[author]
Sorry for publishing today instead of yesterday.
Anyway, I was publishing a free chapter next chapter on Patreon, but I'll keep it back to 1$ tier. Currently, all future chapter tiers are:
- Tier 1: Read 1 chapter for 1$
- Tier 2: Read 10 chapters for 5$
- Tier 3: Hopefully, soon, but will have to rack it up to 20 chapters in the buffer before so.
[/author]
As the moans, huffs, and the slapping sound of flesh hitting flesh came to an end, they fell on the ground, panting and sweating, their skin rosy from the heat within. Megan sat up soon after, her body no longer shivering from the afterglow. Leaning back against the drawers of Adam's desk, they met each other's eyes and smiled warmly.
Adam got rid of the condom and pushed himself up, but rather than resting beside her, he put his head on her full thighs and marveled at their flawlessness, white as marble, strong and firm yet soft and squishy.
Megan would have been a supermodel if it hadn't been for her upbringing, which Adam was very much thankful for. She had a very decisive character, yet would always support her friends and find ways to get people to cooperate, even wearing the pants herself and taking charge of bad situations at times.
In truth, Adam's character was rather indecisive before he met her; however, she changed so much in him during the six years they dated that he drew a lot of strength from her.
That strength wasn't directed to shield her, since he knew pretty well she didn't need protection, but rather attention and emotional management. That strength was directed to others around him, much like Kave and the rest of their friend group, but it was Kave who was closer to them than the rest.
Then there was this ongoing joke of Megan gatekeeping Kave, as she had chased away a couple of girls who were swooning over him. However, it was mostly her being protective of a certain type of girl for their friend.
Megan had the same line of thought as she started sinking her fingers into Adam's hair, rubbing his head gently as his thoughts drifted into sleep.
She didn't mind it though; this was one of the few calm moments they would have together in this fucked up world, and she wanted nothing more than to savor it while it lasted, pretending that the world hadn't gone to shit, pretending that her home was but a kingdom gone, and whoever caused it was something unfathomable and beyond her reach to take vengeance. Only monsters remained, and even with the power of this base and the summoned military, things were far from being stable.
If a real dragon were to appear, if one of those giants that invaded D.C. when her mother was with her on the phone, and where probably her father also was…
"Shit!"
Here it goes again, her mind and how fragile it could be when nobody was watching. But right then and there, Adam simply moved his hand while sleeping, holding firmly to her knees.
At first, she thought he was feeling her tension, but as she looked at his sleeping form and the quiver that just ran through his body, she also knew that he was having his own nightmares.
Everybody had nightmares; everybody was struggling in some way. However, only a few were able to push through those nightmares and still extend a helping hand. Adam, most of all, was preparing a plan to attack, to shift the fight from his doorsteps, and to seek out the enemy before it came. He looked for every advantage: the power was barely enough to charge the Blazer cells, the food was luckily covering the population growth; even still, he was willing to feed everyone and give them shelter.
Adam's strength was the kind her own father could barely comprehend. Taking action when necessary wasn't about being a ball of unceasing energy, but about possessing the wisdom to conserve it for crucial moments. This understanding wasn't solely hers; Captain Creed himself had once discussed with Elena the balance between action and inaction, and the importance of preparation. He noted how the Commander excelled at knowing when to slow down and when to act decisively, a rare quality among the commanders he'd encountered, often hampered by pressure from high command and corruption within the Ordinarium.
Megan, however, didn't care much about what the Wartopians thought. Unlike Adam, she didn't share the sentiment that they were people just like her and everyone else. She was grateful to them—Elena most of all—and thought highly of their skills and willingness to save the humans of this Fossil HereTechal world through their doctrine. She still feared them, what they represented, the grimdark theme of their mysterious origin.
Were they humans like Earthling humans? Were they programmed like robots? What did it mean that this Graying was a thing that happened to them when they died? Why could Adam alter their memories so easily with every summon? His ability entailed that the Puppets' ego would scale up with its quality, but it should have been something like autopilot. Yet, with the level of ego and independence they had, would they still follow Adam regardless? Will there come a time when they outgrow this phase, become more independent, act on their own, and potentially cause harm to Adam?
She wanted to voice many of those opinions to him, but he was simply tunnel-focused on the greater picture, thinking of a grand strategy now more than ever before, and attempting to push forward and gain ground.
She wouldn't blame him; it was the right call, after all, and the plans he shared with her were flawless so far. But much like her father, she would get unreasonably nervous around everything she didn't understand, a thought that soured her mood a bit, but still put a smile on her face.
As her thoughts started to calm down, she was startled yet again by a sudden action from Adam, who sat up immediately, eyes wide, while straightening himself beside her. He turned to her, then suddenly pressed a kiss on her lips, which she didn't have time to repay before he jumped to his feet and onto his chair, flicking his fingers twice.
"Look alive!"
With a vocal command, the room brightened with the four hologram casters shedding all manner of rays into the room, forming 3D images as they collided. Adam immediately stood up and started watching the geometric shapes of the runes as they formed all around him before giving another command:
"Computer. I want to give you access to a folder at the path: Root folder, user name: AdminClay, folder: Inquisitorium, subfolder: Restricted, classification: Minimalis, name: Project RuneTech."
> DIRECTIVE — ENTER PASSWORD
"HowDoYouTurnThisOn."
> DIRECTIVE — ANSWER SECURITY QUESTION: "Who is the hottest woman you know?"
"Gloria Dorsett"
"HEY!" Megan shouted, "That's my mom."
