[Future Fish] Part 4
Added 2025-03-30 04:44:48 +0000 UTC"Hello Darkness, my old friend. I've come to talk with you again…" I sang under my breath, attracting Perv's attention as a song he was not familiar with. He understood the reference when I got to the refrain, and smirked despite himself.
"Nervous?" he asked me after I finished. It was a rhetorical question. Nervous meant fearful. He knew I wasn't afraid of pretty much anything.
"Bored. Boredboredbored. Did they give up their ability to tell time with their voices?" I snarled at nobody in particular, and spontaneously inverted into a handstand and started doing pushups, accompanied by snoring sounds.
"Given the level of their remit, they have perhaps developed a certain amount of arrogance," Perv mused aloud.
"An Umbran wouldn't know anything about that." He smiled at my retort. "They can't possibly outrank the Umbrans, can they?"
"The entire organization? No. But they exist at the personal service of the Emperor, the same as we, and their loyalty is unquestioned. They are pariahs to other people, and the Emperor is their shelter and their benefactor. They don't take bribes, they can't be turned by foes of humanity, they terrify many xenos and mythos creatures, and they have priority over all wild talents within the Empire. If they want a Talent, they get them, unless one of the great powers intervenes … and even then, if they insist upon it."
"So, my job is to be interesting, but not that interesting. I should, like, bore them to tears or something."
"I'm not sure that is one of your wide variety of gifts."
"You ozbiouzly haz not tried queztioning me when I'm engaged in meditation, zz zz zz. Maybe I can recite Mantras from the Chapter of Paens and Worship?" Hup, hup, hup…
"I think they can quote them back to you."
"Ah, right, fanatic servants of the Throne, yada yada." I balanced on one arm to continue, waving the other dismissively. "You sound like you've met them?"
"In passing. I've handed over a couple rogue psychics to them after we caught them." A nerve twitched in his cheek. "Not a pleasant experience."
"Oh? Sublime nerves of oil and midnight let you down?"
He forced a smile again. "Yes, they did. Dealing with the Sisters of the Silent Night is… extremely uncomfortable. You will see it when they come."
"Not like dealing with Sama. Happiness, light, and kittens riding ponies all around." The noise he made in reply didn't quite agree with me.
"Ah." I heard the footsteps, the extra weight of power armor makes for a distinctive reverberation in any floor, even with padded treads. I turned my head as they walked into the room.
Hmm. Neutral gray to charcoal form-fitting body armor. All custom jobs, because form-fitting was deuced hard to do with body armor that was supposed to make you harder, faster, stronger, and all, especially when you're a woman with all those inefficient curves. Long off-white cloaks. No helms at the moment, but half-mask gorgets covering their mouths and noses. Their hair was all long and black, rising higher than natural and falling off behind them, had to be at least a meter long. Given the uniformity of hue, probably dyed.
Tall, as tall as me, and the nanoweave brought out the muscles. Not supermodels, these were women who'd learned how to run around in a couple hundred pounds of power armor and kill things Man Was Not Meant To Know. And the Men Who Knew Them, too.
Inneresting-ting. Upside down, I glanced at Perv.
He was sweating, had tensed up, a tic had developed in his clenched jaw. Clearly something was going on here that I just wasn't seeing.
I pushed myself up and back to my feet with a one-handed handspring, and extended my Null over him.
He actually blinked, and turned to look at me with shock all over his face. I dusted off my hands flagrantly and didn't look at him. He frowned, regaining his composure smoothly, and no longer seemed affected as he looked back to the incoming Silent Sisters. Gray Grannies. Mute Mommies. Not-Audible Aunties. Deathly Daughters. Not-Noisy Nieces.
I smirked despite myself, and that caught their attention. Their brows furrowed just so. Obviously, they were used to having a much more unsettling effect on people then what was happening here.
