Joyrides and lengthy cruises aside, it was time to buckle down and get a little serious, which would also line up nicely with Kim and her team being back for a while. Everything that Beth's team needed had been found, or had already been available to them, such as with Bjorn's case, and they were ready. This would be the eighth rebirth for every...
2025-10-08 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostSelene stayed with them two weeks, until the time that they had the cruiser space worthy and ready to test. The ship was fully sealed and the engines were working fine; Zelmainne assured the others that the Skip Drive was functional, if not at one hundred percent, but they didn't need to test that just yet. The first thing they tested was merely...
2025-10-07 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostI made my way back down onto the street, heading back to the subway station that I had used to access this part of the neighborhood. It was only slightly closer than the next closest station, another point in this city's public transit's favor, though I would still like my own vehicle. Not least of which because I could both armor a vehicle, whi...
2025-10-06 23:54:15 +0000 UTC View Post"Do you have more than that?" Selene asked.
"No, that's everything," Sera said as Beth made a motion like she was dusting her hands off.
"Good, because that's all we can handle right now," Selene said with a sigh. "We'll store this stuff for you and sell it as we can, but we can't accept anything else. The fighter alone i...
2025-10-06 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe other two Solos had talked with the old man for just a moment before grabbing a set of packages and departing, giving me a side-eye as they left the area in front of the warehouse. I approached the man, who I assumed was Mercer, before stopping a short distance away and giving him a nod.
"You're a big bastard, ain't ya?" he...
2025-10-05 14:53:49 +0000 UTC View PostEveryone made their way out back to the training grounds, which had the facilities to accommodate a duel in a more professional fashion, though it hadn't been used in a long while. When the Count had challenged me to a fight, we had simply used one of the sparring areas to duel, but the grounds did have a proper dueling ring, which had seating a...
2025-10-03 17:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostThey spent an objective month, or close to it, resting, other than Neph, who spent a subjective year grinding in the gate. That got her enough experience to do another rebirth, her fourth, which she did as a True rebirth. She had also had enough time to get started towards her fifth rebirth; by the time somebody was three or four rebirths in, an...
2025-10-02 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post"The hell does that even mean, Jaq?" Beth asked, rolling her eyes. "How does somebody flee the damn universe."
"It's not as weird as it sounds," Jaq said calmly.
"Oh? Really? Then enlighten me," Beth said, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall beside the door.
"You are, I am informed, familiar w...
2025-10-01 17:00:19 +0000 UTC View Post"Anyway, let's stash this and move on," Beth said, shaking her head and making to move to the tank.
"No," Jaq said, shaking his head before grabbing the compressed tank and lifting it up to carry it out of the room. "This cannot be put in spatial storage; it would interfere with some of the enchantments, possibly to disastrous result...
2025-09-30 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostBeth moved into a small chamber that was only a single room back from the exterior. It was the closest to the front of the ship she had been personally without observing from Jaq's ship, in an area none of them had been or scanned yet. The chamber had managed to remain mostly intact, but there was a crack in the outer wall facing the compartment...
2025-09-29 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostSadly, such things could never be. I had to get ready for the party, a week hence, and that included getting new clothes, which I had always found rather ridiculous. I gave the tailor a headache, as well, as I would much prefer a suit with pants versus a dress, as fighting in a dress was always a tedious experience. I was, of course overruled on...
2025-09-26 17:00:17 +0000 UTC View Post"What else?" Jaq asked.
"Ammo," said Bjorn.
Everybody just looked at him for a minute before Jaq asked, "And?"
"And what?" Bjorn said.
"What about the damn ammo?" Val asked, glaring at the titan.
"There's a lot of it," Bjorn answered, sending the group a spreadsheet with listings of var...
2025-09-25 17:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostThe group worked for a week with very little rest. Jaq didn't really need rest for weeks at a time with his stats, skills, and cyberized body, but Beth's team couldn't hold up that long. It was also nice to circle up and see what everyone had found; updates through the communicators were nice, but it really helped in such a situation to sit down...
2025-09-24 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe bear-like creature snarled when the growl failed to produce the intended result and started stalking toward them. Bjorn began to unlimber his hammer, but Jaq stepped forward, holding up a hand to stop him. The Ascended calmly walked toward the bear, which read as level three hundred fifty, not even bothering to draw a weapon. Beth crossed he...
2025-09-23 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostBeth passing her combat exam, and quite easily, meant that they just had one more piece to go, which was a review of their equipment. It wasn't a place that people were failed, per se, as stopping someone from reaching Gold because they didn't have enough wealth wasn't something the CRA really did. Beth's group had it easy, as they all had spati...
