System Supervillain, Chapter 125

Chapter 125 – On the Other Side

Web Mistress pulled us all into the virtual world, courtesy of the nearest cell phone. It happened to belong to Brittania, which probably explained the Union Jack theming in the digital space. I didn’t have much time to look around, before Web Mistress took us on the next leg of our journey, but I did notice a picture hanging close to us. A nude selfie from Green Knight?

“Huh,” Stolen Victory said, spotting the picture. “There were always rumors that those two were more than friends. I’m glad she got such a… well-defined partner.”

We didn’t linger in Brittania’s phone, however. There were more important things to do, after all. We only had a few hours to find the Emperor, and prepare for the assault, and there was no telling how long it would take us to find him.

From Brittania’s phone, Web Mistress took us into the UK internet. The raw digital infosphere was crowded, as one might expect. So crowded that I doubted anyone but my sister could make sense of it without a map. There was a reason she was known as the premier technopath in the world, after all.

We were only there for a moment before we hit a transmitter that she had prepared, connecting to the Gel-nak ships in orbit. Humans would have cut the access links from those ships to the network once they’d fallen into enemy hands, but the Gel-nak were too regimented for that. Or, rather, they were limited by their experiences in the wider galaxy, under the System.

The Gel-nak were an ‘ordered’ species. Apparently, all species had the potential for developing powers and abilities. Some were more orderly, either by nature or by selective breeding, developing a ‘rational’ set of abilities that were generally shared by all their people. The Gel-nak were particularly strict with their ordering, however, going so far as to excise any genetic offshoots that displayed nonstandard abilities. Anyone deemed a ’mutation’ was put down, to keep their genetic deviance from disrupting their society.

Of course, I couldn’t say that their approach hadn’t had some benefits for them. The natural predisposition for following orders and regularity of their abilities made it so that their war machine was a well-ordered masterpiece. They had, apparently, conquered six different ‘chaotic’ species in the expansion of their empire, which counted twenty-five systems at this point. The chaotic species had been too disunified and primitive to withstand the Gel-nak onslaught. Once they were conquered, their new overlords had set about ‘ordering’ their genetics, until they were now ‘ordered’.

Unfortunately for the Gel-nak, humans were far more chaotic than they were used to. Probably due to the System being offline for most of human civilization. We were too chaotic for their orderly approach. Even if humans weren’t unified, we could attack a problem from too many different avenues for them to properly respond. It was why their ships didn’t have point defense capable of taking out two supers flying around them, and why they didn’t have anyone who could counter me in their fleet when it got to close combat.

The end result was that there was still a connection from the Gel-nak carrier to communications devices on the ground, inside the shield. It didn’t matter if no one was listening to any transmissions, there was a device that was turned on which Web Mistress could connect to, and that’s all she needed. We were in a communications hub in one of the landing craft. Behind the shield.

It took some searching, but Web Mistress found a communicator that was near the portal. Leader Caste, communicating with the other side. Perfect. She paused just long enough to reach out to the portal device, and open a connection port for later use. There was a moment of ‘static’, as we jumped from Earth to the Epsilon Eridani system, which the Gel-nak called ‘Thraxl’. Another pause, as she marked this end of the portal, and then we jumped from that communicator into the network of Thraxl Prime.

Inside the enemy network, Web Mistress took more time to cover her tracks, and avoid rousing suspicion. Unlike before, with the fleet, the Technicians here would be on alert. Using cyberwarfare to the extent we had would make them start looking for any ‘rogue programs’. Even if they weren’t actually inside the system, like we were, there was a chance that they could spot us, and Web Mistress was the only one with real defenses against digital attacks in this form.

This part of the show was all on Web Mistress. The best that we could do was ride along, try not to cause trouble, and be on the lookout for anything she missed. Not that I expected her to miss anything when she was literally in her element, here, but more eyes on a problem was always better than fewer.

“There is a cluster of communicators here, tapping in to try and get a fix on the Emperor,” Web Mistress said, as she drew us to a ‘node’ in the network not far from the portal. It all looked the same to me, one swamp-like location after another. The digital landscape was clearly lacking when it came to novelty of design, but it wasn’t nearly as sterile as the carrier’s digital space had been. This was ‘lived in’.

Web Mistress must have found a trail, because we were off, going from node to node through the virtual swamp. Several transitions later, we were in what looked like a stone building rising up out of the murky waters. There were soldiers at the corners of the rooftop, and in front of the door, all looking outward and standing at attention, with blades in hand, resting against their shoulders.