Perv was actually breathing deeply and evenly now. He stepped forwards slightly, and the three women came to a stop. I noted he stopped just as his fingertips breached my Null. "Sisters, a good day to you all." He actually sketched a shallow bow to them, and I could see even more consternation appearing in their eyes. I also noted he stepped back to do the courtly bow. "I am Umbran Philius Marwengora, of His Imperial Majesty's Order of the Fallen Moon. A pleasure to see you stride our halls once again."
They were looking at him as if he were some sort of strange animal. Perhaps this was rather unsettling to them? I guess he was supposed to be shaking in his boots at this time. No, no, just surprising, not unsettling. Way too calm for unsettle.
Their eyes all turned on me with the synchronicity of non-verbal chat. I stood there with an indifferent expression on my face, looking into each of their eyes one by one without any effect, and they actually blinked. Hah!
"Do they actually talk?" I asked Perv, who hesitated, glancing at them, trying to reconcile his lingering fear and my irreverent attitude.
"The Sisters of the Silent Night take Oaths of silence. They use holos to interface with normal humans." He cleared his throat carefully. "Sisters, this is Sama Rantha, the young woman that has the knickers of the Mentats in such a fit they went scrabbling to you in a frothy mess." He cleared his throat meaningfully, and they actually looked back at him. "She has been examined by Umbral Masters and the finest technology of the Empire, the results of which were released to you. By no measurable standard does she have any psychic ability, be it natural, artificial, or learned."
And there it was, he had thrown it right into their faces. The Umbrans were masters at ferreting out enemies of the Empire, and to do that, they had to be able to sense and find them. Nobody was better at judging the threat level of an enemy, and even their Sisterhood had to acknowledge that fact. If the Umbrans said I wasn't psychic, I simply wasn't.
Words flickered and drew themselves into view over the shoulder of the middle one, looked like the oldest of the three by the mileage on what was revealed of her face. -Her reaction to our presence is unnatural.- Her eyes actually narrowed.
I lifted a curious eyebrow as Perv coughed. "Actually, Sisters, you may not realize this, but her reaction to you is actually completely natural. It is everyone else's reaction which is unnatural."
None of them looked particularly pleased to hear that, but their eyes moved back to me. I was still smirking. -She possesses some sort of power that is similar to our own. It is enough for us to become involved,- the reply flashed very quickly.
"I am afraid that is not true. If you will refer to your Codex of Operations, your remit is purely for psychic influences and the sources of them." All three of them actually blinked at him. He was actually lawyering them? THEM? "By no measure available to the Empire is this woman psychic. You have no more business with her then you do investigating holy sightings, rogue AI's, or fights between street gangs over drug turf. Unless you think the resources of the Fallen Moon are insufficient to determine this minor fact accurately?"
Now he was fully bringing the name of the Umbrans into it, and my status as an Umbran agent. Their eyes flickered, and I could see their fingers twitching in some kind of finger-cant.
-There has been a great deal of video footage showing her accomplishing feats that cannot be explained by physics, and overcoming psychic entities.-
"Indeed. So can Pscreamers, Black Rooms, Inertite, and the Mantras of Axiom. Do you wish to investigate the Artificers, my own Order, every world with the ore, and the Emperor's Own Marines?" he went on with icy calm. I could tell he was getting off on being able to talk to them so calmly, and they were unsettled by the simple fact that he could!
"I'm sure that at the very least they wish to verify themselves that I have no hidden psychic ability," I broke in calmly, and held out my hand palm out. "Go ahead."
They looked at me, at one another, and the youngest one narrowed her eyes and stepped forwards. The metallic gauntlet on her hand peeled away with mechanical precision to reveal somewhat pale skin beneath, and an odd light came on in her eyes. She seemed to be anticipating my reaction.
Our palms met.
La la la.
Her face distorted, watching my expression. She pressed harder, making sure it was skin to skin, and I rolled my eyes in a rather juvenile manner, which only infuriated and confused her more.
-Nothing?-, the leader asked, watching this.
