John Williams
Stories
9
Chapters
3,072
Words
1.2 M
Comments
0
Reading
4 d, 2 h
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Raine looked upward as what Cato termed a She flinched, but it wasn’t as loud as she expected. Instead of simply shattering against the ground or embedding itself in the earth, the bottom compacted with a strange hissing, crackling noise. Mist plumed outward from the metal as frost formed on its surface, though she had no idea why it was so deathly cold. A moment after it landed, the metal side tore apart and a quarter-sized Cato-beast emerged, carrying several packs of what were likely supplies, along…-
186 •
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“Come on, you two. There’s four of me, no reason I can’t do four things.” Raine glanced up at the low rumble of the beast-Cato. Indeed, the other three versions were talking with three Platinums at once, filling the streets with the deep tones of Cato’s voice. It was incredibly strange to see him treating titans like Arene Firewing and Onswa the Unstoppable in the exact same manner as he treated Raine and Leese, as if their rank didn’t matter at all. But perhaps that was the privilege of the…
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186 •
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Cato watched the planet through ten thousand eyes. Most of those eyes were mindless drones, tiny scouts doing little more than beaming sensor data back toward satellites, where it was ingested by analysis software and processed for the version of himself on the moon. The warframe bodies didn’t need to worry about that and it would be a waste of bandwidth anyway, as they could just inherit the decisions made by the moon version of himself. Dozens of his tiny, high-flying spy-eyes had already been…
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186 •
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If they weren’t going to play nice, neither was he. When there was a burst of thermal energy and the spy satellite watching the village saw everyone leave the System Nexus without the frame, it was obvious what had happened. Cato didn’t have a direct connection to the version of himself on the ground, but that was due to limits he couldn’t exceed without triggering the quest or tipping his hand. Now that he had to use force, the quest didn’t matter. Certain satellites in the network he’d built…
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186 •
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“This is probably going to feel like someone is sitting on you,” Cato told his passengers as he ran through the final checks on their descent craft. Everyone was strapped into the small compartment, and while it ran against the grain to have biologicals on board with no proper vacuum suits, such suits would become dead weight once the System kicked in. Instead they were all wearing lightweight composite armor, which was both System-compatible and would be useful once they reached the surface. There…
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186 •
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Cato really tried his best not to eavesdrop on his guests. He was perfectly capable of it, given how laden the habitat was with sensors just as a matter of course. Pressure sensors, light sensors, all the normal things to ensure there were no sudden emergencies from a stray micrometeorite or a moonquake. As any neophyte knew, speech was merely waves through the air, so it really wasn’t any effort at all to decode the readouts from the room the Sydeans had retreated to. After being given the first taste…
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186 •
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Raine Talis of the Gosruk Guardians woke with a start. She sat bolt upright in an unfamiliar bed, flinging off the sheets in one convulsive motion as she tried to defend herself from a threat that was no longer there. Her hands flew to her chest and her neck, but everything was intact despite her last memories, of the horrible jaws coming for her and the tearing grief of her sister’s scream. Adventuring instincts made her check herself over, and then her location, taking stock of injuries and dangers.…
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186 •
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Onswa frantically sorted through the notifications and controls on his interface, trying to finish the last orders as the essence counter ticked down. He knew there would be no point in trying to guard the portals manually, not when Platinums or Bismuths could come through at any moment, so the best he could do was create incentive for people to be away from Kalhan to avoid any frustrated offworlders. He was still in the middle of spending what essence remained in the reserves on special and explanatory…
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186 •
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Arene watched from a distance as the group of High Copper kids carefully approached the nigh-invisible bird-thing as it perched by a creek, drinking in water. Despite being cut from the same cloth as the Ahruskian menace, such birds didn’t seem to offer any real danger, though they were quite skittish. The group pounced, the mage entrapping it with a watery cage while the bulwark fighter attacked it with a spear. Like with all the others, it silently slumped and began to melt, turning into some sort of…
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186 •
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Arene woke with a jolt, surging to her feet in a single instant, summoning her Skills and casting out her perceptions — but the thing was long gone. She wasn’t even certain what to actually call it, since apparently the System didn’t know. The only result had given her was just a blank query, not even a failed attempt. She summoned a , which took the form of a torch flame given the influence of her other , and apprised herself and her surroundings. She ached all over, but even that was rapidly…
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186 •
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