Descend- Bursting Out: A litrpg adventure

by David Burke

  It suited Jay fine. He preferred to split the tasks up between various people. He regretted that he couldn’t have all of his wives here with him for this moment, but Ava had pleaded with him to be allowed to stay with the spatial drives to ensure they were working as they were supposed to.

  Mia was in the crystal arrays that served as the power for the smaller systems and Trina had insisted on personally standing guard over the catalyst center. The men and women in there were the ones actually providing the power for their ship. Jay didn’t begin to understand how it all worked, but he knew that they powered up the systems and then the technology took over. It was a combination of their powers and co-opted A’snkarnt technology that made this possible.

  Jay looked around the command deck and then asked, “Where is D’varn? Shouldn’t he be here?”

  The various girls running different stations looked at him and then looked away.

  “What’s going on?” he asked.

  Amelia looked at him. “She begged me not to tell you. She thinks that D’varn has done something with Higen.”

  Hearing that his son could be in danger made Jay instantly furious. A surge of power flowed off of him and caused the monitors all around him to flicker before he clamped down his emotions behind a wall of Iron Will.

  He reached out with his mind and found Meikiyo in one of the hangar bays. He was frustrated that he couldn’t teleport directly there, but wait. Maybe, there was a way. He pushed through the fusion to Meikiyo. “Let me use your eyes.”

  She was clearly distraught but didn’t resist him. As soon as he could see through her eyes, he knew exactly where she was and teleported next to her. Again there was no sense of movement. One instant he was standing next to Amelia looking out the view screen at the ruins of the Earth as they broke orbit, the next he was in an empty hangar bay next to a weeping Meikiyo.

  “What happened, lover?” he asked.

  No answer came as she sobbed. Jay reached out and pulled her close to him. Once in his embrace his mind sought hers and their fusion temporarily became more complete. He was able to scan her memories and see what had happened. His fury rose as he did.

  Under the guise of running a scan, D’varn had injected some type of isotope into Higen. Meikiyo had not thought too much of it at the time because it didn’t seem to bother their son. Then today as everyone was loading up, Higen had been in her arms only to suddenly fade away. It was just the way that the A’snkarnt hoverpods faded away.

  Once she had figured out what happened she raced around the ship looking for D’varn and Higen.

  “You should have told me. I would have helped,” Jay said trying to reassure his wife.

  But it only made her weep more. “How could I tell you that I had lost our son? You saved my life. You gave me love. You gave me meaning. Then you gave me the greatest gift I could ask for in our precious son and I lost him.”

  “You lost nothing. Our son was stolen. We will get him back and when we do the one who took him shall pay with his life. I am sick to the point of death over the meddling of A’snkarnt. It was bad enough what they have done. They killed most of us. They tormented those that survived and while maybe it wasn’t their intention they are at least partially responsible for the murder of over seven billion on the Earth.

  “I have tried to look for good. I have tried to ignore the signs thinking that we needed their help. But damn me for a fool. I can’t see any difference between them and the Forlorn. I have called you my fire goddess for your beauty, but the truth is that they have made us into gods and now we shall free the universe of both these blights. I will not rest until it is so,” Jay pronounced. The tempo of his voice rose as his anger did and he was bound so tightly with Meikiyo that flames erupted around them. Their power burned so hot that it warped even the A’snkarnt metals.

  Weakly, Meikiyo responded, “I only want to hold my son again.”

  “I shall return Higen to you safe and sound or die trying. You have my oath and I don’t need Samantha to judge the truth of this. I mean it with all my heart. But after that. After that, the worlds of the A’snkarnt and Forlorn shall burn just as Earth did. I will do whatever is required to gain the power to make it so.”

  All around the ship people trembled as the words of a man becoming a god vibrated through the atmosphere. Most had no idea what it was, but those connected to Jay felt his anguish just as much as they felt his commitment.

  After extinguishing the flame Jay teleported with Meikiyo back to the command deck. He then messaged each of his wives and Trina, “Assign someone else to whatever you are doing, I require your presence on the command deck. Now.”

  So rarely did Jay speak in such a manner that none of them even questioned or bothered to respond other than to appoint someone to watch their station and then speed as quickly as their powers allowed to the command deck. Some like Ava opened a spatial gate in a nearby part of the ship but none of them would risk hurting someone else by opening such a gate in an occupied portion of the ship.

  Once they were all assembled, Jay explained the situation. Many tears were shed and each of the wives who were mothers asked for permission to check on their own children. Jay shortcutted that and teleported to the nursery and then back with Jaxon, Michelle, Kylee, and Hua.

  He held his son while allowing Jessie to kiss the boy as she held Kylee, their younger child. This assured everyone but Mia and Ava still clung to Meikiyo sharing her grief. In the network of their fusion it was impossible for emotion this strong to not be shared, especially when they were this close to one another.