-Nothing. There… should be something, anything.- She backed off with her hand, and then surprisingly stepped forwards to get in reach of my head and rather rudely put her hand over my face. She didn't scratch or claw or anything, and I patiently tolerated it. -It… is like touching a machine or object. She is right here, I can read her vital signs, scan her genetics. But she is as inert… as a rock.- She backed away, disbelief and distrust in herself warring on her face.
Well, it wouldn't do but for all of them to do the same thing, and I sighed. Perv astutely took up a position behind me, since I'd withdrawn my Null. Placing me between him and them seemed to allow him to keep his cool.
-Enhanced connective tissue, skeletal system, and musculature. Expanded breathing capacity and tolerance. Tougher dermal tissue, lack of mammary development, accelerated reflex time - standard indicators of heavy gravity genetics. Minor mutation, an extra set of canines. Probably engineered for easier consumption of high g protein lifeforms.- Well, duh. Not true, of course. But it sure looked good. The leader eyed me strangely as she stepped away, as if I was some new life form. -You… are not repelled by our touch?- She was a little stunned.
"Should I be?" I looked over at Perv as he stepped up beside me again, my Null reaching out to cover him. I looked at his face. "Oh. Of course I should be. Um, no. Nice calluses. Stick user, sword user, gun user," I pointed out to each of them, making them blink. "So, what would happen if you touched Perv here?" I tossed a thumb at him.
And to my surprise, he caught my hand and gently brought it down, forcing a smile. "In all seriousness, I have absolutely no interest in finding out," he declared quite earnestly.
Fractional straightening by the Sisters. That was the reaction they were expecting! -Where did you receive your combat training?- she asked, staring at me sharply.
"Hardcoded. I have no idea. Shady hazes of virtua combat sims, maybe." They all blinked again. "I've been sort of assimilating it as I go along. It's also pretty specific, to the point of absolute memory blockage on weaponry that's not coded in, and that includes almost all kinds of tech. But if you want a low tech beatdown on stuff, I'm your person." I tilted my head and popped my neck. "Yes, yes, you've seen me shoot a las. That's because it is built into my crossbow, and my preferred setting is full auto with a leyser sight on it to guide my aim. A talented Three with a training focus on a las could outshoot me easily, I'm decent because I've got excellent hand-eye coordination and timing. But something starts to swim when I'm using a las to shoot things, and my accuracy drops markedly. I can't snipe at range to save my ass.
"Now, with a crossbow you aren't going to find anyone better. So, keep it primitive and I shine. Go all modern on me and I relatively suck."
-You do not know who gave you this knowledge? Or lack thereof?- She looked suspicious again.
"Nope. Been scanned for memory implants, cerebrotech, nerve programming, nanocoding, genewiring…" I curled my lip, trying to remember all of them.
"A Delta IV deep scan. Nothing," Perv supplied helpfully.
They eyed me for a long moment, finger-talking. -It is…not…normal. Normal people shun our touch on a spiritual level. It is much worse for active psions.- She just flicked a glance at Perv, who simply smiled politely.
"Oh. Do you react to one another the same way?" I inquired curiously.
They hesitated. -No,- the leader admitted carefully. -But we can still feel one another's aura. We can feel nothing from you.-
"Aura? That, like, your soul?" I asked.
-Yes. And you do not seem to have one at all.-
I quirked a small smile. "Why do I have the feeling that psions would say the same thing about you?" Perv just pursed his lips and stayed carefully quiet. "But I think I know what's going on here."
All of them blinked. Perv almost jumped. -What is that?- the leader asked instantly, eyes ferocious.
"I've got a real hard soul. I mean, really, really hard. Not like you people, with your flexi-souls whipping all over the place doing all that crazy psi-shit. Would I be wrong if I described how they look and feel to you as a cold, chilling presence that sucks at your mind and soul just by being close to them, Perv? Touching them would be like sticking your soul into a black hole."
He was looking at me curiously now, too, and slowly nodded. "Yes. The Sisters are psi-hunters of the highest order. I will unequivocally say that I would rather be anywhere but here right now."
They tried to hide their smirks, and almost succeeded.