"Nothing but facts, hun." Adam turned to her with a shrug.
> DIRECTIVE — ENTER YOUR ONE-TIME PASSWORD
Adam turned around for his personal Blazer and held it up to the digital display at the rear of its barrel (usually where the hammer was set in firearms), before pressing it with his thumb for a couple of seconds.
"132-344." He slowly recited the numbers he saw before all security restrictions were lifted, "Go on Quarantine Mode."
"What are you doing?" Megan asked, stepping beside him, frowning as he isolated his computer from the rest of the base's network.
"I had a dream." He said, a glint of light in his eyes, "The Runes… they are more than we thought."
"What dream?" She asked.
"I… I can't remember." He shook his head with a shiver running down his body, "But I know the feeling. It wants something. The runes are active and alive, but not in the same way we think of life."
"So how?" Megan asked, looking as Adam started to frantically sweat while he was walking around half naked, reaching out for the holograms around him and trying to put them together in some shape.
"It's not whole yet. They all must fit together somehow. We only have ten pieces of the puzzle… No, nine!" Adam said frantically, fitting each rune into the next, "There are more of them; each is a part of an organism. The Runestones are like… I don't even know how to describe it now. It was just in my head… DAMMIT!"
From excitement to frustration, Megan watched as Adam banged his hands against the desk.
"Hey! Focus!" She went ahead and held his hands tightly, "The angrier you get, the faster they will slip away. Calm down, close your eyes, and breathe."
As she said so, Adam bit his lower lip but then tried to relax, pondered for a bit, and calmness returned to his erratic body.
"I get it!" Adam said and turned to the fragmented bone dagger, "Computer, pull the Simulation Code about the Runes and run them in a blank simulation environment. Note to me all the changes to the code in three stages: Activating, Executing, and Aborting. Try to find common parameters between the nine codes we have."
"Haven't you done this before?" Megan asked.
"I'm looking for something different this time." Adam replied, "We have runes that are in 3D shapes, like polygons, that's what we thought because we encountered them in a digital environment, right?"
"Mostly, yeah." Megan nodded.
"But we didn't account for something else. The shapes of each rune must stick into a material. The Elden have said that runes grow on gemstones by choice, not in minerals or other materials, even though they can." Adam said and pointed, "Because they crave light. They interact with it, and who is better than the Solarium in the department of Holy Solar Power?"
"You're losing me, buddy." Megan said with a sigh.
"Think, lattice, light, and crystal. There is something that ties it all together. The shapes of the runes aren't a coincidence either. Why do they appear in Cyberspace? Because of mental power? So they may have originated from a place similar to Cyberspace, and mental power is now magic. So our computing power can be converted to magic, send, and receive. The codes, all that… it links together. Fuck! The Sages are talking too much now."
Adam closed his eyes and let himself breathe for a second, unable to keep up with three heads thinking in place of one.
"Alright! Shut up! Shut up! All of you." Adam started waving his hands around, eyes searching all over the room, "Computer, copy one of those shapes with fourteen lattice nodes. Move it close, and let me edit the shape."
He started touching the bone blade, trying to discern where the dots of runic power he felt were, and tried to build a rune shape based on their appearance. After making a rough shape of what the Force rune could look like, he asked the computer to try and simulate it, telling it exactly that the intended result would be similar to the Bending Rune, with the expectation of controlling fire and other energies if possible.
That was way different from his usual work, now attempting to brute force his way into the science of runesmithing, but due to his lack of data, Adam had an even wilder idea in mind.
"Hey, babe." Adam turned to Megan, "If you are going to patrol now, drop by Solana and call her over. I want to discuss something with her."
Megan nodded and put on her clothes, yet was still worried as she looked towards Adam while exiting their abode. She had her long-range Blazer rifle, and she went for Solana first thing as Adam asked.
During the coming few hours, Megan was lying on her front on top of a tower, her rifle aimed in a general direction, waiting for anything to move. Beside her, there was a squad of Martian Hunters, the finest snipers in the Sacred Solar System.
Each planetary legion had its pride and joy of specialized troopers, a slight improvement over the regular troopers' specializations shared by the rest of the Legio Bellarium. The Martian Hunters were better Marines than most, specialized in sniping and recon; much like them, the Urdmen had the Fanatics, originally a grenadier force. The Venusian Shock Troopers were simply better Auxiliaries, but since Venusians would pass this rank at least once, the entire legion was considered badass to the max, and so on and so forth.
The assignment to this squad made Megan part of an elite team of shooters who kept challenging themselves on kill counts, which was both uplifting and annoying, not to mention the Sergeant who had it in for Megan for some reason, fully knowing the Commander is her man.
As the hours passed, the squad was called back after shooting down seven dire wolves during their whole shift. Megan dragged her steps back to the residence, but as she walked in, she found a party of seven individuals all standing around the place, their faces reflecting peak focus.
Adam, Elena, Yuki, Kave, Solana, Wrench, and Buzz.
These were some of the most technical people in the base, and if they were all around, there was some big discovery. Solana was praying, facing the computer, and the others were silent, so she knew to wait before asking. But as she grew more curious with time, Megan squeezed between Elena and Kave.
"What's going on?" She asked Kave, watching him as he tried his hardest to move his eyes away from the holograms floating about.
He turned, and his faint voice carried a reply that shocked her senseless.
"Adam…" Kave said slowly and let out a long breath he had been holding for a while, "He found a way to track down runes… with our Scanner Beacons."
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