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💾 Archived View for gemini.ctrl-c.club › ~michal_atlas › posts › mlxan › chronicles-of-astartis.gmi captured on 2024-08-25 at 01:11:40. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

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Standing in this hall, the air is much staler than I had expected, as my consciousness dips slightly, I remember very well… a moment.

I was leaning upon my office door, reading the change-log of current law, looking smart, looking loyal. I was called by the loudspeaker to my superior’s office. I scramble through the camp as to not keep him waiting. I enter as is apt for my post, with a salute on my chest and the words “Sir, Fjäderklädd Christopher Gosling reporting”. “At ease”, he replied “you are no longer my problem, tommorow you are to board the High-train, head for Daemon and report directly to the vice-secretary of the Daemon Overseer Reignen, I don’t know why he requested your presence, however it is his will, you will be on that train tommorow 6 hour sharp”, he had nothing more to say to me and I had nothing more to say to him, my salute, right arm firmly resting against my chest, I bowed low and walked out his door, dismissed I leave.

After my arrival in the tenth ward where Daemon is located, I was directed by the automatic system to my lodgings and allowed some 2 hours of Private Time since the journey was long and couldn’t be made within reasonable time. And so I peered across the landscape from my balcony, through the mist just along the horizon, Ward 11 was just about visible. It’s exactly as I’d imagined it, all those astonishing buildings were indeed so imposing, even more so helped by the fact that the common folk is usually kept out. With a sip of whiskey I retire to my room.

“Good morning; Look at the sky and wake up to a day prosperous to our nation”, they often try to change up the text, but it’s always the same crap, one starts to internalize, these morning drills are as despicable as the man that designed them.

I know why the Lord wants to meet with me, and when he does I shall die. The question is how much of this I can take down with me, the answer would come soon enough, but I could improve my odds by finding a couple compatriots.

This group, if we may call it that, would soon come to form, the Overseer had been called off to important duties, this gave me a small amount of leeway to prepare.

Nobody who would be of any use to me would be allowed a stay in Daemon, so I was forced to wander around Wards 6 or lower, despicable places they are, everyone is forced to live in such cramped and unsavory conditions, while the higher ups get all that space. The founding fathers meant well, that is infallible, lower ranking citizens simply have a higher natality, but the high wards keep all the self-regulating statistics low. This used to be a technocracy, but the most fit to rule, wasn’t necessarily the most fit to set his own rules. So many years of tiny government degradation, we have to cleanse it. Anyway, for the time being I was stuck here, the first day, I ran into a young boy, we ran into each other on the street, at first I of course thought I’d been robbed, hurt or some similar. After swiftly checking myself and seeing that he was just distracted by his camera, I started walking away, but the boy just kept staring… that uniform, he’s from the Wrelnach, I had little time to do background checks, things were now or never and had to be done quite whimsically, my least favorite way of doing things. I retraced the few steps taken and stood close to him, examining his stature and mannerisms.

Kommunikationschief, Izlaron division of the Wrelnach sir, the boy exclaimed in a significantly stutterful way, while hiding the camera behind his back. I waved my hand dismissively, and asked him for his name. Clerval sir. Clerval who? Clerval Angell, sir, he continued, exhaling quite loudly, grabbing his elbow and hanging his head, looking somewhere on my lower person.

…

At that moment, an idea struck me, and so I inquired, do you take many photos Clerval? Yes sir, I’ve been photographing everything I can, since I got my first camera. Have you every photographed anything illegal? No sir, I woul… I don’t like when people lie to me Clerval. It was a stretch, I had no idea, but the bait worked, Clerval told me about how downright passionate he was about breaking the rules with photography. Then covered his mouth and turned around to leave, I grabbed him by the shoulder and dragged him off. Hopefully the digital overseer would ignore his little confession, since it would be tagged as dealt with by me.

We sifted through his photos, after a lot of time wasted calming him down and explaining I wasn’t about to bring him in. After a couple searches we hit my jackpot, he did have photos from Aleksis Reignen’s visit to his division. And plenty enough to build a 3d copy of him, but all we needed was his face. The software required some babysitting, so Me and Clerval stayed up late, in the end he fell asleep in the room I rented, since it wasn’t mine, I felt fine leaving him there, disconnecting the camera and taking my PDA, before leaving very early the next day.

That was one thing down, I had already taken care of another years ago. I used to be quite close with a colleague of mine, back in the StrikeForce. Petra Helvete was her name, she was quick and strong on her feet, but stronger in the head, they recognized this, and made her a Mechanist basically the moment she arrived, with additional physical training for later fieldwork. She had closer to accessing some files, that I needed. With her help we managed to snatch a blueprint of Reignen’s prosthetic arm. He lost his real one somewhere, and commissioned a replacement at the facility where Petra worked. Wasn’t even difficult to convince her, she was always down for no-good.