“Intrusion countermeasures,” Web Mistress said. “Automatic attack programs like a more advanced version of antivirus software. They are designed to detect and attack rogue programs and the like. I’ve disguised us as one of their ‘Hydra’ analysis programs, which act as virus scanners. That should allow us through the door, and not be suspicious to any IT lizards in the system, but if we attack or do anything to draw suspicion, they’ll all be on us. But this should be the Command Nest for the entire invasion point. I’ve modified our connection to allow whispers to be private in the group, but if you start talking normally, others may detect it.”

We followed Web Mistress through the virtual door. While the outside may have been simple stone, like some kind of bunker in the swamp, the inside looked like a command center for a spacefaring military power ought to. More attack programs were standing there, looking on, and I saw a multi-headed monstrosity in one corner, probably one of the Hydras that Web Mistress copied.

There were no actual people in this digital space, but several points that were active, and running data. Terminals in use in the outside world, no doubt. Technicians and planners working on invasion plans, probably.

Web Mistress brought up a pair of windows in front of us. The first showed a timer, counting down to 9PM, GMT. Getting through the communications systems and into position, here, had taken a couple hours, since we were trying to be sneaky. We’d have an easier time of it, heading back, since Web Mistress already had a ‘marker’ in the portal machines, meaning she wouldn’t have to feel her way through the systems, but the offensive would be starting in fifteen minutes. Plenty of time, but still cutting it close.

The other window showed a panoramic view of the command center from the vantage point of a security camera. As expected, it was a very big space, spread into four ‘rings’, descending slightly with each step to the center. The outer ring had twenty Worker caste, working their consoles, though there were several open stations. Didn’t appear to be too high-strung, but looking ‘over their shoulder’, so to speak, at the work they were doing, it became clear that they were the ones managing the everyday functions of the base, not coordinating attacks through the portal, or worrying about base defense. Logistics work.

The third ring, on the other hand, had ten Worker caste and five Warrior caste, with no empty seats. These ones had base defenses on their terminals. There were sensor readouts, maps of the base, and so on. In other words, they were focusing on properly allocating Warriors to defend the base, and repulsing any attackers.

The second ring was four Warrior Caste, four Leader Caste, and four Worker caste. These terminals had maps of London, troop placements, lines of advance, prisoner processing centers, and so on. They were the ones doing the day-to-day work of managing the invasion force, then.

The inner ring, though, surrounded a central console, with a map of Earth, and images of the different invasion sites. My picture was highlighted, from one of the videos I had sent out. Next to it was a dossier on me, clearly taken from some government database in London. Not surprising, since they definitely would have tried to figure out who made them look like fools.

There were three Warriors and five Leaders in this central ring, but I knew instantly that none of them were the Emperor. The four-meter-tall, two-meter-wide slab of muscle and pure power, wearing the most impressive set of power armor I’d seen from the Gel-nak yet, with what looked like an armored fist with mounted blaster cannon on one hand, and a massive, two-handed blade floating in the air behind his back, like some sort of video game character? Yeah, he had to be in charge. Especially given how everyone was looking at him, and doing the bowing and scraping thing. All eager to show him that the failures in the invasion so far weren’t their fault, no doubt.

Basic Info

Name

Emperor Throhi III

Aliases

Throhi the Green, Throhi the Conqueror, the Mind Taker, Slayer of Iszak the Unrelenting, Reaver of the Omzocut, Destroyer of Thauszizk, Tamer of the Kez Sisterhood

Height

4.09m

Weight

1750.5 kg

Eyes

Yellow

Scales

Green/Red

Base Points

400

Total Spent

800

Max Disadvantages

200

Disadv. Used

200

XP Earned

200

XP Used

200

I couldn’t use my Administrator powers directly against the Gel-nak, and there seemed to be some restrictions against looking up specific powers and weaknesses of individual combatants, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t look up basic information. Especially on a principal actor like the Emperor. Probably part of the reason why the Gel-nak had tried to tempt me to their side, when they announced their presence. Getting administrators out of the way prevented things like my announcing their cold weakness to everyone.

The problem I had was that the Emperor was far and away stronger than I was. Not just strength-wise, though I didn’t doubt that was true, as well, but in terms of XP earned, and spent. Even with everything I’d done since the Initialization, I still only had 46 XP earned. For him to have two hundred? That meant he was an experienced fighter and commander. I could not afford to take him lightly.

“Plan, Master?” Stolen Victory asked me. All my pets were looking my way, ready to see what I would say.

“When the distraction starts, Web Mistress will drop us in the center of the middle ring. We start with the ones closest in, and work out. If some of the workers run, let them. It will only cause more confusion. I will focus the Emperor, since I am probably the one with the best chance of taking him out. Smash the Leaders as quickly as possible, since their mental attacks might be able to cause trouble for us. Warriors next. FX and Web Mistress, try to stay out of the line of fire, since you aren’t primary combatants, but do what you can to help out or distract people.”

“Any questions?” There were none. “All right. Everyone get ready.”