"And there you have it. He's a psi. He's got a flexi-soul, like, oh, water or something. He can mold it to pull power out of the akasa or aether or whatever, doing all sorts of cool and crazy mental shit with the power. He expends psionic power to open that link, power flows through it."
And I pointed at the three of them. "You three are vortices. You are effectively psychic sinks, and the link is basically open all the time. I'm sure you can concentrate the effect, reduce it somewhat, or expand it out. So, flexi-souls. But the sink is open all the time, sucking down the psychic energy all around you. Since everything living has psychic energy, you are effectively draining an aspect of life from stuff around you, and given the much greater bias towards psionic energy, why, that must absolutely terrify anything that has psychic energy as part and parcel of its daily life."
They all frowned, even Perv. -And what does this have to do with you?- the leader asked shortly.
"Simple. I don't have a flexi-soul, and I don't have a weak soul with no control. I have a hard soul. My spiritual energy is in harmony and alignment, and your little psychic vortex is having no more effect getting my residual energy out of me then using a vacuum cleaner on a steel wall." I tapped my chest proudly and straightened up. "Because you're getting nothing when you're sucking away at me, I must feel like I don't have anything to take. In reality, you just aren't strong enough to take anything from me."
They had to look at one another in disbelief. -That is ridiculous,- the leader finally managed to say, squinting at me.
"Yeah? Think about it. I'm a Ten. You're a Ten. He's a Ten," I tossed a thumb at Perv again. "Your soul is tempered dealing with a constant stream of psychic energy moving through it, taking it apart and moving it from here to wherever. His soul is tempered by reaching out to pull in psychic power from wherever and shaping it according to proper forms and practices passed down over millennia to keep his mind and soul safe."
I tapped my flat chest again. "And my soul is sitting right here and saying 'you shall not touch me'. And that's all it does." I narrowed my eyes. "You know that people can develop tremendous resistance against telepathic intrusion without being telepaths, to the point of actually making it dangerous for mindbenders to get into their heads. Well, my soul is saying 'fuck you' to you, and to him." I pointed at both them and him. "My soul is standing right in the middle of your little power games and doesn't want anything to do with either one of your wrestling contests." I crossed my arms, rocked back and lifted my nose. "Believe it or not, as you like."
They all looked at one another, clearly skeptical, but it seemed plausible. -So, if you were hit with a strong enough psychic attack, you'd be just like any other normal person?- the leader inquired.
"Well, I wouldn't be dumping it down a hole back into the aether, so, pretty much." I lifted an eyebrow. "Why? You wanna go all out and see if you can break into my soul?" I didn't keep the challenge out of my voice. I lifted a finger and made a come-hither. "Come and try."
Her eyes seemed to darken. -As you wish.- I was sure if her mask was down she'd look very satisfied. The gauntlets peeled back from her other hand, and she stepped firmly forwards to put both of them on my face, encircling my eyes with her fingers and thumbs so she could look right into them.
I looked back at her, and Perv retreated at least five paces as her gaze intensified with massive concentration.
"La la la," I murmured, looking around rather absently, completely unperturbed by her. She hissed despite herself, clutching me harder, her brow furrowing. "Oh, hey, I can feel something. It's like a little breeze. Perv, you aren't trying to breathe down my neck again, are you?" That only made her angrier, I'm sure she was gritting her teeth and really bearing down.
Poke. Something actually touched my soul, and I instinctively slammed it back before anything could happen. The Sister released my head and staggered back, breathing hard, eyes wide, face pale from the effort. "Oi! Good effort! Of course, if you were seriously trying to do something to me after three minutes of effort like that, I'd have killed you some time ago," I added in a conversational tone, patently amused.
She was rasping for breath, staring at me. -That… hurt!- she holoed at me.
"Sucking on steel, what do you think would happen if you breached it?" I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "But that's not the best part, of course. At least as far as you are concerned." I gave her a wry smile, knowing she was on shaky ground right now. I gestured her in again. Warily, she approached, watching me carefully, still panting and more then a little hesitant.
