Your eyes widen with anticipation the moment Babbage mentions the word. It lights up in your mind, promising incredible amounts of utility. New powers are always nice.
"Merge?" you gasp out. "You mean, like combining things together? Isn't that just Telekinesis?"
It is perhaps something similar to Telekinesis, Babbage replies. However instead of controlling a particular group of objects, it instead manipulates the foundational properties of said object.
"I… I don't get it."
We will demonstrate.
You sense Babbage's powerful Telekinetic energies reach out into the yard and grab one of the many scrap metal parts out there. He brings it over to the workbench, and allows it to hover in place above it. Afterwards, you sense him slowly weave his energies into a Merge, allowing you to study it in detail.
Then, he flips and reverses the energies around before diving into the scrap part itself. As his energies wash over the object, you watch as it comes apart in sand-like particles with absolute ease. The whole thing literally falls apart into pieces effortlessly section by section.
We are first utilizing the antithesis power to Merge, which is appropriately named Disintegration, begins Babbage. Doing so allows us to separate the numerous elements utilized in this structure and break them down into their fundamental elements. Iron and carbon and manganese and silicon… in addition to whatever other impurities may exist within the structure.
Babbage further reduces the scrap metal part down to various powdery substances of different colors and sizes, even going so far as to sort them into their individual piles as he goes. The largest of the piles appears to be a dull gray metal, while the second pile appears to be ink black. Oddly, the second pile is far smaller than the first.
There are smaller piles still, each one much smaller than the previous one. Some are so diminutive that you just barely spot their tiny grains on the workbench's surface. All piles are slightly different in color, mostly varying between white, silver, and gray. You can only presume these are all of the elements that make up the scrap part, but in powder form.
Now we will utilize Merge to manufacture a new object based on these separated fundamental elements, Babbage continues his lesson after giving you a moment to observe it thus far.
He uses a light amount of Telekinesis to 'push' the piles of powder back together, then mixes them up and kneads them like some kind of metallic dough.
Then you sense the energies of Merge form again, as slowly as the first time - plenty enough to give you a great look at how it all comes together. But this time Babbage doesn't flip and invert it before he engulfs the piles with the weaving.
You watch with awe as he shapes and forms it with his Telekinesis, even as the powdery elements are mixed and fused together with Merge. The individual powdery grains join and solidify with each other moment after moment, slowly forming into a cohesive whole over time. It only takes roughly half a minute before Babbage is done, at which point he presents the newly-minted object before you - a solid steel ingot.
A part of you can't help but be utterly amazed at what you've seen. The rest of you shake off your amazement, allowing you to pick up the ingot. As you look at it, you can't help but imagine the things you could do with a power like that. You turn it over in your hands to inspect it, to weigh it, to study it as though you want to know more about steel. But in the end all you can think about are all of the possibilities you could accomplish with Merge.
So you immediately spin up a bit of your energy and weave it into Disintegration. And just like Babbage, you turn those energies towards the ingot with the intent of undoing it, and perhaps returning it to a powder-like state.
But you find that you can't, or rather it's difficult to fully comprehend. Like with air, you're contending with millions of little particles, each one devoid of psionic energy. You end up attempting to widen the gaps between them, but find that it's difficult at best.
Almost like you're attempting to push down a wall with just the strength of your arms - it simply isn't going to happen no matter how much you feel it budge.
You strain yourself as you pour energies into the Disintegration, causing you to physically grit your teeth and tense your muscles. There's a loud CRAK as you snap the ingot into three solid parts, each one exactly the same size as each other, and with every break completely clean.
The moment it does, you lose your grip on your weaving, which causes it to dissipate into nothingness. Not that you're too worried about it - you find yourself somewhat spent and practically panting and heaving from the effort.
And all you've got to show for it is one massive failure.
