Equalize

by Ryan DeBruyn

  Rocky mentally told him to bring back what he could, unchewed. For some reason, adding that last addendum made the Chimera sulk.

  After that, all that was left was searching for hunting parties and planning the safest, fastest route back to Algonquin Gorge.

  Epilogue

  Helion Prime – Guild Hall Mechano-Lords

  Dahrix Hax sat at his chair, trying to figure out what had just happened. On his monitors, a blip had come up for a few seconds, and then before he could isolate the beacon, it had shut back off. He began magnifying the signal and had mixed success.

  The signal had briefly been distinguishable again, but then suddenly, it had reported a catastrophic error, again before he could isolate and triangulate a position. Dahrix had high hope for Corsair and his crew of weaklings, but it would seem they were having problems. Maybe the technology was faulty? No, that was impossible. That beacon was the top-of-the-line model from his signaling division’s research and development team.

  They were absolutely fantastic at what they did. In his opinion, they were the best in the Etherverse. Dahrix stood up on his mechanical legs and walked to the liquor cabinet.

  He pulled out a vintage Gelthisarian brew and poured a glass over ice. Dahrix took a single sip and relished in the tastes on one of the few remaining humanoid parts of his body. Then he grimaced due to the perceived loss of investment.

  While guilds were known to move in on new planets formed from the Ether, often those planets were weak and took years to develop. However, Corsair had mentioned that he had been fighting monsters that had destroyed his guild’s Master class creations. Had another group gotten to this new planet first?

  It was a possibility, but Corsair had been adamant that they were the only sapient life forms on the planet. He had even told a blatant lie, claiming that his world was over two billion years old. Regardless, he had wanted to check it out for himself.

  Dahrix was the head of the intelligence division within the Mechano-Lords, and he had never come across something like this. Corsair had even brought back one of the non-functioning bodies of the sentinels. Whatever had destroyed it had been able to pancake Galvannealed Titansteel like it was tinfoil.

  It had forced the research and development to try prototype creations that hadn’t been thoroughly tested yet. Usually, they just gave a leader a group of sentinels, and that made them the most influential person on a newborn planet for the years of travel it took the guilds to arrive. This time, it had backfired, and he was dreading the upcoming meeting with the collective guilds of Helion Prime.

  Helion Prime – Underground Cave – Helion Resistance Headquarters

  Amelia Nanospark watched the moron Dahrix through one of her many infiltrated nanobots. The imbeciles of the Mechano-Lords believed themselves to be all-powerful and technologically advanced. Amelia and her small elite group of nano researchers had spoon fed them every advancement they had made.

  It was sometimes frustrating to control her web, especially when their failures reflected back on her. The good news was that that beacon had been equipped with state-of-the-art repair-nanites that would get it up and running again. It was only a matter of time and material, which they would be forced to scavenge from nearby sources.

  She cursed again and checked in on some of her other infiltrated guilds within the Helion Prime collective.

  Helion Prime – Alchemist Wing – The Guild Collective Castle

  Hecter Neeros stood silently, watching the screens and smiling to himself. He had made a great group of friends in the Helion Exclusive Shop, strange creatures that called themselves humans. They also kept telling him that they were from Floor I Da, whatever that meant.

  Regardless, they had traded him a jug of gasoline for suits of armor. Unsure what this alchemical substance was, Hecter’s curiosity had won out, and he had made the trade. Now he was analyzing it for its component parts.

  His first two attempts had come back claiming that it was made out of Planetary Essence, but that seemed like a very frivolous use of such a powerful and expensive compound. This time, he had changed some of the parameters and was expecting more specific results. If the initial findings of the machine were correct, then he needed to make closer friends with these humans from Floor I Da.

  His guild, Alchemy is the Basis of All would really do well to associate with such individuals. Only a select few were wealthy enough to use planetary essence in alchemical creations. If he could break this substance back into pure Essence, then his trade of equipment was balancing in his favor.

  Helion Prime – Mages Guild

  The Mage Guild watched their crystal balls and attempted to divine the location of the new player who had been spotted in numerous shops. Some sort of creature that defined itself as “human.” These creatures were far too powerful for a new addition to the Etherverse, and the High-Merlin had ordered them to discover more.

  Not only were they more powerful but some of them had been rude and cocky. Boasting of fighting off monsters and golems in numbers that a new planet couldn’t sustain. It was frustrating to listen to such bollocks, but Arthur would get the answers that were needed.

  If the guild collective could be the first to colonize this new planet, then they might secure a strong enough foothold like they had on Helion Prime. This was one of their few unquestionable successes. Helion Prime was far too strongly situated for any planetary armada to come and take it without unacceptable losses.

  Most of that was because of his guild’s mastery of wards and defensive spells. Now, the High-Merlin believed that he had found the next target for the guilds. It was up to Arthur to find it, and so he activated the Ether Tech scrying circle and prepared himself for possible years of deep meditative magic.

