Chapter 50: Divine death machines

The night wound down. The music kept blaring, but people slowly faded away from the dance floor, bottles in hand, to either go hook up, crash, or sit on the sidelines and get maudlin.

James had a good, solid buzz going. Every now and then he wished he had another cigar or wondered if he should have forced everyone to tackle another hive, but then he thought of how good this was for morale, how these people weren’t machines, and hell, how they’d be facing millions of demons tomorrow, and that urge would die.

“You can’t level all the time,” he said to Yadriel who sat a little off to his left along the edge of the stage, hoody pulled over his frizzy hair, face pulled into a long pout.

“What?” Yadriel glanced his way. “What you say?”

“You look pissed.” James realized he was drunker than he’d thought. “Bummed about your power?”

Yadriel clucked his tongue in disdain and looked away.

“No, I get it. I do.” James shuffled along the stage’s edge to sit closer. “Demon apocalypse. Shit’s going down. Serenity and Becca on those big guns, going bang bang bang. And you’re stuck with… Dark Energy Siphon. What a bitch. Near drove you crazy last time.”

Yadriel scowled and kept his gaze averted.

“You know what we gotta do?” asked James.

“No,” said Yadriel pointedly. “What?”

“We gotta get you to practice. Safe place. Where you can flex a little without worrying about going crazy. See what your power does. Can do. And hey.”

Yadriel looked sidelong at him, eyebrow raised.

“Why you think your aura disappeared like that when you used your power?”

“I don’t know.” Yadriel scowled and looked away again. “Been thinking about it though. I put a lotta energy into raising my aura game, and for it to just disappear like that? Pathetic.”

James shrugged with what he thought was world weary wisdom. “Shit happens.”

“But I think… fuck. What do I know.”

“What?”

“It felt like… that demon energy, it was like oil and water, you know? Mixed me up, made it so I couldn’t project my aura out like normal. But it was still there. Just… inside of me.”

“The demon energy?”

“Nah man, my aura. Like it was under my skin. I think that’s why I got all fucked up. The aura and the demon energy were like swirling inside me. Made me feel like I was fucked up on some bad dope. Like crazy and invincible.”

James considered, staring blankly at the floor. “Maybe… maybe it’s a practice thing. You gotta learn to control the elements. Like… yin yang, but inside of you.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

James blinked owlishly, considered Yadriel, then placed his hand heavily on the kid’s bony shoulder. “Don’t lose heart. You’re a good kid. I’m happy you’re on my team.”

“Yeah right,” muttered Yadriel.

“For real.” He shook the kid’s shoulder. “Good kid.”

“Fuck man, you don’t know me. I ain’t no good kid.” Yadriel stood up.

“No? Then set me straight. What are you?”

Yadriel glowered down at him. “I’m bad news. Always have been. I’m a killer, yo. You don’t know me.” And he strode away.

“Shit,” said James, and blinked again. “Son, we’re all killers now.” But Yadriel was gone.

“Hey, James.” Jessica came over, turned, and hopped up to sit on the edge of the stage. “You drunk?”

“Some. A little here, a little there.”

“You’re drunk. Burn Aeviternum. I’ve got news.”

“Hmm.” James sighed, summoned his statistics and burned a point. The fuzzy warmth immediately replaced, washed away by an energizing flood of righteous sharpness. He inhaled deeply and sat up straight. “God damn. That stuff does the job.”

“It does. Listen, I just leveled.”

James’s eyes widened. “Fabricator 2?”

Only now did he realize how quietly excited Jessica looked. She’d done her hair up again in another careless French twist, but her whole frame was tense. “My class is simply Fabricator, but my rank’s gone up to Apprentice 2, but now I’ve unlocked the ability to specialize. Options are Structuralist, War Smith, Battle Engineer, and Domestic.”

James’s appreciation for being alert and stone cold sober only grew. “Wait, that was a lot. War Smith? Battle Engineer? What the fuck is all that?”

Jessica grinned. “I can preview each, which again is unlike your Benedictions. In short, Structuralists can develop buildings, walls, you know, structures. War Smiths seem to focus on weapons, munitions, and armor, while Battle Engineers build… this is the weirdest one. Heavenly robots? Divine death machines? The concept’s hard to put into words. It also seems to be the hardest to qualify, so perhaps my access to it is a rarity.”

“You’re getting this on a conceptual level?”

“Right. An intuitive sense.”

“I get you. Like how it felt as if I’d always known what Sacred Strike did when I selected it. Just that you’re getting that sense upfront. Mighty generous of our benefactors.”

“For once, yes. Though Domestic seems important; it covers clothing, food, water, as well as almost any simple item I can think of. Shovels, ladders, whatever.”

“Sure, useful, but ladders aren’t going to stop the Nemesis 3’s. So what are you thinking?”