2025-09-22 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostWell, I had other things to worry about rather than mega corporations, like how I was going to keep paying for rent. It was already into the late afternoon, so I figured I could make a quick shopping trip today and then get an early start in looking for work tomorrow. Thom had, apparently, been wholly relying on his mother for funds, and had jus...
2025-09-22 06:10:02 +0000 UTC View Post"Fun, that's one way to describe," the doc chuckled, grabbing something else before applying it to my skin, everywhere I was bruised or battered.
"Any advice for a fresh Solo, doc?" I asked him as he worked. I noticed that he was both quite fast and very skilled, working over my torso, arms, and face in just a couple minutes. <...
2025-09-21 08:59:32 +0000 UTC View PostA/N: I've wanted to write a Cyberpunk thing for a while now, and this is chapter one. I'm inspired by things like Ghost in the City, but my protag doesn't have a system here. I wanted to do something where I focused much more on all the tech and sorta let the tech speak for itself. There's going to be some crazy tech, stuff close to the level of...
2025-09-21 04:44:49 +0000 UTC View PostSpeaking of that soul-based affinity, I had not really looked all that much into it in recent days, though I did get a strange feeling from it a few times as I healed. In particular, when I thought of this life, of the life I had now, the life I had stolen, the warm feeling came back, stronger than ever, along with the feeling of a whisper on th...
2025-09-19 17:00:19 +0000 UTC View PostThe network they were still developing came in handy once again for their last mission, as they were contacted by somebody they did an extermination mission for with a similar job. There was a Gold mission to kill a large group of monsters that had started terrorizing two cities on a low-population world and the Hall Master in charge of the area...
2025-09-18 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post"So, we just steal the painting now?" Blood asked after they had all showered and were on the bridge, Bjorn on one of the two massive let-down seats at the back.
"No, Blood, we can't fucking steal it," Beth replied sourly. "We're supposed to be the good guys here!"
"But, he stole it?" Blood said in a questioning tone, loo...
2025-09-17 17:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostSeveral missions, and several months, came and went, none of them particularly notable, with the exception of a mission to fight monsters. Beth's title came into play, not that it was greatly needed, as the monsters they were dispatched to fight weren't all that strong. It wasn't a rare thing for Gold missions, as even weaker monsters were often...
2025-09-16 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostWhen these kind of investigations happened, with a CRA Gold Emblem or above taking the lead to look into something, local authorities often played second fiddle to them. That was true here, as Beth and her team went to several locations that had associations with Stellar Scheduling and its businesses, including some of the residences of the empl...
2025-09-15 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostI still wasn't feeling back up to one hundred percent, but after about two weeks had passed, the damage from the fight was more than gone. Most of the damage from the Tribulation was now healed, which had the Silver Lady pronouncing things like 'miraculous' and 'a very uncanny happening,' but I paid it little mind. Nobody truly had a grasp of ho...
2025-09-12 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View Post"So, what's the plan?" Sera asked as they stood at the rear of a train car. The place had just such a thing because of just such people as Bjorn, who didn't fit very nicely in the rather small seats.
"It's mid-morning now, so we go over and scope out the place. Observe for an hour or two. Around lunch time, we'll head in and do an au...
2025-09-11 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostDespite the oddity, nothing else really unusual happened, nor did they have anything else to do there, and that was doubly bad, since they didn't have any other good leads currently. They just had to spend a little time running around all over the galaxy, looking for places where there were unclaimed Gold missions they could snatch up before any...
2025-09-10 17:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostThe den of the scythe swarmers was a real horror, the kind of places one could have nightmares about for many years afterwards. As they go close to it, the floors started to be covered in a thick, murky substance that Beth was hoping was some kind of dirt, but she knew in her heart it wasn't. That sort of, well, mucus, extended up the walls and ...
2025-09-09 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostIt was a little unfortunate that the CRA didn't have a fully unified mission tracking system, but the missions were supposed to be local anyway. Anything that would cross between worlds or require dealing with multiple different factions was something that would still be above Beth's paygrade for now, and those missions were tracked a little dif...
2025-09-08 17:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostWatching the group go over the ground, and my mother leave to check on the estate (and likely Marianne) for a moment, I had to shake my head. They weren't total amateurs, and I was no legendary sleuth, but they were bumbling about a bit too much. Likely, it wasn't necessary to preserve all the footprints or evidence on the ground any longer, but...
2025-09-05 17:00:37 +0000 UTC View PostBaelvyr's sudden visit aside, the rest of that afternoon went rather well, as her extended team, as she thought of them, spent time with the Ascended. There was no real limit to the amount of time she could keep them deployed like this and, despite at times getting a bit frustrated with some of the questions or things, it was very clear they wer...
2025-09-04 17:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post