Contract: The Don's Request
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After Mercedes surrendered, #Team High Turnover Rate spent some time divying up the accumulated loot. After doing so the questioning began, though more politely than previous sessions since she is your current employers daughter. Jerzac Scarlewe started grilling her on her relationship with R. Laga. Turns out her organization, the Wardens, are employing the Free Captains to interrupt Don Jose de Cordiliera's shipping. "Given your interest you must be J. Laga looks forward to seeing you again."
Mercedes left The Don's organization since he has been through Rejuvenation four times now and the mental degredation caused him to cast her out when she challenged him on it. Adrift she was inducted into the Wardens. Upon learning their purpose she sent them after her father since he was collecting artifacts and information that could inadvertantly harm The Veil
She also keeps repeating that the information you were exposed to in the Temple of the Twelve have contaminated you and your existance is a constant threat to The Veil. When Bash asked her what she was so afraid of she replied "The end". After she finally convinced you to tell her what you saw beyond the doorway she started laughing, "So they are waking up. That's one way for this problem to be solved."
Bash also questioned her about the Warden's symbol, the fire wall around an invisible shield. Why did they destroy his mining outpost? Mercedes said they probably found artifacts that were meant to remain hidden and the damage to The Veil had to be contained.
Still unhappy with her insistance that the whole crew must die you asked her what exactly was behind The Veil. "They are the embodiement of destruction and madness. Outside of this universe's laws. Likely the end of the previous one and likely the inevitable end of ours." You tried to visualize this as a sphere with them watching intelligent life for entertainment where they would remove those who tried to learn of them but Mercedes had a different view. "All of existence is like a walled fortress under assault from an invading army. They will exploit any crack to force their way further in. Those who have knowledge that pierces The Veil are people inside the wall with pick axes trying to escape."
Trying to delay the decision of what to do with her you had her lead you to the comm array up the mountain. Once there Roquesta (Rocket) Strauss and then Jerzac tried to hack their way in but after the second attempt a countermeasure hurt Jerzac and destroyed the machine.
Giving Mercedes a choice between dying here and being dragged back to her father she knelt down saying "You've contaminated me. Rather than damaging The Veil any further I will do my duty. My organization will be coming for you and this planet." Not liking her fatalism you tried to claim your abilities to keep secrets meant the information wouldn't spread and thus The Veil would be fine. To prove it you told her of the secret supernova you caused coming to end all life on earth. "You people are shitty at keeping secrets. Good thing two people can keep a secret if both are dead."
Bash executed the kneeling prisoner with his laser rifle and you walked away leaving her corpse on a mountain in a near impassable jungle hundreds of miles from civilization.
Returning to the Temple you decided to sleep there before heading out at night to avoid the heat. Posted up in one of the northern rooms Rocket's watch goes smoothly but during Bash's some yellow fog started rolling under the door.
Bash yelled to wake everyone up then walked to the door and opened it revealing a wall of the fog that starts pouring in and in came the sounds of several types of footsteps growing closer. Rocket moved up behind Bash and prepared to receive whoever was coming through. Genji's extensive knowledge about the esoteric made him realize that this fog isn't fully real and is a manifestation of things beneath the skin of the universe. Taking a chance he ran through the door into the fog and rather than seeing the Temple of the Twelve he stepped out into a city of madness.
He looked around himself trying to understand what was happening. Behind him was an alleyway between two buildings from wildly different eras. Fog pressed up against an invisible wall at the alley mouth like it has a will of its own that wants nothing more to envelop the intruder. In front of him is an obelisk that stretches high but seems to curve around until the tip is pointed back at the ground like a spearhead aimed at Genji. To the left and right is a wide thouroughfare stretching far into the distance. The buildings he could make out do not make sense. Some are built normally but most seem to be growing out of walls or cliff faces. Balconies are upside down. Staircases are sideways or just terminate in mid air.
Jerzac lit a Lho stick, follows, and upon seeing the mad city complains about not taking enough drugs for this. He also looked around and Genji is nowhere to be seen. He is alone on a similar thouroughfare. Roswell Mogul froze up not knowing what to do. He attuned the photon mystery ands fired his new pistol into the fog hoping to hit something.
Bash, having felt his squishy allies pass him, hustled through the doorway into the city. Unlike the others he was not alone on the wide street for long. From the fog at one of the alley mouths a face starts to emerge. This face was a mask of grey rag strips at first glance. As it continued to emerge Bash could see that the strips looked like bits of skin that had been flayed back. Strips of skin that were writhing and reaching out towards him. The body that followed was almost human-like but way too lean, lean, flexible, and long limbed. Each appendage had a couple extra joints and more in the torso giving it a seemingly unlimited range of motion.
Bash fired once, landing a grazing laser hit, and ran into the foggy alley.
Rocket followed her allies into the fog through the doorway. Before she can even stumble onto the empty street she felt a spike of fire as a razor slid into her lower back. She turned and ran off in the fog.
Walking down the wide open street, Genji felt something small, thin, and metallic trace from behind one ear, along the back of his neck, and up behind the other ear. He whirled while firing his pistol but saw nothing. Frightened and lacking any better options he hustled towards the distant gunshot that must have come from one of his allies.
Rather than stepping out into the open Jerzac decided to fade back into the alleyways for the cover they granted. Unfortunately when he stepped backwards into the fog two exceptionally long arms with small hands reached around his waist from behind. These arms locked dowbn like a vise and six spindly legs wrapped around Jerzac's legs immobilizing them.
A quiet voice giggled in his ear then without really interrupting the giggling Jerzac heard
OPEN
and again
OPEN
On the second utterance the hands dug in on either side of his sternum and all six legs and two arms all rip apart peeling back his ribcage and splitting him like a wishbone.