Jessica frowned, took a lock of her blonde hair, and passed it back and forth over her lips. “My sense of Battle Engineer is that it has the least benefit upfront but is a game changer in the long run. That any my access to it makes me feel like I should take it for that alone.”

“Divine death machines. What’s that mean? Tanks? Guns?”

“No, not really. Some of that, but it’s more…” she trailed off, trying to find the right words. “Almost like I’d be summoning, or… evoking… a divine energy into machines that I’d call into being. War machines. Robots, or… things I can’t quite picture, but which convey a sense of destruction, of…” She shook her head slowly. “Righteous fury? I see burning yellow eyes, like flecks carved out from the sun.”

“We sure could use some of those on our side. You said War Smith can create munitions? Like ammo?”

Jessica blinked and came back to the present moment. “Sure. My sense of it is that it starts off really basic, primitive, even, and then grows more complex and powerful as the War Smith levels up.”

“Now that is some damn good news.” James had to resist the urge to call Colonel Hackworth right there and then. “What about this Structuralist? Walls? Buildings? We got plenty of those already.”

Jessica shrugged, clearly dissatisfied with her understanding. “From what I intuit, these aren’t regular wars. Maybe they’re enhanced in some way? And the buildings… I don’t know, I get the sense there’s destructive power there, but not why.”

“Huh.” James rubbed at his jaw. “That’s… yeah. With half the population acting as Fabricators, this could be…”

“Huge,” said Jessica.

“Hell yeah. Ammo, guns, weapons, armor, fucking death machines… and hell, even water is a godsend. This changes… everything.”

“Depending on how hard it is to level.” But despite her disclaimer Jessica’s eyes were shining. “Though I’m not sure if you heard: there’s word of Nemeses attacking Fabricators. Our entering into the game has made us vulnerable to attacks for the first time.”

“Shit. Well.” James considered. “Guess it makes sense. Was good while it lasted. Looks like we’re gonna have to get you a gun.”

“Shall I make my choice?” Jessica sounded strange, and then James realized why: she was normally so self-assured that this hesitancy was new. “Or should I run it past Hackworth?”

“You’re your own person, Jessica. With this kind of shit, you need to follow your instincts. Do what you think is right.”

“Then I’ll go Battle Engineer.” She sat up straighter. “I’m making the selection now.”

For a moment nothing happened, and then her eyes flashed gold, as if for a moment the sun shone through them from the depths of her skull, and then they turned blue once more.

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“And?” prompted James.

She held up her hand. Her gaze moved from side to side, and then she frowned. “Huh.”

“Don’t ‘huh’ me. What’s up?”

“This is more complex than I’d anticipated. Give me a moment.”

James sat their drumming his heels on the stage’s edge and resisted the urge to take a swig of Bulleit just for the hell of it. Jessica studied something only she could see, lips pursed, until at last she nodded and blinked.

“All right. So what I can do right now as an Apprentice 2 is craft a variety of different… vehicles? Though they’re like nothing I’ve heard before. No combustion engine, no electricity, no steam power. Instead they run off of divine energy, which means I have to imbue each creation with Aeviternum upon crafting it. The more points I sink - or harness - the better the vehicle.”

“Sure,” said James. “You spend Aeviternum to make it work.”

“Yes. Further, it looks like they all require the same essential components but depending on the design I’ll need more complex and higher quality versions. The language is quasi-Christian, which I guess reflects my pseudo-religious outlook.”

“You, ah…” James didn’t know how to put it.

“Do I believe in God? I’m not sure. I’m an agnostic.” Jessica said this with clinical assurance. “But I was raised Protestant, so. Regardless. To build the simplest vehicle, known as an ‘Angel Wing’, I need Proprioception Helm, a Virtuous Heart, a Throne of Reason, and an Adiaphoron Network.”

James stared at her. “What the fuck does that all mean.”

Jessica smiled nervously. “It’s a bit overwhelming. The Helm functions as…” She frowned. “A sensor array? A means of perceiving the world and… itself? The Heart is the power source, that one seems clear. The Throne of Reason is the means by which the user can interface, or control the machine, while the Adiaphoron Network… wow, this is beyond me. A stabilizer? A means of achieving internal consistency? I think I’m going to learn by building this.”

James felt at sea but struggled to remain focused and not fluster her further. “Create what, exactly?”

“An Angel Wing, I told you. It’s like… a scooter?”

James stared at her and then laughed. “All this for a fucking scooter?”

She stared at him. “A flying scooter.”

“Oh.” He paused, considered, stared at her. “Oh.”

“Yeah. But to make each piece, the Helm, for example, I need to collect components. Some seem pretty normal. Steel, for example, or Aeviternum. But then it lists things such as sanguis petra, or adamantino divinum. No idea what those are.”

“Sounds like Latin. You speak any?”

Jessica shook her head. “I took Mandarin and Russian in college.”

“Of course you did. Yo, Richard! Richard!”