Now I had once again an old friend to visit, Petra couldn’t take leave so suddenly and communicating with her, has a risk anyway, but she didn’t leave me empty-handed, apparently she has a friend who doesn’t ask questions. I walked into her establishment and somehow she recognized me, Petra probably showed her pictures or spoke about me. Just to be safe, she still initiated the exchange, “What are you here for?”. And so I replied, “To leave something by and take something of mine”, not my idea she always thinks her catchphrases are so clever. I put my PDA on the counter and she lifted up a very dusty clunky steel box from behind it. I explained to her that I needed her to quickpress a Dragonfly Festival mask for me with a custom face, she obliged and prepared the whole blank, then I sent the extracted model I got from Clerval’s photos to the press. Once the woman saw the mask, she got stunned for more than a few moments, then with a shaky hand took it and handed it to me. “Is that? Is it really…”, she started but I quickly replied, “I remember Petra saying you don’t ask questions”. She smirked slightly but was visibly still upset. “How much do I owe”, was as far as I got before her arm shot up to my mouth, then pointed towards the door, and she shouted, “Just get out”.

Outside, I checked my PDA, and the situation on the front had resolved itself, Overseers and the Tenno can flashport so he might be ready for me after lunch, I’ve got all this sorted, so I may as well retire before the big finale.

As I had some time to kill, I walked back to the old hotel to eat, as I was perusing the menu, who else would show up but Clerval, from his expression, I think he slept up until moments earlier. He ushered a Vyper deck onto the table. I asked Clerval to choose a meal for me and he said, “Take the third from the top, I always do, never went wrong”. So I ordered it twice and drew a hand from the deck. He… really wasn’t a good player, he mostly played light creatures, with fire spells, because he, “enjoyed the chaos it brought to the game”, as most of this chaos comes to be when a light creature dies, yes, he saw a lot of it. I usually play a lot of dark, which negates these effects, but I couldn’t bring myself to spoil his fun. In the end, I let him win once, at least I managed to create a size 28 green creature, which I would take as a personal achievemnt as this is the largest I ever managed to make one of my own cards, but against him, it wasn’t a big deal.

We ate and we laughed, well, he laughed, but I felt slightly alleviated thanks to him. He had no idea what fate has in store for me today. Then I stood up, payed and left.

Flag of the Overseen Lands Astartis

Clerval followed me to the high-train station for some reason. And onto the train, he didn’t have the authorization to enter Daemon, I sighed and signed off on him. A while after we crossed the border into Daemon, the dreaded message came, there was a time and I had about an hour to use. I walked straight into Reignen’s estate, Clerval close in tail. At the end of this corridor was a lift, he can’t go in there. Clerval is still behind me and states, “You look like a madman who’s going to get himself killed”. I pay little attention to him, preparing the items I brought with me, opening the case, and adjusting the prosthetic arm I took from the steel case, dropping it at my side. “I ain’t just meeting one lord today”, I replied. Clerval grabbed me by the shoulder and turn me around, I used that force to drive my hand directly into the wall in-front of him, prosthetic still adjusting some tidbits here and there. Our faces were very close, almost touching, we both breathed heavily as if just having given a rousing speech. I took my hand and caressed Clerval’s cheek before, giving him a slow and deep kiss. I let go when Clerval collapsed on the floor, then I turned around, flipped Clerval’s handgun in my left arm and stepped into the elevator.

Once having arrived on the correct floor, I stepped out and shot out the camera and the Overseer’s vice-secretary, the room was otherwise empty, and the camera was allowed to glitch and disconnect for a second, I would disable that measure momentarily anyway, so my job should not go interrupted. I put on the mask and begun, “Clearance level Overseer, surveillance footage from satellite SK451”. The machine replied, “Facial recognition scan required… Accepted”. I browsed through the footage back and forth a bit, what I needed was a video of Aleksis authorizing a high-profile order. I found it eventually, then swiftly extracted sound using motion amplification, his silver decor proved quite adequate for the purpose.

A bunch of voices behind me snap me back to reality. The hall is empty but there’s probably a bunch of guards realizing just now that they have a corpse on their hands. But that does not concern me anymore, a few steps and I’m in Aleksis Reignen’s chamber. I walk in, and as expected see Reignen, smugly walking around, brandishing a classical sword, used for honor duels. His chamber is in the shape of a tall dome, with glass all across the ceiling. I exclaim that that is not necessary, since I have already won. He looks extremely puzzled. I want him to understand what is happening to his oh so beloved nation as he watches it happen. You, as the Overseer of Daemon, have a lot of power, that power is manifested in many ways, and of course through your wide array of digital authorizations. But a password, a face recognition scan, and an authorization key hidden in your prosthetic, wasn’t enough to stop this country’s citizens from besting you. This country was build with ideals, ideals which you and all the officials in Daemon seem to lack. You are the ruin of my people, and that I cannot forgive.

For that purpose I issued an order in your name. Daemon has 10s of thousands of flights both with and without passengers, but all of them, will be heading straight for our capital, I thing some of them may even hit directly where you stand. “That cannot be right, the Tenno will surely catch such a preposterous attempt.”. “He will, the Tenno is a powerful entity, but it would be too late, all of the aircraft’s are gliding”. Every single one of those crafts has a fried circuit board, and is flying high above their recommended altitude, with turned off engines. Unless somebody acts really fast, Lucian shrugs, won’t help much anyways, I add as the first loud explosion is heard. Nasty things to crash these plasma engines are, aren’t they Overseer? Another explosion is heard, and yet 3 more. Aleksis, runs down for cover and I take his place in the center of the room on a control platform. My arms open wide looking up at the sky, at what beautiful justice I had created. The glass shatters falling down, and raining on me and Aleksis. The smaller fragments might’ve given us a chance to survive, but no chance, the bigger shards were basically flaying us. I stood there laughing, until my death.