You open your mouth to ask what happened, but as though anticipating your question, Babbage answers Telepathically, One cannot force a Disintegration or a Merge. It is unlike Telekinesis, which is a simpler, more brute method of object manipulation. Merge and Disintegration are both best applied with varying degrees of finesse and sophistication. Doing so will permit you greater control of these fundamental elements.
We recommend you make your next attempt a Merge - reattaching these three solid parts together will be much easier than if they were powder.
You nod in understanding as you prep your mind to try again. You do as Babbage has done, and use your Telekinesis to slide the three ingot pieces into their positions, then engulf them with a weaving of Merge energies.
This time you take heed of Babbage's instructions and do your best to simply allow your power to work. And you find that it is indeed far easier to control - the lightest touch of your energies allows the metal to bind back to its split portions with ease. You can feel its molecular structure quite literally shift and lock and fuse under your influence.
It only takes you a few seconds to fuse the ingot back together, to the point where it looks like one solid block once again. You pick it up and feel its surface with your fingers - you can't even tell where it had split prior. It's smooth as hell.
Well done. We recommend you attempt one more merge, simply to ensure you have learned the technique.
You nod, but instead of attempting to do anything with the ingot or any other scrap in the yard, you turn your Merge to the air. With your Scan and your Telekinesis, you do your best to find and cluster together hundreds of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. You place them in a small atmospheric bubble, keeping them separate from every other particle as best you can.
Then, you weave your energies into a Merge once again and wash over the two clusters you've got a hold of. Doing so allows them to form into tiny droplets of water, though you find it takes you a great deal of energy to do.
The minute Scan by itself is perhaps the most energy-intense power you're utilizing right now, followed by your Telekinesis, then your Merge. Simply, it takes you a great deal of effort just to isolate what you can. More than that, the pain in your head intensifies significantly as you fine-tune your energies and weavings.
Thankfully the Merge itself is relatively easy - isolating and condensing them allows them to form into mist by themselves. Which means any energy you send into it speeds up the process a great deal.
When you're done, you end up with a literal droplet of water. When you let go of it, it falls down and hits the steel ingot below.
Most impressive, Babbage says after a moment.
"Ah I just made a drop of water," you say somewhat out of breath. "But maybe with a bit of practice I can get a whole bottle's worth at some point."
What is impressive isn't that you utilized Merge effectively. It is that you have learned it quickly. It took us 295 days of constant practice for us to be able to consistently weave Disintegration and Merge. Nearly 13 of those days were spent pooling together enough molecules to form dihydrogen monoxide, as you have.
To have such a command over the Disciplines in such a short amount of time is quite the feat… perhaps we must ruminate on this.
"I dunno. It's just kinda what I need to do. I gotta figure things out and learn as much as I can because it's the only way I can survive out there. I mean, I'd be dead so many times over if I didn't have my powers."
So it is your travels that inspire this sense of urgency. Now we understand. This is perhaps a lesson we should learn as well.
"Well hey, consider this one a freebie."
You sense Babbage grin in amusement psionically.
Since this is your nature, and you are incredibly potent, perhaps there is something you can help us with, he says.
"What is it? Need help around the yard?"
You glance around at the various piles around you, though you don't see much that you could do here in the first place. Any manual labor you do is going to be far outclassed by Babbage's Telekinesis.
What we would require of you is much more delicate work… and dangerous. You see, we are in need of certain parts and require some help gathering them. If you were to assist us, we can promise to provide you with an infinite amount of wisdom. As much as you would want.
Your mouth gapes at Babbage's declaration. He's offering to teach you practically for free, possibly forever - if you pick up some stuff for him. You consider this a literal goldmine, one that you can't really pass up.
"That's a serious reward," you reply after a moment. "What you want must mean the world to you."
More than you realize. You see, we too wish to travel as you do, to observe and study the world, and perhaps meet other psions like ourselves. However we are completely and utterly immobile and incapable of locomotion.
"So you basically want me to find you a set of legs somewhere."