She was surprised when I reached up to her head. Everyone watched in astonishment as I carefully and firmly brought her head down under my chin. I swished my head once, and my long blond hair settled over her like a net.
"See, right now you're surrounded by my soul, so that vortex inside you has nothing to draw in. No thought fragments, wisps of emotions, tiny bits of cast off life, minute half-thoughts, and dashes of passion. There's just me, all around you, and I ain't going nowhere." To the utter astonishment of everyone, I stroked her dark hair calmly. "Quiet, isn't it? None of the rush. None of the edginess at the end of your nerves. Nothing rubbing up against your soul as it goes on by, back into the aether.
"Just quiet. Just serenity."
Her empty hands clutched at the air, then slowly came up to grasp around my waist. Slowly, almost shuddering, she pushed herself away from me, and I naturally let her do so.
The look in her eyes proclaimed all sorts of emotions going through her. She was a hard-assed and hardnosed killer, someone who could do battle with things that would drive men mad, and those madmen, too.
And for a few precious breaths there, she'd felt peace and quiet, as her gift of a curse had absolutely nothing to do.
"Zaa. Hard soul." I spread my hands. "I think I'll call it a Vajra Soul, just so some cute bastard doesn't call it something stupid." I put my hands akimbo. "So, got everything you wanted? Not a psychic. Hard soul. Can't look into people's heads. Can't manipulate reality like a clay sculpture. Lousy shot who carries around a not-really-licensed autofire las for cult-popping."
The other two Sisters were staring at their senior, who plainly was having a bit of time keeping control of herself. The senior closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and very obviously spent a moment composing herself. Perv had quite the interesting expression watching that. He probably had never imagined you could unnerve a Silent Sister with niceness.
Her eyes popped back open, mostly back to iron-hard bitch again. -I would like to see the extent of your combat programming,- she holoed.
My eyes widened, and I smiled. I've been told that with the double canines, I have a particularly ferocious smile. Even the Sisters blinked. "You… want to fight?" I looked back at Perv. "Am I allowed to do that? They, like, volunteered…"
He coughed, glancing at the three. "Sisters, Sama here regularly humiliates senior Coronals with a blade, and the only person I've seen match her in open-hand is Master Xwarkun at the Temple."
The youngest looked me up and down aloofly. -She is not in armor,- she visually sniffed.
My smile grew wider. Perv rolled his eyes skywards. "And we all know that proud Umbrans and Coronals never fight against an overwhelmingly more skilled opponent in our armor, no, no."
My eyes were dancing, my smile threatened to split my face. They were positively unsettled by it. Oh, sure, they were used to seeing battlemad raging berzerkers ripping people apart, mindlessly savage beasts and minions, blah blah blah.
This was going to be so much fun on my end!
------
And it was! Battle-hardened women in power armor went flying all over the place, got beat back and forth in disbelief, got to feel my fists mashing into them right through their vaunted armor, and generally couldn't touch me at all. If they did touch me, it was part of a set up to an enormous bruising and didn't do any damage to me whatsoever.
They were relieved of their glaives and knives and swords and whips and whatnot, and beat mercilessly around the ring. Their power armor was more hindrance then help, as despite the speed and power boost it gave, it hindered their agility and flexibility, and the additional weight and rigid defense didn't bother me at all. I could still toss them around like lightweights, their reactions weren't any faster than mine, and they couldn't grab hold of me to let the mechanical strength of their gear have a go against my 5g muskells.
Perv sat quietly off to the side and remained totally poker-faced throughout. That he was enjoying himself immensely at my humiliating of some other combatant then himself was a given, but he definitely wasn't going to show it to these women, lest they walk over and lay a hand on him.
And when we were all done I was grinning like a cat that ate the canary, and they were kind of gasping and sprawled at the side of the ring, nursing their bruises.
"That was fun!" I chirped for their benefit, and they looked at me with eyes that could kill. They didn't get up, though. "Don't worry, you are all much better at using firearms then I am!”
