some form of "target of opportunity" event involving something funny like Aster stealing some ice cream recipes.
Anime Problem
A really fun mission would be having Matt and Zach aspect a shipment of gear to slightly flawed unstable mana types causing the equipment to backlash on the users and having Allie sneak it into an evemy stronghold to replace the enemies supplies and then having regular troops assault the place
Ryan Berends
A surprise attack could happen on a planet they are on or near and famous Villains and Heros could team up with our ascenders.
Tristan R Mitchell
Matt has the option of refusing missions, as an Ascender, and that is probably too close to what happened on Lily for him to participate. It is also like what happened on the planet the Sects were infiltrating, which Matt derided for the Lily aspect and the terrorist aspect.
Ryan Berends
Could there be a Heros or villains group or faction they join to do an assault on the enemy’s of the empire. Breaking a hostage or hostages out if the guild lost people in a battle.
DisgruntleFairy
The Guilds version of the path may actually be better than the Empires. The Hero/Villian system allows for lots of practice against other people. It allows both sides to get resources other than rift delving. It may allow for a wider range of skill sets to be developed. It also gets pathers used to loosing, which is in itself a good skill to have. It also generates a lot of media and public attention which increases public support.
Chioke Nelson
I would love to see this.
Nick Mcbroom
A good mission.. have a true Villian rise who is trying to flip a planet or a group over to the enemies side. With was being ongoing the guilds need to respond quickly forcing them to ask Matt and Co. for assistance
StabAlloy
You know aside from Drifter we haven't seen too many machine-themed Talents. The Guilds seems like the perfect faction for a robotics themed character. It's easy to picture a villainous drone overlord
Beardo
Mission ideas? Sneak behind lines to a poor planet not well guarded, dump craptons of mana in storage devices at overrun hospitals with some kind of the guilds/empire care propaganda
Kain
He is doing that thing just he’s moving so fast he’s actually over in a different position as well as shaking all of their hands? I think.
Tener
Raiding some unique resource facility might be nice. Something Empire has no easy access to, but could provide some measure of boost or deprived other GP of their own strategic resource. Stealing a planet wholesale? Perhaps doable through Origami artificing, Allie teleportation powers, Matt providing trillions of mana, Zack helping to stabilize the entire working. Alternatively, just blowing up a few places entirely, through brute force or the like. Minkalla was a great concept as a World Wonder... Maybe another place of lesser renown, but equally ancient?
Wool
Stealth insertion of Matt onto a T25 planet. Raises the tier of multiple T25- rifts to like T30 and then let all the rift break monsters take out the opposition. Might pair well with the mana storage caper suggested above
Alfcam
A mission to sneak unto a planet behind front lines, one that is historically symbolic maybe but not a civilian one obviously, and then have Matt cause a lot of Rift breaks to overwhelm the enemy there. It could serve a propaganda purpose to show that that Great Power is weak and not even in control of their own worlds and allow Matt to fuck around with Aperology again.
crusty pickle
Prison break mission? Go behind enemy lines and rescue prisoners of war. Destroy a major shipyard. Lay an ambush for elite strike team wreaking havoc. Locate missing planet? Spearhead a counter-assualt from a massive army. Rescue a few flying fortresses running low on mana. Wreck a few planets. Investigate a few enemy rifts with interesting rumors. Make a few rifts with mana signatures from other ascenders and have low tier people use them (just for fun)
Elshadai Mekonnen
And if they get caught in the middle of the infiltration mission and have to brute force there way out
CringeWorthyStudios
Gods, same. Seems so much more fun. I don’t even care about “evil,” I just would love the chaos and shenanigans you could get up to without hurting anyone.
Wumpy
More like Cops and Robbers on a grand scale.
Scott Lyon
Forced downtime between missions for reasons, maybe healing cd, then the gang acts as guest judges for a hero villain tournament
Tetrasimplex
I think I'd like to see some sort of infiltration mission where they sneak into a base and sabotage something. With all the training they did related to that, it would be nice to see it put to use somehow now that they are finally ascenders. It would offer an especially cool perspective into a side of ascenders that people don't see, because they are always viewed as pretty lound and abrasive to authority. I can't imagine these kinds if missions don't exist for them.