That is a crude approximation, but yes. We need legs. We have knowledge of a hidden military base in this area. One that has been constructed inside of this area, among the plateau formations. We have reason to believe that this base is also a research facility developing a combat exoskeleton along with its custom power supply. We could potentially consolidate those two systems with our own in order to achieve full mobility.
"Wait, how do you even know about this?"
Take a look around you. This yard has been gathered from the parts of a military convoy whose travels ended very close to this spot, though said convey has long since been dismantled and reformed. Some of the vehicles in the convoy collided with the cliffside where I now rest.
You see, they were either headed to or coming from said base at the moment the apocalypse happened. From my readings through Astral Memory, most died instantaneously. Anyone who lived, fled. They left their equipment here to rot in the sun.
And also be read and disseminated. By us.
"Alright, well sounds easy enough. Since it's around here, it shouldn't take too long to find what you need. Where is this place anyway?"
Unfortunately, we do not know exactly where the base is located. None of the information I could gather contains such details. All we can tell you is that we can sense a great amount of psionic energy coming from a certain part of the entire plateau formation - and it could possibly be where the base is. But we cannot be certain.
"I get why you say it's dangerous then. If I go, I might die to some crazy psionic thing. And I might not even find what it is you're looking for. Can you at least tell me what I'm up against? At least that way I can prep myself a bit before I go."
We wish we could impart that wisdom on you, however we are limited. All we sense from the entities are psionic noise - akin to static. It is unknowable the danger they possess. However we sense that someone like you has great potential to overcome them.
"Great... Well, no sense in delaying things I guess. Show me the way."
~~~
Hope you're enjoying the story! Please check out my other work - linktr.ee/ceritusorbis
Night falls as you walk towards the center of the plateau formation, determined to help Babbage with his request. Though a part of you wishes to have asked Noir to accompany you, the rest of you believes she has earned her relaxation time. You've been on the road so long that you both could use a bit of a rest.
Besides, you feel relatively confident that you could handle this on your own. Your own constant Scanning helps you pinpoint the location of the psionic beings as Babbage had mentioned. He was right to describe it as like television or radio static: it's plain psionic noise and somewhat grating to your senses.
Take the chaotic jumbled minds of any Crazed - the worst one - and then multiply that by a hundred. Random unintelligible thoughts and emotions are thrown out into the wild violently in wild momentary pulses and varying degrees of strength and power.
You sense that each pulse is a kind of attack, perhaps akin to a lethal Surge. But they all scatter and break apart when they hit your defenses - none are strong enough to penetrate even your simplest shielding.
Though these beings flicker their psyche in and out constantly, you're still able to get a sense of their general capabilities. Particularly how much energy they have in their reserves. You're glad to find that none seem to exceed your own in any way, and it would take many of them to match up with you evenly. And as far as you can tell, they haven't woven any specific psionic powers thus far.
Their static must be some kind of innate psionic defense - one that you plan to try to copy and practice once you're done with this job.
The closer you travel towards where these creatures seem to be clustered together, you find that the noises of the various nighttime critters and insects around you dwindle significantly. Basically, there's less critters here because they sense their lives being threatened somehow. Or perhaps that low-level psionic static defense is killing them as they get closer.
This reinforces the fact that you're perhaps on the right track. And also that perhaps this might be more dangerous than you think.
It only takes you the better part of an hour before you come to one of the largest plateaus in the entire region - the thing practically dominates the sky above you, and its cliff faces are the steepest of all those around.
Perhaps most tellingly, the pulses from the psionic creatures are strongest here, more than enough for you to almost exactly pinpoint where they are. They're inside the plateau you're standing in front of, which must mean that this is very likely the location of that hidden military research facility that Babbage mentioned.
So you spend another dozen or so minutes circling the plateau in search of its entrance. Along the way you find a dirt road wide enough to allow for large vehicles, which you follow all the way to an opening at the base of the plateau.
