Freezing Shadows, Chapter 88 (Patreon)

Chapter 88: Lore

Felicity looked my way, “Who have you told about this, dear?”

“Other than you all right here? I warned my initiatory group, as well as my contacts in Seattle. Sexkitten, here, has already informed a contact she has in the Devastation Angels, and I’ve made contact with the Blacksuns local to Oralath, as well as a ghoul collective on the outskirts of the city.”

“Ghouls?” Ayda asked. “How did you get in touch with them?”

“One of my initiatory group is a ghoul, and fellow follower of Shark. She’s a solid combat mage, and more than willing to help a body ‘disappear’, if need be. She has contacts of her own. When I told my group that I’d be heading ‘home’ to deal with some bugs, she gave me contact information, so I could call for backup, or at least give a heads up to others who could effectively fight the things. Ghoul claws cut through their immunity to nonmagical weapons quite nicely, after all.”

“What about these Devastation Angels, Miri?” Felicity asked. “I know of the Blacksuns, and they are somewhat respectable, as far as motorcycle gangs go, but I haven’t met these Angels. Are they trustworthy?”

I chuckled at that. “They are trustworthy enough, against this foe. I wouldn’t call them in on anything else, and they wouldn’t bother seeking help from me, or those like me, for anything else. They are spirits, and so are defined by their nature, to some degree.”

Rhys nodded slowly. “Then I guess we should get into it. Your group has fought these new spirits before, right, Mirikon? Perhaps we can start there, and then move to what Shadowkeeper knows?”

I glanced at Shadowkeeper, and the spirit nodded. “Yes, I think it would be best if everyone had a mortal’s perspective on these spirits, before going into what I’ve uncovered about them through my own means. Even though I’ve spent quite some time amongst you mortals, I know my perspective is skewed by my nature.”

“Right then,” I said, “First, I’ll say that these spirits are not like the normal kind that magicians summon, not even possession mages like me. According to one of the Angels we spoke with, these spirits are from much deeper in the metaplanes. Far enough that they cannot maintain their presence without a host body to permanently inhabit. Without a host, they quickly wither and die.

“As for the host? The creature they were before is essentially dead, but the meat suit keeps moving. Part of the inhabitation process involves consuming the creature’s essence, scooping out their soul and replacing it with the spirit. This creates what they call a ‘merge’, adding more to the meat suit by combining with the spirit. There are three types of merges: the true form, the hybrid form, and the flesh form.

“True forms consume the meat suit entirely, and give the spirit a physical body that mirrors what it looks like on the astral. They don’t gain anything else from the vessel, but they can pop in and out of the astral, like normal spirits. This means they can easily attack places that aren’t warded or under observation by spirits, bypassing nonmagical defenses.

“Hybrid forms are like they sound, a mix of the person and the spirit. They keep the vessel’s natural abilities, and a few of their memories. They become dual-natured, but cannot pop into the astral. Their physical body is enhanced by the spirit’s Force, and they will get some visible tells, like chitin or insectoid eyes. More importantly, they can use any cyberware the form had before inhabitation, and can use neural interfaces to interact with the Matrix.

“And then, there’s the Flesh form. Virtually indistinguishable from the vessel they were before, they are physically weaker, but retain all the vessel’s memories and skills, making them perfect infiltrators. They are dual-natured, but also retain any natural and augmented abilities the host had.”

“What about their organization?” Syndra asked. “Most spirits that we’ve run across don’t exactly organize, but these ones are apparently working in large groups, from what Shadowkeeper has told us.”

“Well, we’ve only run into three groups of them, but I’ve heard reports worldwide. The first group we ran into was running a rehabilitation spiritual retreat in the FAN, over by Yakima, part of the Brotherhood of Unity. The Brotherhood is active world-wide, and my sources say that the whole organization is a front for these spirits. More importantly, the Matrix has been thoroughly scrubbed of anything approaching bad news about them.”

“Well, drek,” Tinkerbell said, flatly. “That means they’ve got serious pull. Maybe even people inside the megas.”

“Worse than that,” Twilight added. “We’re pretty sure they’re working on infiltrating governments, as well. Not top people, yet, but I’ve heard about at least one that is in the security detail for a local rep in Seattle.”

“Well, that’s troublesome,” Ayda said, flatly. “What about their abilities, their weaknesses?”

I took a breath, more to focus my thoughts than anything else. “Abilities depend on the type of spirit. Not just what kind of bug they are, but also their role within that type, and the kind of merge. So far, I’ve personally seen ants, termites, and mantids, but I’ve heard of others, like scarabs. Not sure how many more there are.

“As for weaknesses, the best course is to use magic on them, obviously. For those of you who can’t use magic, then unless you can bring an assault cannon or heavy weapons loaded with APDS rounds, your best bet for ‘normal’ ammo is the Stick-n-Shock, since the stun rounds cut down their magic armor the same as they do normal armor. But if you have prep time, you can load up on capsule rounds with insecticide. The KE IV stuff is basically acid to the spirits, with how hard they feel it depending on their type, but they all feel it, and it cuts straight through their immunity to nonmagical weapons. Concentrated fire with that stuff allowed us to take down a queen without much trouble, which was good, because the thing likely could have ripped through all of us without breaking a sweat, otherwise.”