Will Saye
Maybe hit a POW camp or POW transport thats holding a Guild Elite/Team whos popular with the people
Sacchito22
Ascenders spar vs a hero and villan that both think themselves to be better than they are, infiltrate a Dr. Evil style volcano lair to "save the world," scope out a subversive secret club in the middle of the city where it turns out a group of introverted capes just stop by, hang it up for a short time in a nook of a cafe that might be targeted by an up and coming mind controller who has their own designs for the higher tier patrons, Liz breaking into every art museum in the city to steal things simultaneously while Matt and Aster hold the city hostage with a doomsday bomb (just a big mana crystal Matt made, wrapped in a black housing), then being asked to settle a pseudo-DC vs Marvel argument between city officials. Tons of options out there to explore.
Bender
Love the Guild's Path. I'd be a Villain for sure.
Violet
And yes, I already have a ship name for Matt/Liz: Hemophilia (Because the bleeding never stops)
RedeyeA
How does Quicksilver’s clone thing work? At first it seems like he was doing the “move fast enough to leave afterimages” thing, but then they find the real him. Is the trick that he actually just uses clones?
Violet
Mostly joking, but looking for "good" ship names for Aster/Allie. My picks thus far: "Shady Ice Cream", "Black Ice" (also a good combat duo name given that their combo would be typified by ice suddenly showing up where it shouldn't), "Rocky Road Taxis" (because both would hate it), and "Cookies and Cream".
Benjamin Gallagher
It would be cool if we saw a mission revolving around an ascension. We already know the empire encourages ascensions in outlying regions, and we assume thats the case for other great powers. What if there is someone who wants to ascend, but their homeworld was taken over during this war due to the empire being pushed back, and so they sponsor a push basically to take back their homeworld so they can ascend?
Valter Anunciação
Not bloody super heroes. God Damm I was never closer to dropping this novel
Jessica
A rescue mission in enemy territory. Maybe a team of scientists or elites that have a much needed Talent for the war. I'm not super creative, so do with this what you will. 😃
MikeL
I’m hoping we get to see Claude meet up with MLA.
Ryan Romano
That makes sense, I was just trying to get a feel for which powers shared borders, and if say the Clans or monster collective decided to enter the war would they have to move through another power to attack
Alex
At T15 they can finally become a real boy
sambee
Hitting Mana storage facilities could be a good way to fool most of the other great powers about Matt’s talent. He could pretend that weaken slightly before hitting a mana site and become very strong after.
da Finnci
How about an infiltration mission where MLA explore the Feds / Republic / Sects as "normal" people or maybe join the army as T25 recruits
Bob Bryan
Cat turns out to be Luna and is very annoyed about her nap being interrupted.
Bob Bryan
Maybe lead to some unique or rare skill or national treasures.
C_Mantis
There is a 'map' I made in paint in five seconds in the discord but its hard because each GP is more like a stellaris map with points in a 3D grid than a map on a planet.
Ryan Romano
Would it be possible to get a basic map of the borders? just something basic, like the general area of each power and maybe where minkalla is? pretty please. Also for a mission, maybe a trap? Sneak them into a siege, and then have one of the Guilds Dena equivalents make a stand and draw out a bunch of elites and then crush them and their armies.
T
Maybe some prison breaks or resistance support Matt could fund a strike like ventrilla 10 times over spending a week anywhere the most outlandish idea: precision strike aka spy gets critical info our guys go in and blow shit up
Alex
Matt can go build giant realm spanning teleportation arrays once he's got a few more tiers. Mana cost won't be an issue :) And it won't be suspicious that they managed to do a years worth of traveling in an instant? Well, maybe a few weeks from outside perspective which is still too fast. Joy hasn't shown capabilities like that in the past. She was Aidens pilot too, so the enemy should have a decent understanding of her powers.