Back in the original room Roswell had been overtaken by the advancing fog. In the fog he could barely see his hand that he braced on the wall. Suddenly blood and viscera sprayed on him from the side. After wiping his face so he could see he was looking at a word spelled out in blood on the wall.
LOCK
He turned to step out of the fog into what he assumed to be the last open spot in the room but stepped out into the jungle of Ukulam. More of the yellow fog stretched out behind him and on either side of the narrow path he was standing on. For a moment he didn't know where he was until he saw a particular patch of undergrowth where Nari pak Cordona had stepped out and kidnapped Jerzac to remove a hand. In the absence of a better option he ran down the path between the walls of fog.
Bash stumbled through the fog choked alleyway but only a few steps in he bumped into something suspended from a rope. Stepping back he saw Jerzac's body hung by one ankle with the other leg hanging limply with his entire ribcage pried open and his internal organs removed. Despite all this Jerzac's head turns to make eye contact with Bash and said
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON'T
Bash turned and ran down a different alleyway trying to put as much distance between himself and the meat puppet as possible.
Rocket felt a tickle in the small of her back. That same knife dug in and ripped up her spine all the way to the soft spot at the base of her skull. Feeling the horrible sensation of bone open to the air Rocket whirled looking for something to kill. Even with the aid of her exocortex she couldn't pinpoint a target. Rather than fire wildly she let loose a fan of energy hoping to hit something. In the light from the attack, she saw a hanging body and saw a fleeing heavily armored form.
Genji nervously continued to walk up the street looking all around as he did so. One time when he turned his head the face of that flayed creature was within kissing distance with the skin tendrils reaching out towards Genji. During his startled jump Genji blinked and when he opened his eyes the creature was gone. Completely freaked out he started to run.
As he ran he saw the fog in the alleys press up against the invisible barrier and pile up against them. Within that fog he saw silhouettes start to coallesce. Some were mishappen lumps with way too many writhing limbs. Others were normal with odd lumps. Finally there was one that was just an enormous leg. Looking above the fog there was nothing there but the shadow lifted and reared back as if it was attached to a larger creature. With abrupt violence the leg shot forward crashing into the invisible barrier holding the fog back. With a crash all the barriers broke and the fog consumed the street and Genji.
Back in the jungle Roswell ran as fast as he could along the game trail, dodging around underbrush, trying to escape the encroaching fog. He got to a curve in the path and saw his flight was hopeless. The fog had cut off the path further on and was racing to swallow him.
Bash continued to run down the warren of alleys until something launched itself from above to land on his shoulders. A multitude of arms and legs wrapped around him scythed into his body and ripping off pieces of armor while giggling
FREE
Rocket felt an immense pressure in her skull as her nose starts to drip. The drip turned to a flood and as the blood fell from her face it turned in mid air and fell towards the wall next to her. On impact it writhed into a word
THEM
Running from this new horrible event Rocket ducked through alleys at random until she collided with two thrashing forms on the ground.
In a dead sprint Genji ran through the fog, right off a cliff face. With preternatural reflexes he turned and barely caught himself. With a triumph of mind over matter he pulled himself partway back up when he felt a finger reach out and touch the center of his forehead. A low noise quickly increased in pitch and volume until it was all consuming.The last thing Genji heard was
WAKE
as with a wet sickening pop Genji's headless body fell down the cliff.
Cornered by the fog and with nowhere else to go Roswell stepped back into it. Right after he stepped into the same empty street he saw a flash as something moved left to right across his vision followed by a sickening splat. Looking at the wall beside him he saw a human body entirely rearranged. No head was visible but an arm was sprouting from where it should be. The fingers from that arm were ringing where the neck should be. A leg came out of a shoulder. The other arm sprouted from the knee of the remaining leg. A foot protruded from the stomach. Staring at the macabre scene Roswell was just barely able to identify the body as his new companion Genji whose blod seeped out to spell
DON'T
Turning his head the other way Roswell saw a strange yellow symbol carved/branded into and adjacent building. Finally he turned back straight ahead to see a knife burrying itself in his stomach as that rag man shows a lamprey like ring of teeth in a rictus grin. The burst of pain manifested in reality as Roswell went supernova.
While still recovering from the shock and pain Bash tried to lash out twive with his battle glove to no effect. Completely ignoring him the creature started ripping out organs and spreading them around itself.
Looking down Rocket saw the forms she ran into. The first was Bash with armor panels ripped free, blood streaming from the openings, and his head unnaturally far back and his jaw unhinged with yellow smoke shooting out of his throat. Looking over him was a grotesque spider human hybrid. Its main body was a sphere with all its bony legs with skin stretched tight over them sprouting from one location on top. The torso of a beautiful human woman sprouted from the front of the sphere two long chitinous arms ending in razor sharp claws. The beauty continued to her face until a vertical seam split and the skin of her face peeled back to reveal bone ringed with teeth.
Enraged and terrified Rocket's bone blades ripped out and she punctured the spherical portion of this thing's body causing it to start to deflate while spewing yellow fog.
The rag man's skin tendrils crisped and burnt from Roswell's supernova but that didn't stop him from enveloping the solarian in a hug. The tendrils dug into his skin pumping a paralytic into his entire body.
The female spider creature lunged at Rocket and flayed her alive before they even hit the ground. The creature flung the barely living freshly flensed lump of meat down endless stairs that were not there a moment before. In her last moments as Rocket cartwheeled down the stairs she saw an enormous bridge of web that stretched into the darkenss.
Roswell felt the rag man's head pull back and move its mouth over to the human's ear. A razor is drawn across his throat as the creature tenderly whispered
WAKE