Risen: Shatterverse

Got that Shrinking Feeling

If I couldn't hurt this thing with plasma fire, I needed an alternative and quick. Or the Collector was going to play havoc with the Collectorverse entities' efforts to retake their universe from the half-mad alien. Starting with my attempts to drop this terraformer onto the ground so we could cannibalize it for raw materials. Hmmm, maybe a little phased glass would do the trick.

The phased glass slug thrower appeared with a directed thought in the place of my right hand. Then it was coming up and I was taking aim at the humanoid's head.

- Hold for a moment, Two, - the shard spoke rather unexpectedly into my head. - I might have a more permanent solution. -

My left hand shifted into a strange-looking device.

- If we can disrupt the connection between the T'sang, situated several light-years away on its control spire, and this simulacrum, it should fall apart without its control. - the shard went on to explain as the device began to activate.

- With the thing you just made from my left hand, I'm guessing? -

- That is correct, Two. The device is a hyperspace comms jammer, a technology my original was working on when it sacrificed itself back to the k'ethik elders. While it may not target the precise wavelength the T'sang is using to control the simulacrum, the jammer will create enough dissonance that any wavelengths using hyperspace as a conduit will be interfered with. -

I slowly nodded as I tried to digest what the shard was saying. Then something occurred to me:

- Can't we just use the omni-field to destroy the avatar? I mean, it's working pretty good on these metal beasts. -

- I did not suggest using the omni-field because its deployment would ultimately fail to stop the T'sang, which, if it didn't kill you before you could get close enough to deploy the field, would simply create another simulacrum from the remaining beast fragments. -

- Fair point. - The phased glass slug thrower disappeared. - Well, what the hell are we waiting for, tin man? Let's disrupt the shit outta this ass clown! -

In response to my question, the jammer began to hum, lights dancing in a hypnotizing pattern across its top surface. Curious to see if it was already working, I looked up from the jammer to the humanoid, which, to my delight, had stopped its admittedly slow advance. Slow enough, anyway, for me to have that bit of conversation with the Legion shard.

Eyes on the humanoid, I watched as the hovering bits of metal, backlit by light, that made up its body begin to quiver as if the Collector was having trouble holding them in place. I half expected some sort of verbal castigation at this point but, oddly enough, the T'sang remained silent as it struggled to keep its avatar from flying apart.

Finally, though:

"This is becoming tiresome, Two," the Collector's voice hissed, each word filled with frustration and not a little anger. "There is no possible way you possess the technology sufficient to thwart me a second time. And yet ..."

With a silent explosion, the avatar burst apart, its glowing pieces flying in every direction. Stifling a laugh of triumph, I swooped in, omni-field swirling, and blasted the pieces into dust. As it did, a literal storm of data poured across my HUD, coming so hard and fast that it nearly blacked me out.

- Legion! Can you shunt that into secondary storage for later analysis? - I screamed into the depths of my struggling mind. - I'm having a hard time ... - And I sighed with relief when the torrent became a trickle. - Thanks, man. I appreciate that. -

- Yet again we have sampled a portion of the T'sang's mind, - the shard noted. - Enough lingered in the control field that was keeping the simulacrum together that we've harvested significant and valuable data from it when your omni-field converted the pieces into energy. -