  “So, we need to decide where we are going. From what I can tell the computer is unable to track the cruiser that D’varn took. I wouldn’t even bother following him and would be fine with him taking the ship if he hadn’t taken Higen,” Jay said.

  Ava pulled her arm from around Meikiyo and walked over to one of the command consoles. After a minute of working on it she turned around. “I’m sorry, Master, but you are correct we can’t track him. He has wiped out everything from our system about A’snkarnt planets and outposts with only one exception.”

  “What, what’s the exception,” Meikiyo demanded.

  Ava looked at Jay who nodded and then she said, “There is one more leviathan. From what I can tell experiments were being performed at four different leviathans. Two have been destroyed and our ship is all that is really left of the third one. Then there is one other leviathan.”

  “So do we go there?” Mia asked.

  “It is the only lead that we have, so if there is any chance that is where he is taking Higen then that is where we need to go,” Jay said.

  “Agreed,” Amelia said. “But we need to be ready for trouble. We have no idea what we could be walking into there.”

  Jay looked around at all their faces and shrugged his shoulders. “That is okay, I trust our family can stand up to anything together, now, number one, take us out. Meikiyo and I will go down to power the spatial jump engine. Ava, make sure it is working the right way, Trina, protect us against any surprises the Forlorn or A’snkarnt may have left onboard. Huong, Jessie, and Mia, you are welcome to join us if you like.”

  With that, Jay and Meikiyo were gone, teleported to the engine. Once there they would go inside and form their fusion link in body and soul allowing Jay’s power to resonate through her and be magnified back creating more raw power than a nuclear reactor. He presumed the other three would join them. It was a blissful experience and he would have invited all of his wives to share in it if they weren’t needed in other places.

  As fun as this process was he couldn’t lose sight of the fact that his son had been taken. There would be hell to pay.

  __________________________________

  After Jay left the command deck his wives looked at one another. Huong said, “I’m not missing out on this,” and then sped off to leave her daughter at the nursery. Jessie and Mia followed each carrying one of Jay and Jessie’s children. Mia’s mind was filled
with a desire for when he would make her into Momma Mia.

  Ava left for her station and that left Amelia and Trina staring at one another. They had made their peace but were still a bit awkward around each other. More than anything they were united in their love and devotion towards Jay. That and the realization that more than any of the others they would both do anything to protect him, even if he didn’t like it.

  “Hadn’t you better get going to your post?” Amelia asked.

  “It will take the others a minute to get there and you know Jay, he won’t start without them. I was just struck by something,” Trina replied.

  “What’s that?” Amelia crooked her eyebrow as she asked. She likely had a suspicion just because of their shared fusion.

  “Our boy has really grown up hasn’t he? I remember him from college and I’ve heard you all talk about how hesitant he was to claim you. Now here he is talking about raining down hellfire and brimstone on his enemies,” Trina answered.

  Amelia grinned, that wicked grin she had. “I like it.”

  Trina echoed, “Me too. Probably more than I should.”

  Interlude 8- Jungles of Tamoori

  These weren’t really the jungles of her home world. Eesa knew that. It changed nothing though. She still enjoyed leaping from tree to tree. The game was thick and it made her feel alive.

  The four clans had all come together here. They had been drawn from home. Taken first as captives but now they knew the true purpose.

  They were being trained to fight an enemy that was the scourge of the universe. There could be no greater prey and so for the first time the clans had stopped fighting one another. Leon, Tygr, Lepar, and Civet had all joined together.

  A grand tribe was created and the best of their warriors progressed forward. The natural leadership of the Leon, the ferocity of the Tygr, the stealth of the Lepar, and the speed of the Civet were all put to the same mission. They would create the most powerful ships and the most capable warriors.

  Eesa was of the Lepar clan and was honored to be chosen as one of the pilots. Because of her skill she had not been forced to let any take her as a mate. Very few of their pilots were female, but the ones that made it were always amongst the best.

  Something odd had happened early this morning. The world they were in, which they had only just learned was actually a massive ship, had shook. Power was lost for a while and then there was a series of warning sirens. All of the A’snkarnt who had been working to help her people develop better ships had fled. They were cowards and not truly respected by any of the clans despite their great intellects.

  Then invaders had appeared. Everyone believed that the Forlorn had found them. Just a handful of the strange creatures exited their ship. The clans didn’t wait to be attacked, but instead took to the hunt and tried to separate the invaders into small groups where they could be attacked.

  The warnings and legends about the deadly power of the Forlorn were not mistaken. If anything they were too timid in their description of the deadly beings. Some of the creatures which invaded their home were a strange combination of flesh inside of machinery, but most of them were flesh creatures simply wearing armor suits. Some big bulky ones like the Tygr preferred and others just sleek body suits favored by her clan and the Civets.

