Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Revenant

Both outlaws' eyes jumped towards the cruiser, and Eon heard Saul rise from the chair behind him. Fortunately, the vessel continued into the night, heading towards the commercial district.

As Eon followed the cruiser, his hazel eyes lit up under the bright glow of arc energy. The shining blue, almost white, aura covering the cruiser soon dispersed into the atmosphere.

Six more spaceships exited hyperspace after the first vessel disappeared. The aerial entries were illegal, but on a backwater planet like Typhon, money ruled over the Star Federation's laws. Petty disputes like wars or invasions were ignored by the Star Federation unless they encroached on the galactic government's control over Nexus Veins.

The astral ley lines contained the majority of the galaxy's arc energy, producing Arc crystals and portals to Nexus Realms. Losing control over the Nexus Veins would disrupt the power and stability of the entire galaxy. As a result, minor issues were left to local governments and guilds, which inevitably opened back doors for pirates and raiders from beyond the Outer Rim.

"You think they are here for the Lunar Festival?" Eon asked Saul.

"Among other things…" Saul said, staring at the flying vessels. "It looks like today won't be a quiet night. That first ship was a scout reporting to the other six vessels." Saul finally turned to Eon with a serious face. "If you've got business left to handle, I suggest you honor it and then keep your head down for the rest of the night."

Eon nodded, accepting Saul's warning.

"Say hello to A'steri for me when you return. Oh, and remind her about that promise. Tell her to double my order, I'll send someone over to pick it up."

"Alright," Eon said as he hopped on his motorcycle, waving goodbye. "Say hello to Mariss for me as well. I'd have loved to see her…" he let the words trail off as Saul waved him away.

As Eon drove away from Saul's compound the spark emitter in his holo-watch released a silent electromagnetic pulse. The minute EMP spread out for two meters, scattering his digital signature. Any tech scanning him would see static in his place and would lose track of his location. A second later another pulse left Eon's holo-watch, concealing his motorcycle under the [Shroud] of the Revenant.

The Revenant was a military grade artificial intelligence, a prototype designed to collect information and mimic stored data for reconnaissance and espionage. It was stolen from the Black Rose Association by a smuggler nearly two years ago. Eon had never learned the thief's name, though she had died in his arms, leaving him with a hell of a mess to clean up.

It happened on a dark night ruled by lightning and thunder. He had just completed an ODD job, ready to sneak out of a data center when a netrunner ran into him, knocking them both over. The woman was stained wet with rain and blood, but the only thing that caught Eon's attention was the tattoos of blue-white energy running over her skin. Eon didn't know it at the time, but the woman was a psionic from beyond the Outer Rim.

Eon had reached for his pistol as he fell, cursing himself for not having it in his hand, when their eyes locked and she released her final breath. A commotion alerted him to those that had been chasing her, and at that night, covered in blood underneath the psionic-netrunner's corpse, Eon killed for the first time. Five surprised men armed with spark emitters burst into the room and fell to the superheated bullets of his ionic revolver.

With a panicked heart racing a thousand miles per hour, Eon shoved the corpse off of himself, ready to make an escape when the woman's bag tripped him. Opening it revealed lightning-attuned arc crystals and a metallic case wrapped in a pink shirt. Upon leaving with the case, Eon exited into the facility to find the corpses of the guards he had snuck by. Twenty armed men were killed with a deadly precision that marked the culprits as elites in his eyes—off-world mercenaries that caused him to grow frantic, looking for ways to erase his presence from the scene.

One thing led to another and he fled with the body of the dead psionic-netrunner, while a great blaze burned in the building behind him.

As Eon layed low, nothing came of the incident. Yet still it took him a full year to upgrade his holo-watch with the components necessary to run the Revenant program. The A.i simply wasn't engineered for personal mobility, but rather a small tactical cruiser fit for a single passenger. As a result his watch was severely crippled from what it was capable of, limited by the size of its hardware. Only two aspects of the Revenant were available due to that reason, [Shroud] and [Data Breach]. He wouldn't unlock the others unless he uploaded the A.i to a super computer.

However, not only was the action unfeasible for him, it was unnecessary. Both abilities perfectly fit his needs. Together they formed the core functions of the Revenant, and were powered by a spark emitter that utilized the lightning-attuned crystals he found on that fateful night. If [Shroud] turned Eon invisible, then [Data Breach] turned him incorporeal, granting him an ability to slip past firewalls as if they weren't there. The perks had inflated his confidence to dangerous levels and now it was finally time for him to fall back down to earth.

Eon entered his neighborhood an hour after he parted ways with Saul, parking his new bike in the residential garage. The complex was fairly standard for the commercial district, offering on site security for both personal and digital needs—not that he needed the latter. The main reason he chose the location was for its garage and roof access. From there he could disappear into the city even if his building was surrounded by assassins.