Richard was grooving on one of the terminals, bopping his head, typing rapidly, and drinking from a tall glass of what was probably Redbull and vodka. He looked over and pointed at himself. “You mean Star Boy?” he called back.

“No, I mean, whatever, you. Get over here.”

Richard rose to his feet, typing right until he tore himself away, then came over with a goofy grin. “What’s up, boss-major? Major-boss? Major major major?”

“Sober up,” said James patiently. “You got your Aeviternum left?”

“Sober up?” Richard looked stricken. “Fine. One sec.” His eyes widened, his face became subtly more expressive, his gaze sharper. “What’s going on?”

“Go ahead,” said James.

Jessica caught Richard up with admirable succinctness.

“Oh shit,” said James, covering his mouth with one hand. “That’s wild. OK, so… right.” He licked his lower lip and just thought for a moment. “All right, so this is classic. Magical components. We’re going to need to find this sanguis petra - blood rock, right? And divine adamantium. That’s like the greatest, most unbreakable metal. My guess it that shit’s manifesting within the hives, because that’s where the supernatural energies are at. But… wow.”

He passed his hand over his stubbled scalp and again stared out at nothing. Blinked, came back. “This is huge. No, you don’t understand. This is huge. Four billion people can now do this stuff. With the right components and enough Aeviternum. Construction, food, water, weapons and armor, fucking flying scooters. But the timing can’t be an accident, right?”

James made a face. “Why not?”

“This is all timed. The waves, the new demons. Which means the powers-that-be wanted us to start manifesting these powers just around the Fourth Wave, maybe after, but Jess is so fucking precocious she probably spoiled their plans. I know I haven’t leveled up. And looking around the room?”

They all scanned the sparse crowd.

“Nope, not seeing any other Fabricator normies flipping out. But anyways. This means they wanted us to start developing shit after the Nemesis 2 waves, but with time to spare before the Nemesis 3. So maybe we need all this stuff to be up and running before the Nemesis 3’s show up? Maybe they can fly?”

“Now that’s cheering,” said James.

“You’re right,” said Jessica, growing animated once more. “We’ll need to explore what these weapons and armor can do, what these walls and defensive structures involve, all of it, so that we can be ready to react the second Nemesis 3 shows up. Which means… oh damn. Like a new New Deal.”

“New new deal,” said James blankly.

“Roosevelt? Great Depression?” prompted Jessica, eyebrow raised. “Never mind. It was a series of nation-wide programs meant to stabilize the economy and provide jobs to the millions of unemployed by getting them to build infrastructure, highways, everything. We’re going to need to coordinate all this, or people will just do random shit.”

“Or not do anything at all,” said Richard. “Resource collection is key, right? As well as using Aeviternum? How many points does an Angel Wing need to get going?”

“Base of twenty,” said Jessica, “but that’s for a really crude model. I think you can scale it up as much as you want.”

“Or until you develop the ability to create a better version, negating the Angel Wing altogether.”

“Sure,” allowed Jessica.

“We should document all this.” Richard patted his pockets, the raised a hand. “Don’t move. I’m going to get my laptop. We need to start charting everything out so we get an accurate idea of what’s involved. How much of what for each component, how much for the general assembly itself, and so on. Is Angel Wing all you got for now?”

“All?” asked James. “It’s a fucking flying scooter.”

“No,” said Jessica primly. “The first item is a Battle Engineer mechanicus. It’s…” She waggled her head from side to side. “A wand? A crafting tool? I think it allows me to channel the Aeviternum and make things happen.”

“First thing we need to make, then.” Richard grinned. “This is so fucking awesome. What else?”

“An Anima Sola.” Jessica peered at her own hidden data. “It’s… well, much more expensive to build than an Angel Wing, but it’s not a vehicle. It’s a small machine, or divine construct. I get a sense of flight, of it being a guardian, of…” She frowned. “This is so ridiculously imprecise.”

“That’s fine.” Richard held up both hands as if to prevent her from bolting. “Anima Sola. Awesome. We’ll get all the data down, figure it out. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

And he darted away.

Jessica blew out her cheeks. “I’m sorry. Inefficiency frustrates me, and this method of conveying information is…”

“Ridiculously imprecise,” said James.

She smirked. “Yes. That.”

“Well hang in there. Richard was right. This is…” he trailed off, trying to encapsulate how much everything had just changed. “Beyond huge. If we can get a handle on all this stuff? I don’t even know where it’ll take us.”

“Into the sky, at any rate,” said Jessica. “You got a fear of heights?”

James grinned. “Nope. You build me an Angel Wing, and I’ll fly that fucker right into the sun.”

“Let’s not get all Icarus about this. But yes.” She squared her shoulders. “I’ll build you an Angel Wing. I’ll do everything I can to make sure we’re ready for the Nemesis 3.”

“I know you will.” James stretched, exhilarated and energized, enthused and excited. “Fucking hell. Shit really does seem to be going our way at last.”

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