  Gaia (Earth) – Just Outside Ottawa – 17 Days After Ether Crash (AEC)

  The previous night, the group had camped, planned, and in the end, the group's journey was going to depend on Rocky, Sela, and Joe. This morning, Sela had been sent back to the Territory with the shop because its countdown probably wouldn’t last the journey otherwise.

  She had left her radio with Joe, and Rocky had taken to the skies aboard Azoth. Through careful communication and maneuvering, they had already avoided three fights. Azoth, Rocky, and Joe had been forced to destroy another four single monsters who had alighted on the trail of the massed humans.

  Rocky couldn’t wait for Sela to return and bolster their strength. He had been quite distracted all morning and worried. First, because he was in charge of eight-thousand lives, and second, because of the archived texts he had found on his phone.

  The previous night, someone had been reminiscing about email, and that had triggered his encumbered mind to remember that his cell phone, which he had turned off to maintain batteries, also stored a certain number of emails. He had opened the device and had been disappointed that no emails it had kept were from his family. However, he had found a text chain with his mother.

  Two texts in particular from over the month before the crash stood out.

  I won an award for my contribution to schooling and career building. It’s being presented to me during your trip.

  They had gone back and forth, and his mother had refused to let him cancel the trip that his father had booked before he died. She had told him that he needed to go and had mentioned that she would have his sister and brother-in-law as company. The other text was more confusing but was what had him deliberating.

  I will see you after my work weekend. I hope you will enjoy the time to yourself remembering all of your trips together. I love you.

  The confusing part was that his mother was retired, and for her to call it a work weekend was odd. He knew it was an award ceremony from her previous text and now recalled her excitement at being given it. However, her job before retirement had been traveling to universities and colleges to provide inspirational and motivational speeches.

  If she was claiming that weekend was a work weekend, perhaps she had been traveli
ng to a university or college and was giving a speech again. He vaguely recalled his brother-in-law teasing him about missing the event. Something about it being a beautiful locale that he and his sister would enjoy and Rocky would miss out on.

  More confusion arose around that point because his sister wasn’t the greatest tropical vacationer. This meant it was just as likely that the trip was going to be near wine country as it was to be in a southern destination. Her red hair and fair skin made it a bit more of a chore for her when the sun was involved. Rocky had always been able to just go outside and turn nearly black, and she had only been able to turn into a lobster.

  He smiled at the thought and crossed his fingers. If he was right, they might have been at a school when all of this went down. His family might be alive and just waiting for him to find them!

  Gaia (Earth) – Just Outside Ottawa – 17 Days After Ether Crash (AEC)

  Epsilon followed the human survivors at a great distance. He and his four brothers had been born into this world and were unsure of their place in it. They had thought that perhaps they were supposed to guard the center of the city of their birth but found that already handled by monsters and pale imitations of themselves.

  Together, they had watched events unfold in Ottawa and considered what possible purpose they could hold. Like all golems, they had been born from the rubble and unclaimed resources of the Earth. Unlike other golems, they were sapient. Within the first few days, they had realized that the other golems of Ottawa were shadows of themselves, only capable of walking in patterns and attacking anything that came into range.

  The most aggressive of his brothers, Gamma, had suggested killing all of the creatures, but the rest of the five knights had felt something wrong in that. Gamma had given over, and as a group, they had learned more about the other creatures that inhabited their place of birth.

  The only other creatures that possessed sapience were the small, weak humans. At first, they had thought that they would be eradicated. Instead, the humans had grown stronger and soon had been able to fight some of their lesser cousins. Watching these other creatures in hopes of answers, Epsilon had discovered a possible reason for the knights’ creation.

  These humans seemed to want to create a place to live in a community. Perhaps their job was to find others like themselves and build a community where they could one day procreate and grow. They had chosen to follow the survivors in hopes of discovering more about this unknown world.

  Afterword

  We hope you enjoyed Equalize! Since reviews are the lifeblood of indie publishing, we’d love it if you could leave a positive review on Amazon! If you scroll through to the end of this book, you’ll easily be able to leave a review. Otherwise, follow this link to be redirected to the Ether Collapse: Equalize Amazon product page to leave your review: http://geni.us/Equalize.

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  About Ryan DeBruyn

  Ryan is currently a student back at school for the third time, studying Electrical Engineering and trying to find a career that he will love. Having a love of travel, he could be called worldly or just curious. He has long been fascinated by different cultures, but especially by the similar stories they all tell. So, he has attempted to create a science fiction/fantasy world that will pull together the myths and legends in a fun and interactive way. His book, Ether Collapse, is an attempt to do that while also diving into a world where humanity is forced to start over in an apocalyptic LitRPG.