  It wasn’t their weapons or their armor that was truly terrifying. If it had come down to that the clan warriors would have easily overwhelmed these almost furless warriors. The few males with them had particularly little hair while a few of the females had a long mane, something like a male Leon.

  What was truly terrifying about them though was the powers they possessed. One of them became like living fire and took to the air. She blasted their racers out of the sky and swept storms of flame down on them. Others shot electrical charges or ice and still others made their very bodies too heavy to even lift.

  Despite all of that power though they were winning. They were driving the invaders apart and circling around individuals to gang up on them. Then the battle turned in an instant. Two of the females became surrounded, one who threw purple death from her hands and another who disappeared into shadow so dark that even her Lepar eyes couldn’t pierce it only to appear again behind a warrior that she would fell with the blade.

  The warriors were closing in on them and had managed to wound both of them despite taking huge casualties to do so. But then out of nowhere the largest of the male warriors appeared. He was as tall as a Leon pridemaster and as wide as a Tygr huntmaster. He moved faster than any Civet and none of their pulse weapons could land a blow against him.

  He forced back the clans and killed dozens doing so. Once he had some sort of impregnable shield up he stopped the slaughter. Somehow he communicated to them without words. He didn’t speak any of their languages or the common tongue they had created over the years. Yet his words appeared in their minds.

  This great warrior spoke of peace as though he were an old woman not ready to see her kits blooded. But none could harm him and so the clan chieftains agreed to speak with him at dawn on the following day. For now an uneasy armistice existed and the next day would bring change one way or the other.

  Either the clans would decide to fight against these invaders. That was a battle that they didn’t seem likely to win despite outnumbering the furless ones by more than one thousand to one. Maybe out in space with their ships, but in close combat they stood no chance. Not a single invader that they knew of had died and nearly a thousand of the clan warriors had.

  The other option was that the clan chieftains would decide to sue for peace with the invaders. If that happened it would have consequences just as dire to her personally if not to the clans as a whole. She was the daughter of a chieftain and knew well what happened when peace was sought between clans.

  Either way, Eesa ran in the trees tonight. She hunted but not for anything in particular. She simply knew that this might be her last night of the life she had grown to love, no matter the decision of the clans.

  Epilogue- The Long Play

  Two galaxies over, the birth world of the A’snkarnt was finally preparing to undergo what so many other worlds had already experienced. Forlorn armadas larger than had ever been assembled were all assembling. Such a war though didn’t have forces lining up against one another. Not when each side possessed weapons that can destroy planets and more.

  The A’snkarnt had technology on their side. The race numbered only in the thousands now and many of those were scattered across a much larger universe. The ones who were here, including the supreme council, knew that this was the final stand. The many gambits which had been put into place had failed. The four races pinpointed by Coreframe as possibly being capable of being turned into weapons had all failed.

  The first two leviathans had been destroyed. Communication with the third one containing the hoomans had been lost two weeks ago. An armada, albeit much smaller than any of the forces arrayed against their home world, had attacked and then due simply to the distance involved all contact had been lost. It was theorized that after the gravity weapon had been discharged that the region became unstable and subspace transmissions were simply consumed.

  The final leviathan was the one thought to hold the most promise. The A’snkarnt simply weren’t warriors but the Tamoori were. They were among the best warriors in the known universe. Violence was in their blood and whether it be with claw and fang or in their highly maneuverable fighters, they were the ultimate hunters and exulted in taking the battle to their enemy.

  It had devastated the supreme council though when word came that the final leviathan housing the Tamoori had come under attack. The last message said that strange, almost furless creatures had invaded and attacked with powers that the Tamoori had no answer for. One of the council members had actually broken down and cried, a thing not recorded in the long lifetime of those ancient A’snkarnt.

  A few more years and they felt the Tamoori minds would have evolved enough to handle A’snkarnt technology and app
ly their killer instinct to creating spacecrafts capable of defeating the Forlorn. Such was not to be the case.

  So now the remnants of what had once been the greatest race in the universe were huddled together on one planet waiting for their automated defenses to be overcome by a locust-like plague of the Forlorn. It wouldn’t be swift.

  They had too many layers of protection. The heavens would burn and the enemy would pay for every light-year that they traveled to reach a world whose name was lost to antiquity. But both sides knew it was inevitable. They were coming and nothing could stop them.

  _________________________

  Miles beneath the chambers occupied by the supreme council of the A’snkarnt lay the true ruler of their race. Coreframe was an AI which had existed and evolved for nearly a million human years. It ran all the day to day functions of the A’snkarnts’ lives.