Tag Archives: Cassie

Arc 14.4.0: Jody

Jody: Part 14

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Within seconds of that conversation, I’d landed and so had not only Daniel and Izzy, but we’d also been joined by Sean, Dayton, Camille, Sydney, Vaughn, and Haley. Jaclyn had already been on the ground, of course.

Cassie, Julie, and Rachel all opted to stay on the roofs of the buildings around Justice Fist’s base. It wasn’t a bad idea. For all we knew, Jody had signaled for help. Someone needed to be in position to act.

Upon landing (Justice Fist seemed to have metal woven into their costumes), Dayton looked around the yard and said, “Wow. What a mess.” Continue reading Jody: Part 14 →

Arc 14.4.0: Jody

Jody: Part 12

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My next observation was how easy it was to underestimate Jody’s speed. He went from almost stopped to moving away from Jaclyn nearly too fast to track.

I say nearly because my implant tracked him, and more to the point, so could Jaclyn’s.

She moved in his direction, aiming a kick toward his knee. I couldn’t see if she missed, but deduced it from how he could still run. Continue reading Jody: Part 12 →

Arc 14.4.0: Jody

Jody: Part 8

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“Okay,” I said, “I’ll be ready then.”

The next hour was dominated by inserting implants into people. It wasn’t much work, but the egg didn’t spit out implants instantly. It made one at a time and each had to be physically manufactured, loaded with software, and tested.

While I could describe the process in a sentence, each word encompassed thousands of actions, all of them culminating in a device that hooked into the body as, for all practical purposes, a secondary brain—a support brain, maybe? Continue reading Jody: Part 8 →

Arc 14.4.0: Jody

Jody: Part 7

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In less time than I expected (no more than twenty minutes), my implant notified me, “Project complete. The implant constructor will now create Xiniti implants.”

I thought back, “Including citizen implants? Not just local auxiliary?”

“There is no functional difference except in the information provided and access permissions. Should an auxiliary become a citizen, the changes will require downloads, not physical replacement.” Continue reading Jody: Part 7 →

Arc 14.4.0: Jody

Jody: Part 1

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Vaughn grinned, “They’re already involved. They were reporting to Daniel’s dad about Futuremen Capital. They thought Magnus was involved.”

“I remember,” I said. “Sydney wanted buzzers for them. I genuinely don’t remember if I provided them at this moment. I know I provided people in the community with designs.”

I hoped none of them got to the Nine, but chances were good that they might have. Plus, during the mushroom zombie fight, I learned that you could overwhelm them if you had enough people with voice powers. Continue reading Jody: Part 1 →

Arc 14.3.5: Castling

Castling: Part 9

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Fun. That wasn’t the first word I’d apply to a multi-year fight for the future of your civilization, but as a way to keep your spirits up when facing a struggle you knew you could only begin to imagine, it was worth a shot.

I was glad they’d found my killbot tech useful even though I didn’t love being partially responsible for political assassinations. The Human Ascendancy deserved what they got, but the precedent would linger. If Kal’s group were lucky enough to win and future generations celebrated their success, assassination might be viewed as a legitimate technique for people dissatisfied with their government. Continue reading Castling: Part 9 →

Arc 14.3.5: Castling

Castling: Part 6

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We couldn’t blast away with the main engine without risking that Dixieclone might notice the sound and realistically there was no “might” about it. Izzy would. If he had the same powers as her grandfather, so would he.

Trying to stay conscious of what was around me and hoping I wasn’t mumbling nonsense words, I said, “Fly anywhere I point and quickly, but not too quickly. Use our anti-gravity systems.”

Concentrating on the ambient energy around me, I couldn’t tell what was going on outside my head, but I knew I wasn’t dead. That would have to be enough. Continue reading Castling: Part 6 →

Arc 14.3.5: Castling

Castling: Part 5

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I watched the jet’s stats as we climbed. It had no issues. Then I thought of a possibility, “Ghost are you feeling anything?”

Rachel said, “No,” but she also gave the smallest shake of her head as if I shouldn’t talk about it.

Then she started tapping on her left forearm, using the “keyboard” I’d built into our suits. It was just a setting that made letters appear on either sleeve and turned the spots touch-sensitive.

Her text appeared in my HUD. Continue reading Castling: Part 5 →

Arc 14.3.5: Castling

Castling: Part 4

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Artemis flinched, “Sorry, sir, but my point is that it feels like internal warfare. No one else would know.”

I made a mental note that whoever Artemis was, she didn’t believe she was the goddess. If she had, she wouldn’t be quite so deferential.

Dixieclone nodded and then sighed, “That’s not a good sign. The moment’s too crucial to handle everything we need to and that too.”

Artemis looked from side to side as if to check who was in earshot, saying, “That’s my worry.” Continue reading Castling: Part 4 →