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  About Mountaindale Press

  Dakota and Danielle Krout, a husband and wife team, strive to create as well as publish excellent fantasy and science fiction novels. Self-publishing The Divine Dungeon: Dungeon Born in 2016 transformed their careers from Dakota’s military and programming background and Danielle’s Ph.D. in pharmacology to President and CEO, respectively, of a small press. Their goal is to share their success with other authors and provide captivating fiction to readers with the purpose of solidifying Mountaindale Press as the place ‘Where Fantasy Transforms Reality.’

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  Mountaindale Press Titles

  GameLit and LitRPG

  The Divine Dungeon by Dakota Krout

  The Completionist Chronicles by Dakota Krout

  A Touch of Power: Siphon by Jay Boyce

  Red Mage: Advent by Xander Boyce

  Peaks of Power: Beginnings by Paul Campbell Jr.

  Axe Druid: Into the Light by Christopher Johns

  Pixel Dust: Party Hard by David Petrie

  Coming soon!

  Skeleton in Space: Histaff by Andries Louws

  Fantasy

  Coming soon!

  The Lost Sigil: Insurrection by Raymond Beckham and Darius Cook

  The Black Knight Trilogy by Christian J. Gilliland

  Appendix

  Alchemy is the Basis of All – Alchemy guild located on Helion Prime. Is studying gasoline which was traded to him by someone in Florida.

  Alex Watt – 11-year-old young man that Rocky discovered while entering Ottawa. Family was massacred by Corsair’s goons. Died during the Ottawa Exodus Struggle.

  Algonquin Grotto – This is where Selaphelia Ardensai chose to start the settlement of survivors. It was chosen because of its natural defenses in the mountains and cliff faces that surround it on three sides. On the fourth side is a large river that runs through Algonquin Park.

  Algonquin Park – Is the full Park of Algonquin as seen in our current world.

  Algonquin Valley – Is the territory of Rockland Barkclay, and it sits within Algonquin Park. It is quite large but does not encompass the entirety of the current Algonquin Park from present day Earth.

  Azoth – Rockland’s pet Chimera. Is able to speak and communicate first with Selaphelia and later with Rockland. Through them both is gaining Sapience. Dread-Chimera

  Bullet – Mutated peregrine falcon that had strong, wind-based skills that nearly killed Rocky and the group.

  Cathodiem Guild – Guild that was situated on Gaia over a billion years ago. Guild was very powerful and had great influence with a seat on the Atlantian Council.

  Chalk River – Is a town in Ontario that is near a nuclear research laboratory. A few days after the Ether crash, the converted golem from the plant melts down which prompts a red quest.

  Corsair (Jack Jameson) – Sociopathic leader of the Ottawa Militia. Created an inner group of psychopaths who followed his orders to kill survivors instead of allowing monsters to gain more Etherience. Died during the Ottawa Exodus Struggle.

  Derik – Derik is a devious human who was a member of the initial group that is saved from the Onikuma by Rocky.

  Draksus – Leader of the Ottawa territory. Albino in colour and devastatingly large and strong.

  Essence – Essence is the primary resource of a planetary god. It is filtered from Ether through living being but can also be recovered from dead organisms. Gaia wakes to find almost all of her vast stores pillaged (oil).

  Ether – Cosmic energy of the universe. It is the primary unfiltered raw power that allows life and planetary gods to form.

  Gaia – Gaia is a planetary god, specifically the Earth. Each planet is alive and in constant battle with other planets to acquire Essence. What they win if they have the most is still a mystery.

  Golems – A clever way Gaia has orchestrated to recover a higher percentage of her pillage Essence. Golems are created from any structure that has no ownership claimed upon it twenty-four hours after the fir
st Ether wave.

  Guild of Mechano-Lords – Patron of Corsair. Headquarters on Guild Collaborative controlled world of Helion Prime.

  Jason Jackson – 15-year-old young man that Rocky discovered while entering Ottawa. Family was massacred by Corsair’s goons. Fire-Mage

  Joe Flacca – Member of the Ottawa Militia. Becomes its General after the fall of Corsair. Special-Trooper

  John Smith – John Smith is an initial survivor that was in Algonquin Park during the crash. His group of fifteen is lucky enough to be saved by Rocky from a giant Onikuma.

  Long Forgotten Dungeon (LFD) – Dungeon Rocky and the gang hides in on the way to Ottawa. Rocky makes a deal with LFD, which he terms Little Friendly Dungeon. LFD will help keep at bay the devastation caused by a nuclear meltdown and, in time, help Rocky’s settlement level.

  Mages Guild – Guild located on Helion Prime. A guild that is entirely comprised of Mage classes.

  Oliver Grees – 13-year-old young man that Rocky discovered while entering Ottawa. Family was massacred by Corsair’s goons. Died during the Ottawa Exodus Struggle.

  Other planetary gods (spoken of) – Mars, Gelth, Krond, Sinfath, Helion Prime (Planet)