There, the dirt road comes to a three-way intersection with one fork leading further west, and the other into a half-circle tunnel roughly six meters long jutting out of the cliff side. Just outside the tunnel entrance is a rather severe security checkpoint with concrete barriers, a machine gun emplacement behind a sandbag barrier, and a heavily armored security station.
Oddly, you find that everything here has been left alone. Either no-one has come here to loot it, or no-one has been able to come here to loot it. No doubt the psionic static has something to do with that.
You peek into the security station as you pass by it only to find the desiccated corpse of its guard still inside, slumped over in its chair. Not only is the corpse in relatively good shape, but seeing as it's inside an armored box, nothing has been able to pick it apart. Not even maggots.
It's even still wearing its uniform, which has been badly stained by flesh and other organic matter that has gone through the process of liquefaction. Behind the corpse is a modest armory with a rifle, a shotgun, and presumably a bunch of ammunition.
Though you're tempted to open it up and grab the ammo, no part of you wants to smell that corpse.
More to the fact, seeing as there's one out here, you're almost certain that you'll run into more. And so before you get any further, you dig into your messenger bag and whip out a dust mask. You snap it over your nose and mouth before wrapping your scarf around you protectively. And then, you dull your sense of smell as best you can in preparation for the worst.
If this place hasn't been touched in years, then it's very likely that it's a tomb inside. One that's been seeping in rot for all that time. Despite the threat of unknown psionic horrors down there, it's the promise of the stench of death that turns you off this job even more.
Once you're satisfied, you continue down the large tunnel entryway, which continues for a dozen meters further into the plateau.
It is eerily dark here considering very little moonlight can actually reach you, and you find yourself amplifying your Temperance to your maximum so that you can see. Though everything becomes a rather grainy gray, you are still able to see most everything down here.
The tunnel roadway opens up to a small parking area which seems large enough for a number of vehicles - a half a dozen at least. In fact there are a trio of vehicles parked here - two Humvees and a plain unmarked car.
All seem to be in good condition, though you're not exactly too worried about searching them. Not right now anyway. You're sure there's plenty of goodies deep inside the place, and whatever's in these vehicles would be the least of them.
The tunnel terminates at a massive set of heavy security doors that seems to be split down the middle, allowing it to slide away to the sides. Currently, it's shut tight. There's a smaller access door built into the right side door which likely allows personnel to go through without having to open up the entire thing.
Also close to the right side is yet another security station, though it is far less armed and armored than the one just outside. The desiccated corpse manning this one is halfway out of the station itself, splayed out to the world.
And although it isn't protected by the station, you note that nothing has eaten it or taken a single bite of it as well. Its uniform is also mostly intact, though clearly deeply stained by its owner's liquefied flesh. It has clearly been dead for a good long while - definitely for years.
What takes most of your attention are a trio of corpses gathered around the heavy security doors. Their corpses look much fresher than the other two guards - and equally as untouched by nature. Their bodies are collapsing much slower as a result, and are simply drying up from the heat of day.
Quite tellingly, none are wearing fatigues or uniforms, and are instead wearing a variety of outdoor gear. Backpacks and hiking shoes and gloves and such. Though you're certain they aren't just plain hikers who lost their way - these are very clearly scavengers and looters.
You weave a portion of your energies and form them into a brief Astral Memory. Time around you rewinds to glimpses and moments in this trio's life here. Or rather, their deaths. You watch as they scream in pain as they clutch their heads, then one by one tumble to the ground, dead.
And you find your suspicions correct - these pulses of psionic static are lethal mental attacks. Certainly more than enough to kill non-psions outright. Now it makes a ton more sense why no living things have dared to come close, despite the promise of a good meal.
When you withdraw from the Astral Memory, you realize that the psionic creatures haven't actually done anything in the last few minutes. At least since your entry into the tunnel, which is certainly worrying. Unable to figure out what they're up to, you instead refocus your attention to the corpses in front of you.