Arriving on the 10th floor, Eon stepped out of the elevator when a white cat meowed, rubbing against his leg.

"Locked out again Mochi?" Eon asked.

The cat purred as Eon bent down to pick her up. Walking towards an unruly neighbor's apartment, he banged on the door.

30 seconds passed with no answer.

Eon banged again.

60 seconds passed with no answer.

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Damnit Yoshi, I don't have time for this.

Eon was about to pick the lock when a grin spread across his face and he thought of the perfect birthday present for Bun. The small cat loved to play, and he spent many nights babysitting due to its alcoholic owner forgetting it outside. Knocking one last time, Eon petted the neglected cat, feeling fragile ribs under its fluffy coat.

"Welp, I tried."

With Mochi in tow, Eon entered his apartment, checking if it had been tampered with, when an alarm sounded. Fortunately, it was his watch alerting him to the time of night. It was 10:15pm and as he looked down at the time on his watch he let out an audible curse.

"She's going to ring my neck."

Tonight was Bun's birthday and he was about to miss the surprise he had planned. The recent contracts he accepted distracted him for the past two weeks. A member of the Emberlord Guild had sought the help of netrunners to find information about a strange artifact smuggled into Typhon.

The guild was new, consisting solely of pyromancers, nevertheless they were sanctioned by the Star Federation and offered generous pay. The item in question was a sarcophagus rumored to have survived the explosion of a Nexus portal.

Coincidentally, Eon had accepted that request only a day before he received an anonymous contract to retrieve information of stored and incoming goods from select warehouses. The Keyflame docks had been the last location on his list and he hadn't had the time to read through the data for himself, until now.

After slicing leftover grilled chicken for Mochi to eat, Eon removed his clothes and jumped into the shower. Steam began to flow, clouding the bathroom mirror as an electronic voice listed various items stored within the Keyflame docks.

The more items announced, the more his interest peaked. Briefly he debated selling the information in exchange for a few items on the list. From portable spark shields that blocked elemental arc energy, to spark emitters designed for high caliber rifles. To his surprise the docks also stored 10,000 F-graded arc crystals, an amount that could transform 100 people into psionics if fate was on their side.

F-graded arc material held the lowest arc radiation a person could handle. Higher quality material ranging from E to S-grade automatically triggered an awakening in a person's molecules, resulting in the infamous Baptism known throughout psionic society. Sadly, higher graded material used to awaken an individual also decreased the chance of their survival. An already low 20% chance for one hundred F-graded arc crystals, fell to 5% when using a single E-graded crystal.

On the upside, psionics awakened by rare arc crystals obtained cells that stored larger quantities of arc energy. That simple fact killed millions each year, not counting the billions that died hoarding F-graded arc crystals for a chance at a better life. It was for that reason Eon abstained, alongside the memories of the dead orphans he grew up with. No matter how hard he tried, he could never forget the smell of burning bodies that burned until they were erased from existence.

But of course rumors spread regarding practices that increased chances for awakening. Eon heard tales describing certain foods and drinks from A'steri. Specifically purified psionic blood mixed in with herbal tea, said to detoxify the body. The success rate was negligible as far as he was concerned. However, one method stood out to him. One he would try if he was plagued by a deadly illness that left him no other choice, and that was elemental alignment.

From what he gathered, arc crystals that resonated with an individual doubled their chances by 50%. Unfortunately, the best method to assess one's affinity was the rate their body decayed under elemental arc radiation, and by then it was far too late. If there was a full proof method for raising a psionic, the Star Federation and the factions hidden in the Outer Rim, kept the information under tight control.

There still remained a non zero chance that no method existed, but Eon doubted that possibility. Too many high ranking officials sired psionic children for him to believe that. Aside from heritage, perhaps it was something about their upbringing that gave them an edge. A mindset that corralled arc energy under a person's control. After all, psionics directed arc energy with their mind and that fact contributed to their namesake.

Not for the first time Eon wondered if willpower played a major role in surviving the Baptism, yet he found no theories on the subject.

Maybe I should run the experiment myself?

The thought passed through Eon's mind as he washed suds from his body, distantly listening to his holo-watch reveal the names of classified items.

It should take a week to gather resources for two patients. A month if I attempt the elemental method.

His mind spun multiple scenarios for how he would obtain such resources, when in the back of his mind, he heard Saul's warning, and his spirit deflated. First he had to make sure his cover wasn't blown after the many exploits he ran with the Revenant. Only then could he start testing his new theory. It was a minor setback, but in the past year he had stolen from too many people to avoid caution.

Rinsing shampoo away from his eyes, Eon made ready to hop out of the shower when he caught the tail end of a description that grabbed his attention. His eyes shot open and shampoo entered them, but he paid no mind to the pain as he directed his watch to repeat what it had previously read.

[Log Data/key015-7/grim_sarcophagus]: A psionic coffin attuned to "death" energy.

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