Shadowkeeper’s eyes went wide. “You defeated one of the queens? Without casualties? You were either incredibly lucky, or…”

I shook my head. “We were lucky, but the fixer who sent us on the job also did her research. The bugs got careless, since they were in a relatively isolated area. There were reports of ‘insect paracritters’ in the area, so we came with insecticide rounds. If we hadn’t had that, or called in the Angels, we would have had a much harder fight on our hands.”

“So, what about these Devastation Angels?” Rhys asked. “They’re insect spirits, too?”

“Yes,” Sexkitten said, “though I didn’t know it until that job. I’d thought they were an all-female go-gang who were ‘mutant-friendly’. Turns out, every member is a mantis spirit. They eat other insect spirits in order to grow stronger, and bring over more of their kind, apparently.”

“That makes a disturbing kind of sense,” Felicity nodded. “Spirits might not be bound to the common sense of this world, especially ones from so far afield, but the function and form of their shapes and nature would likely lead along similar lines. How did you get them to help you?”

“The specifics don’t matter that much. Basically, we came to an agreement that we’d assault the compound together, and leave any incapacitated spirits to them, along with any vessels in the midst of preparation, and take the target we came for back with us. The assault went smoothly, so we agreed to keep each other in mind when it came to hunting bugs, and otherwise just keep out of each other’s way. They were happy enough to agree to that.”

Shadowkeeper nodded slowly. “Then it is time I told you more about these creatures. From what I have learned, this new age of magic is not the first. The older spirits remember, as do the dragons, and some others of ancient power. Magic rises, crests, ebbs, and then rises again, in a cycle. That is why some scholars call this the Sixth World, for it is the third time Magic has risen.”

My eyes widened slightly at that. This was new lore, as far as we were concerned. Oh, there’d been talk about stuff like that, on different in-world magic forums and the like. Scholar on the OOC forums had gone on a theorizing binge just last month. Now, we were getting confirmation from a source that would know more than the normal metahumans would.

“The ancient spirits call these ‘insect spirits’ the invae. Their mindset is alien to even those of spirits such as myself, for they are from a far different world, one where everything and everyone is consumed or consumes. But they are not mindless creatures. Some of them are incredibly intelligent, and the shamans who summon them, or the queens, when one comes through, are capable of a serial killer’s patience, keeping a false front while they play a longer game. But they are all predators, in one form or another.

“Of these, there are some who are not outright hostile to all life on Earth. They are predators, but they have other prey in mind. The Mantis spirits use metahumans as potential hosts, but their predation is focused on the other invae. By killing and consuming other invae, they can gain power and bring more mantids over, without the involvement of a shaman. But make no mistake, they are allies of convenience, nothing more.”

I nodded. “Yes, they gave that impression pretty clearly. My Shark recognized fellow predators in them. Predators may work together to take down larger prey, but that does not mean they will always be allies, especially if things grow desperate, and they get hungry.”

“Then the news I have is both good and bad. According to the ancient spirits, the incursions of the invae will not end until the tides of magic recede once more, and we enter the Seventh World. This means that, for the next several mortal lifetimes, at least, there will always be need for these allies of convenience. And, as the mantids do not have a wealth of numbers on their side, especially compared to those they hunt, they will have need of mortal assistance.”

Shadowkeeper paused, and said, “As for the threat I called all of you here to address, there is more I must tell you. I have seen a growing taint in the astral in the city of late. It began in the middle-stages of the revolution, as the regime’s controls began to slip. However, there were obviously other factors that drew my attention at that time, and I could not look into it.

“Two years ago, I saw the first concrete signs of what was wrong. It is not incorrect to say that, at least in Olassalen, the business of buying and selling ‘off the books’ magical reagents, ingredients, formulae, and so on goes through those in my employ. At that time, I was looking into the source of new reagents that started appearing on the markets. As I was moving through the astral, to check on my sources, I caught sight of a spirit, wasp-like in shape. That, in and of itself, was not too surprising. A spirit’s form is shaped by the summoner’s will, after all, and a summoner that wishes to frighten or intimidate may very well look at using giant insects to play on the fears of mortals. However, the creature attacked me on sight, and though I defeated it, I could tell that it was linked to others of its kind.

“I retreated that day, but I knew that something was wrong. So, I began carefully searching for the cause. In the course of my investigations, I came across the mantids, and their mortal guise as the Devastation Angels. We reached an accord, and have worked together in hunting the wasp spirits that I’d found.

“Through that cooperation, we have found what we believe to be the primary base of these creatures, at least in this area. Their hive, to put it bluntly. It is in the Ya-Po-Ah Terrace, the tallest building in Olassalen. Before the revolution, it stood as a retirement community for those whose age had caught up with them. However, several of the residents have seemed more active as of late, and their presence in the astral is not that of a human anymore. The retirement home is now a hive for the invae, and it must be burnt out.”