SunStar
A world tree.
brennon Petersen
Tftc!
Jana
Interesting mission ideas: - How about a capture mission against a corporation mercs team? The Corporation is so far neutral and I bet the empire wants to either keep them that way or sway them. Capturing an elite merc team alive and sending them over again as a thanks for JRs gift for Matt would be a gesture of goodwill as well as a power demonstration. - I remember one of the first gen Runesoldiers joining the guilds after minkalla, since Matt and Liz are already there and Matt is known for his talismans maybe he gets to take a look? - This one is a bit more devious, find a planet between to allied enemies and have Matt sneak in some really good rifts, boobytrap them and than tell both great powers to incite conflict among enemies, blow them up before someone really gets control and make sure to blame the losing enemy for the blow up As soon as I have more ideas that aren’t outright warcrimes I’ll post them. :-)
Drew H.
Is there a plot line where they got to blend in as or with the Heroes/Villains, pretending to be Light and Shadow? I cannot think of a reason why, but I would love to see Aster pretending to be a hero candidate impersonating Light. Plus, I would love to see how Light and Shadow react later. Would probably be fantastic
Louis McIntyre
Instead of just stealing supplies, they could hit manufacturing locations and disable our destroy those targets. Communications related are good targets, take out enough to disrupt a section of space. Set their own traps to lure elites into. Maybe purposely "over extend" to lure a response.
Neil
Capturing a mana storage facility seems like the right level of silliness I can get behind for Matt. Mysteriously completely full after being captured.
Anime Problem
I kinda want a mission with Matt and Zack against some Elite mage killers and Liz Aster and Allie hunting down some Elites with insane regeneration decent battles of attrition for them that shows off their strengths while also testing them with working in different groups
C_Mantis
lol. Now all I can think of is a youtube skit about how superman was the one putting cats in trees. I wish I could find that now cause damn it was funny
Colin Groh
I loved the supply depot raid, Origami working on all the containers and frantically keeping them stable was epic. I think with these secrecy-driven constraints on how often they show up, it would be awesome if they did something defensive/preparatory, laid their own trap. Thinking something with Origami's fortress project and Scoop's Ice Domain. It would be a badass Aster chapter if she got to defend an actual frozen world all on her own, maybe with a lower squad of like Elites (Maven Level) that she can super-support so that they can be pseudo-Ascenders against a suppressed army. I've really enjoyed the interaction of their powers and studying together, so seeing Light, Matt, Origami all working together on some specialty aspected defensive fortresses or something would be phenomenal, or Matt using his mana generation for stuff similar to Dena's new fun million mana pebbles, and giving those to an army. Being a force multiplier for more than just Team Zero, since all of them have such excellent utility talents. That begs the question, if Liz can so easily overwhelm the blood inside enemies, can she blood alchemy buff all her allies and army if they allow her to own their blood? Or would the blood be Liz and always kill them?
Alex Matheny
My first instinct when asked for mission idea went to rescuing a cat from a tree.
Gunnar Crider
You could do an SCP type mission. Abandoned facility that has weired spacial stuff and freaky stuff in it. It could be in a strategic place so multiple GPs want to conquer it, instead of destroy it.
Bob Bryan
Do robots exist and could they eventually join the path? Quicksilver lead me to vision and the thought immediately popped into my head of a robot gaining sentience and wanting to join the path. Is that a thing, would they be free to do so or would they need permission from their owner?
Alex
A day in rift in only 3hrs on the outside. Considering that it takes weeks to get to the emergencies, 3hrs shouldn't matter that much. Its a balance act. A lot of people can die in 3hrs, but also Ascenders are probably less likely to make mistakes if they're not rushed into missions but have a bit of time to settle themselves before.
MikeL
NO capes!
Pararably
You could explore Matt’s ability to make portals. Basically make a portal and release semi-false intelligence to the other big factions about the rifts capabilities to make a kind of reverse Trojan horse arc. Essentially drawing attention and resources from other parts of the war.
Tomi .
First !