Not that they're significant to you - they're just scavengers like yourself after all.
It's their equipment that piques your interest the most. Not only do they have large packs to fill loot with, but they've got all kinds of interesting tools scattered around them. There's a sledgehammer on the ground in front of the doors, right in the middle of the two. Jammed in the thin gap are a couple of metal wedges, which they presumably were using to attempt to open this massive gate.
There are also a couple of crowbars on the ground nearby, though one looks as though it's bent out of shape. It's likely they broke it while attempting to open the door.
You smirk uncontrollably. Even though you know nothing about this facility, just looking at the door tells you that a simple lever would never be enough to open it. In fact, you suspect that bombs wouldn't be enough to open the door.
This place isn't just fortified against discovery - it's also fortified against attack.
Thankfully you aren't attacking it. You just want to get inside.
You reach outward with equal parts ESP, Scan, and Telekinesis and wash them over the heavy security doors. With each of your powers, and by working them in layers, you attempt to find the shape of the doors - where their physical forms butt up against the psionic world.
And not just their exteriors, but their interior mechanisms as well.
After dealing with hundreds of tiny particles, dealing with massive solid pieces seems unfairly easy. You're able to sense massive bolts deep inside holding these doors shut from multiple sides. Each of the doors have their own bolt piercing the other one, latching each other shut solidly.
There are also smaller bolts that are jammed into the doors from above and below - four per door. Which means that there are ten total bolts holding the doors in position. No amount of crowbars or steel wedges would have budged these doors in the slightest.
With deft precision, you use your Telekinesis to turn and twist one of the larger door bolts until it is no longer hooked in place, then slide it back into its open position. Without any electricity running through the building, there's nothing to stop you from actually unlocking the door like this.
Once the bolt is drawn back, you spin the bolt back and lock it in place.
You then proceed to unlock the double doors one bolt at a time, sliding each one away and locking them in the open position. All the while, you concentrate on the shape and feel of the steel bolt mechanisms themselves, intrinsically understanding how it moves, how it works.
After you slip the bolts back into position, you use your Telekinesis to slide open the doors in front of you. Despite years of standing still, they move almost effortlessly. Not quite because of your abilities, but because of the spectacular engineering involved.
It seems magnetic plates are involved with keeping the doors perfectly aligned with the rails, making them slide with ease. Though you can sense large pistons that would normally open or shut the doors, none pose a barrier to you. Simply, without electricity, they can't maintain the tremendous amount of pressure needed to operate the doors in the first place.
And so the heavy security doors slide open as though you're about to head out to a patio.
There's a kind of psionic chitter that erupts the moment you step through, but it ends as abruptly as it comes. You can't hardly make heads or tails of it, considering it's just more psionic static. But it's loud and it's focused, and it comes from all of the presences around you all at the same time.
Knowing that you can't possibly leave this door open, you reluctantly use your Telekinesis to shut it. It's not even the fact that you don't want anything wandering in here. It's that you don't want anything inside to wander out.
That could spell disaster for Oasis, should anything in here decide to do some exploration of their own.
Whatever minimal amount of light winks out the moment the doors meet, bathing you in pure darkness. You're reminded of the farm house you visited weeks ago - it is just as dark as it was there. And it's cold - dozens of meters of stone and steel keeps this place rather chilly.
And that sweet smell of rot seeps into your nose, telling you just how thick death is in the air here.
But you remain undaunted, despite your heart beating a million times a second. There's a thrill and a fear that sweeps through you at the same time. A sort of eagerness and reluctance to continue this little jaunt. It isn't just the reward, of course. That's just the icing to this cake.
You're looking forward to facing whatever it is you have to face in this insane darkness, in this little dungeon crawl. And so you strengthen yourself with a potent Fortify, raise your psionic defenses even further, then step further into the base.
Paragraph comment
Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.
Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.
GOT IT