Swords and Cybery
Grelt the technomancer disconnected the electrodes from his staff, retracting them back into his tearducts with a grimace. “We must hurry, for the minions of Parity Decay will be here soon.” Shouldering their gear once again, the pair of them set off up the steep scarp. It had been months since they had been this way, yet the path was familiar. Soon, signs of the enclave became noticeable, and they picked up speed, impatient to be home.
The Temple of Dajin was crowded. Expectant faces looking for a sign of hope. Grelt and Dreen passed amongst them giving the occasional nod in acknowledgement. For a moment, Dreen stopped and swept her son into her arms. Sspinning him around and making him smile she put him on the ground andcontinued to the interface of the satellite link that surmounted the altar. After lighting a censer of incense and scanning her sub-dermal RFID chip, she opened a heavily encrypted channel to the orbital in the Lagrange point where the Avatar of Dajin dwelt.
Blessed by His presence, Grelt began. “It is as we feared. The Shigamorori Conglomerate will soon come to an understanding with Parity Decay.” A groan went up from the listeners, but he waved them to silence. “There is still hope. We may be able to prevent their union, if we act quickly. We have also heard that our allies - the dwarven clan Silverstrike, devout followers of Dajin... Blessed be He... have seen a great improvement in the skills of their craftsmen. They inform us that soon they will be able to create the weapon spoken of in the prophesy: the Rune-etched monfilament blade! Spread the word, my friends, that soon the lands will be free!”
Crouched under a camouflage net, Dreen clutched at the amulet of far seeing, and scanned the road. Through the heat haze, she could make out the vanguard of the skeleton horde, the bulk of Parity Decay’s forces. After some tense moments waiting, they had advanced enough that the armoured palanquin which bore the offerings for Shigamoroiri Corporation came into sight. Dreen spoke into her throat mic “Grelt, do you read me? It is go time, I repeat, it is go time!” In his summoning cirlce within the temple, Grelt completed his ceremony by sprinkling powdered capacitors and nanite statues of Daijin’s Avatar onto a smoking brazier.
Appearing low on the horizon, an emerald beam shot out, stirring the clouds into into fearsome shapes above the skeletons. With a roar, Daijin manifested in the aspect of a circuit dragon, and fell upon the forces of Parity Decay. Being mindless, they did not flee in fear, but their counterattack was useless - railguns and explosives could not punch through the scaly hide of the God, and the spells of their mages were paltry compared to the glory of Daijin.He quickly seized the palanquin betwixt his teeth, and ground it to pieces. With a swipe of his forepaws he decimated the skeletons, before dematerializing, and returning to his Orbital. Their attack successful, Dreen shifted form into that of an eagle, and flew back to her friends, hope stirring in her heart once again.
