Chapter 503 - Far Future Ch 213 – Movements in the Dark (1/2)

Voids can hide from everybody but the Land, and one another... and the widespread genetic tests and databases maintained by the public health organizations of the Empire.

It took half a million man-hours of intensive searching through all the many systems of the Mechanists, sifting through the endless information networks of the public health systems, to find the coding related to the Void Brothers and the Silent Sisters.

The architecture of the coding was at TL 17, basically as high as humanity had ever produced. It was hard-wired into the essential core of the computers that were at heart in every advanced city of the Empire, programs interspersed invisibly through other programs, linking together erratically yet powerfully, tripping when exposed to certain absolute genetic codes.

They sent that information out in rider signals attached to other astropathic messages from the governments and guilds, which in turn triggered relays elsewhere to appropriate parties, until they reached their destinations. Orders came back on what to do, if the matter was handled locally, or ships were dispatched, if not.

The children were located and removed, any other children tested if found, genetic tests administered of the parents as appropriate, and then the whole family was generally expunged, to make sure such a thing didn't happen again.

The children were then brought away to their new homes and bases of operations. For the rare women, that was the Quiet Temple of the Silent Sisters located on Titan.

For the far more common Voids, that was the Mountain Retreat of the Imperial Assassins.

Those systems were still in force, even on the far side of the Rift. As the isolated Sector had no access to the Retreat or the Temple, the responsible parties followed doctrine and simply killed the children and their families, preventing any problems that could not be controlled

He was once a faceless knife in the dark, a tool of the Emperor who was supposed to burn out, go mad, and die as his gift finally killed him, making his life as useful as it could be before he perished before his time.

Now, he was the Fire and the Sword of the Land!

He had dearly and murderously wanted to return to the Retreat, cut open the suits of his brothers, let them hear the Land, and know they were meant to be something greater than mere knives of their callous masters.

He also knew that if he tried that, he was going to die.

He had made the decision to take a short trip through Gloom, to the far side of the Rift, and from there begin his work.

The Hagbloods with Talents for educating, raising children, taking care of people, and all in all being nice folks had pitched in to help him, being totally outraged at the implications of what was going on. He had no problem finding support and willing hands, much to his amazement, and, to his own surprise, gratification.

He had thrown away the name they had given him, knowing it was not his own, and had dredged up something from the depths of his memories that sounded right.

Frank. Brother Firesword Frank.

It was small and tiny, and he did not know his family name, homeworld, anything, and any search for it would trigger the system to come hunt him down. He could only know they were dead and gone, and his future Brothers would need them.

There were no Voids or Vortices active on this side of the Rift. Ever since it had come into being, any newborns with the talent had been terminated. Any who had been caught here on the side of the Rift would have gone mad and died some years ago now... and he didn't sense any on this entire side of the galaxy, so none of his Brothers had gone native. Likely, they had done as they were programmed to, and killed themselves before they 'went mad', a double tragedy as they ended their lives as their power was about to finally break them free of the shackles upon them.

He was going to make sure such a thing never happened again.

He was in almost constant contact with the Free Brothers Sama had located. They had learned many things from Sama concerning talents of those Brothers who came from outside this universe.

Outside this universe. Even now, merely thinking the fact made him grimace, made him twitch with the truth of it. He knew that was true, however much he wanted to deny it.

Their entire universe, separated from the greater multiverse, from the multiverse of multiverses that was Creation, just to be the playpen of the Warp Gods, so they could mess around and have fun without the gods from Outside playing with them.

He knew it all, because the Void Brothers were the Guides, and the Favored of the Land. They were born to learn all the dark, dread secrets and horrors of reality, and do something about them. So he also knew of the hole to Outside Creation, and the things that had infiltrated this universe from there, going backwards and forwards in time impartially.

He knew that the Mother of Sama Rantha had dealt a horrible blow to the Warp Gods, opening up that hole, opening up links to the Warp, and in doing so, torn that Rift across half the galaxy.

Whether they liked it or not, the fate of the Warp Gods was set. The incessant, mad conflict between souls in the afterlife that defined the Warp and gave them so much of their power was getting siphoned away as those souls were finally drawn to their proper fates. How long it would take, nobody knew... but Sama was pretty intent on accelerating the process, and was only one step away from being able to take those first steps.