340 Far Future, Ch. 50 – Second Generation, Part Two (1/2)
”You're in a tech-verse, not a fantasy realm, as you doubtless figured out. Furthermore, it's the grimdark universe dominated by the Four Warp Gods: Klaw, jRaztl, Amourae, and Riggibuhl.” All the hands went up at the same time. ”No, it's not Warhammer 40k, although there are certainly similarities, and honestly, I'm not operating at a scale where I can really tell how much. For instance, there is a clear difference between psionics and magic. Perhaps due to the Eternal Emperor, psionics is a neutral force, although it comes with its hazardous side. Magic, on the other hand, is purely the province of the Warp... which means no energizing Soul Tats right now, period.”
”SHIT!” they all said together.
”I goddamn know.” I rolled my eyes with all of them. ”What's the use of having pre-paid Tats if I can't use them? Anyway, any Good deities we can think of are utterly suppressed in the Warp, and that's entirely by design. There are Lawful powers still in existence, although they are outmatched, and they spin around the axis the Eternal Emperor represents. Naturally, Law can counter Chaos, but without Good, Evil has an iron grip on much of this realm and society.
”For whatever reason, we were dumped onto a world where the dark side-”
”HAH!” they all interrupted together, and began to hum the Emperor's March instantly.
{ }
”-hasn't overwhelmed the light side,” I winked back at them, waiting for the March to finish. ”So, it's largely Neutral fucked-up. I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that this room probably represents the single largest concentration of Good souls on the planet.”
Heads turned right and left in counter-waves. Ugh? Damn..., they were all thinking.
”You're inside the mega-city of Janus Prime, a production facility and habitation mega-structure and arcology adjacent to the largest mines on the planet of Janus III here. Population is about 2.6 billion people, and it covers tens of thousands of square miles and cubic miles.
”There are massive class divisions in effect and negative pressures on society. Probably a third of the population is formally addicted to narcotics of varying severity. At least a fifth is psychopathic to some degree from societal pressures, the lack of opportunity to advance, the pure drudgery of their work, and competition for resources, and so can explode into violence or manic depression basically without warning. The average person sees a murder or suicide every day of their life here.”
They all blinked. Well, it was true!
”All that, of course, is why I have you here. The scale of what we have to do has to increase, and I can't keep a personal touch on the numbers that we are working with here.
”To wit, our goal is very clear. We are to fuck up the Warp Gods, tear them off their thrones, open their Realm to Creation, and restore the Warp to serenity.”
250 whistles broke out in total synchronicity.
”Quest accepted?” I asked archly.
”YES, MOM!” they all shot back without missing a beat.
”Such good girls,” I winked at them. ”Now, your programming defaults to Human Hagchild, and all I can say is, that's a very good idea, because it keeps you grounded. However, you are not Human Hagchildren, you are Rantha Hags. You've gone through Hag Awakening, which turned you from vat-born Hagchild equivalents without an akashic connection to who you are right now. In other words, I exploited the Curse to fix the problems with technology in making pseudo-clone daughters.” I tapped the Brand on the side of my face. ”If I got rid of this, I could not do that. I have to keep the remnants of my Curse around.
”I am an Exemplar Lite, inherited from Mom, who I believe is also an ExLite... but who knows, since she's something completely unique, she may be an Exemplar as the first of her kind. Our kind? No, definitely her kind.
”Whatever, she skimmed off the stuff she didn't want passed on, and probably couldn't pass on, and encoded her personal Curse with that template. As Annis Hags have Annis Hagchilds and their Curses make them Annis Hags, so Sama Rantha's children are Rantha Hagchildren and her Curse makes us Rantha Hags.
”As you are my daughters, and I don't have some post-Eternal shit of whatever degree Mom is working with, normal degradation has occurred, and you are all Advanced Rantha Hags. That means that all you get are +4 to all Primary Stats.”
I sounded mopey, but that simultaneous whistle rose up again as the lights dimmed and a holo display went up, showing the Stat line all of them had, and the Class and Racial Levels. ”In the future, unless there is some effect not allowing these Classes to be taken, in which case the Karmic equivalent is freed up, this is what all Rantha Hags will come with. To wit, once you take away the Advanced Stat Line, you are by quite a degree the weakest of all Hags at creation. However... this is the advance schema.”
Flick, up it came, and I waited politely as they all scanned it.
An eerie trembling whistle arose, whose melody I knew well. All their eyes were literally glowing. Tremble, oh oooo oh, Tremble, we come...
”Yes, it is totally overpowered. Also, notice your waists, and the bands of Tats around them. Congratulations, those are Lilitu-level Blessing equivalents, the standard nine, and if you get the three physicals, the Alter Self ability automatically kicks in, although duration limited, and its magical, so you won't use it, anyways... except internally, which means you qualify for Warshifter, among other things!”
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They looked down at their taut bellies, then their sisters next to them, in front of them. Yep, they all had the same thing. No, none of them were active... except for six of them, over in the front corner, who got up together and walked up to flank me.
”Now, the Marks don't come to us powered up, but since they are untyped stacking bonuses, I'm not gonna cry over it. Charge them up with Karma.
”You are naturally aware that such Marks come with telepathic contact between the grantors. Do NOT FUCKING INITIATE TELEPATHIC CONTACT WITH ONE ANOTHER!” all seven of my mouths said at the same time.
All their eyes opened wide together.