The teleports went right at least. My captives had flash-frozen and were effectively dead at this point. They should revive once I introduced them to a warmer environment.
But I was having other issues. Much like when I'd grabbed Runner with a teleport, the effects of this new core were cascading through my systems in unexpected ways.
The temperature inside the base had already dropped by several degrees and I was suffering from electrical problems as the beating of my bioreactor slowed with the chill.
I activated the Fire Matrix, the warmth restoring the flow of power throughout the complex. That didn't mean I was better. Most of my systems were still sluggish and the air temperature in the base was continuing to drop.
"Is there any reason you're trying to freeze us out?" Anna asked over the comm.
"Maybe I want you to put on some clothes to spare me the sight of you in shorts. By the way, I grabbed the Frozen," I said.
"Without consulting me? Fuck. I need to modify your shielding now. Tell me when you're going to do something else stupid," Anna said, killing the line.
Anna really should try being nicer. It wasn't just that she said mean things, I didn't think she'd ever once made anybody cookies.
My vacuum chamber wasn't working as desired after all. Oh, the lieutenants were frozen solid, but despite the intense cold Frost was still moving somehow and hammering on the walls. They'd fracture soon under the impact.
I didn't have a choice. I triggered the magnetic gun and put a round into his skull. It bounced off. I fired another, and another.
I wasn't getting the results I wanted. I overrode the gun limit safeties and fired off another round. The force of this one tore the gun apart, the blow striking Frost. If I'd been hoping he would shatter I was disappointed, but he did topple over unconscious. I'd take it, right now I'd take it.
I opened ventilation into the chamber, rapidly increasing the temperature. I used a combat drone to teleport all the Frozen into a testing labyrinth.
Once I had them secured, I began ferrying the corpsicles the Frozen had stored in a cold locker. There was no need to attempt reanimating them now. They could be held months, or years, until needed. This was about securing a future resource.
I checked in on Anna, who was standing outside my core. It was actually a rather impressive shielding system they had rigged up, although it made my sensors fizzle just to look at it.
"Did you get it taken care of?" I asked.
"Yeah. You're good. Seriously, we're a team. You need to tell me when you are going to try something like this. Not just for the shielding. I know a lot about hunting the Powered. I can help," Anna said.
"Your help usually involves getting badly wounded and me calling in other assistance. I handled it," I said.
"You're overconfident. Just tell me this, did you have any kind of backup plan in place today?"
I didn't answer her. I didn't like it when Anna was right.
44
The backpack bombs were a work of beauty if I did say so myself. Each weighed around twenty-five kilograms, which made them awkward to handle, but they were well worth the weight. They were designed around a core of my bioreactor spawn to which we'd added biomatter-fueled explosive charges infused with a Fire Matrix.
Detonated, they'd create an explosive wave that would be refreshed with each biological it came into contact with. In the close confines of one of those ships it should be devastating. The downside was their cost. I'd been limited to eight units. Two were set aside for testing and the other six were marked for the Scholars' airships.
Those six would also be infused with the Righteous killing upgrades, but the test samples wouldn't need it.
I sent the test units to the Righteous. Given their power-neutralizing natures the effects might be a little dampened, and they would have to turn off their power for the initial activation, but they could test them.
For the test, we wanted a simultaneous strike on two of the ground skirmishes going on—a strategy made easier as the airships had split up to go hunting and they couldn't protect each other. One Scholar team was fighting a gang that had their own variant of a Fire Core. Instead of heating their own bodies, they super-heated weapons that sliced through almost everything with ease.
There was a second Scholar unit fighting a group that, for all intents and purposes, seemed completely invulnerable. Whatever weapons hit them bounced right off. I wondered if they'd survive my explosives.
When the time came I had my drones teleport the Righteous directly into the midst of both Scholar ground forces.
Without a fear of death the Righteous made terrifying bombers. They detonated the devices. The results were impressive, if not so much as I might have hoped. I'd been holding out hope for a small-scale nuke—the results were far less.
It did the job regardless, massive shockwaves wiping out the Scholars, and in one case their prey.
The Invulnerables, as I'd taken to calling them, were untouched. I would have to figure out how to capture them in the future. Perhaps some sort of tranquilizer gas would work where overwhelming force hadn't.
I opened a channel to Commander Danik of the Righteous. "I trust that you're impressed. That's far more than you could manage."
"Yes, I'm impressed," Danik said, "You've proven that when it comes to destruction you are good at it. Of course, I expect nothing else of the Powered. Sending over coordinates for my people. Meet us with the explosives. We should move quickly."
We should too. Now that they'd witnessed our power the Scholars might react quickly in all the wrong ways.
With Anna's help, we'd identified the two most vulnerable portions of the Scholars' airships. The destabilizers helped to maintain the broken laws of reality they functioned under, and the main engines supplied power. We'd be targeting both.
I killed communications with Danik and sent my drones with the bombs.
"Ready for the betrayal?" Anna asked.
"Theirs or ours?" I asked.
"Both," Anna said.
I did think it likely the Righteous would try something after taking out the Scholars airships. Unfortunately, the same tactics we were using for the Scholars wouldn't work against the Righteous. The environment of their ships would strongly counter the Power cores and our carefully constructed bombs weren't likely to work at all, even if a teleport did somehow get one inside the Righteous vessel.
The best I'd been able to do was fortifying the base's exterior door and upgrading the internal defenses with the Righteous killing ability. I was a death trap if they decided to come inside, but if they struck at me from the sky there wasn't much I could do about it.
"I'm hoping I can retrieve debris from the ships to study. Your people must have plans in the works to deal with the Righteous," I said to Anna.
"They do, about what you'd expect. Accelerating a mundane round to high-velocity with powers in a power-friendly environment and making it crash where the rules of mundane physics apply," Anna said.
That had possibilities. Although I didn't have anything prepared to fire high-velocity rounds, something like the Fire Matrix might have potential there. Superheated air outside their ships could cook them just as thoroughly as superheated air inside, it would just take a little longer.
The basic mechanical drones—I wondered if I'd be able to upgrade them with the Fire Matrix. It was something to look into later.
The Righteous were ready. They were resplendent in their white and gold armor—they'd picked strong, tall fighters to wear the bombs. Each would be escorted by three other Righteous. Twenty-four in total would be invading the Scholars' airships.
Anna explained that the teleportation was likely to be imprecise. Space within those airships wasn't always linear and locations sometimes moved around. It really was a place where the laws of reality had broken down.