THE EXPANSE
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is coincidental. Copyright © 2023 by Jawann Fleet All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review. First cover edition February 2023
‘the expanse was merely a searing chasm of rapid-fire lightning-bolts but no downpour .. a darkened heated fission overcasting the hub ..’
‘night-watchers were/are an derogatory term in this guise referring to in spite of all the technics occurring amidst the hub at this point those subjects who perhaps awe-struck and/or perhaps driven by fear could only muster enough resolve to blankly gaze up at the expanse ..’
Ahhh yes the plight of the night-watchers yeah so because Boone had failed his task(s) so inevitably the hub was still populated by the cybernetic swarms .. locusts .. and the ravenous hordes.
And despite the downtime some couriers were still employed and could be found roaming the charcoal expanse but mostly the contents consisted of steel-metal parts and shards and pyrotechnic sparkling matériels.
Zelda Kennet: Yeah and where the city of floating entities used to be .. theirs alot of rumors ‘floating’ around .. most of the dead-weight/machinery .. emplex sirvington [alias] had granted the construction of an arterial leading right into the hub but most of the second zone still remain ‘off-limits’ to the general populace and most orbsters except for some of the higher-level ones and chancellors I assume but I can’t begin to even fathom the extent of their ongoings and deliberations in and out the hub. - Yes, sometimes it became nearly impossible to gauge the intent of the sects.
Due to Boone's incompetence you not only had 'night-watchers' now viewing the ordeal from the side-ridges but the operators who did proceed to foray had essentially entered the quest as blind as bats in the darkened arena.
- or watch as Taran got clipped/pecked the result of a folly .. a foolish miscalculation of the latitude pitting him too close to a violently progressing horde onslaught -
Encino Mossberg: Yeah the lads have it good in 'the inferno' it seems .. you don't even have to be acute for your pecks at this point.
'the significance of the decoys because the hordes now had become so entrenched/ingrained within the hubs circumsphere.'
Xilin Intonet popped out the woodwork to address the initiates stating 'simply what you'd want to do in these periods is when possible to use the [lightning] bolts as illumination while circumnavigating.'
- and then in this guise .. if the previous incarnate saw the hub as a swamped cesspool now it'd [de]morphed becoming a simmering concavity -
- Despite the frenzy and turmoil listings were still popping up pretty frequently as couriers were in high demand and legions to the hordes also highly desired -
‘And see cause the caveat of it being that if they just show the necessary fortitude needed to make the trek then the sects’ll back them up and accommodate them with usually greater resources than the lone orbster would have by themselves .. trust it’s hard to survive on the ridges/outskirts without being apart of a clan.’
‘Well on the somewhat more positive side, though it is a chasm in a sense it’s still an expanse .. meaning that is still an open space like a field essentially .. an electro-field.’
ZAFIR LIENZO: The rubyian-spectrum/esper is full of those kind of skeletal prisms .. we actually favor those entities if anything, their easily moldable .. what’s become trendy now is their morphing into apparitions .. wraiths .. anything that’ll help cross the incorporeal borders.’
- some were able to smuggle the entheogen in from swamps via mini-canisters while others had proficiency enough to retain the contents within their beaks without overindulging
URSA’S-MOSAIC
* silvery-strings for picture of it the hordes now reimagined as droids and souped up off the ‘meta-enthogen’
- and to whoever coined the term ‘metaentheogen’ .. what a misstep .. it doesn’t incorporate a religious, spiritual or illusory channeling .. it’s barely hallucinogenic .. .. it’s a simple strand, synthetic compound partly manufactured part naturally occurring as cultivated in the shrubs.’
And cause what they didn't understand was that in spite of the hordes persistence individual bounties for high-level targets, couriers and 'disruptors' were still going up incrementally .. they still wanted 'splinters' or committed members who would branch off from the swirling locusts in intervals and pursue their own interest .. the nature of this 'guise was as much a tale of ruthless self-interest as it was one of collective consciousness.
Taking the bounties would be ideal for an initiate They felt .. see cause the sects strykers and hordes are more calibrated they operate out of an ‘arm’ or a revolving-mechanism at least and it’s more platoon-like in formation so it’s easier for them to stand out however in this ‘guise’ that their in it’s probably easy for some guys to get lost in the bunch that is when you’ve got ‘em all jetting around the lots maniacally.
And for others like Scotty who'd used the hordes seeming haphazardness as a veil to conceal his own deficiencies.
A SPINWHEEL
‘And that was in regards to Boone?’
‘Yeah see what he couldn’t understand is that the hub is not static .. it’s dynamic always in flux .. the swarms are always mutating .. the assemblies are growing more sophisticated in nature .. the automatons are becoming conscious .. it’s a lot even for the high-level operators .. a constant spin-wheel.’
'Honestly if I was them I'd be happy when one or two of the locusts select a bounty .. it keeps a higher-tiered member of their ranks occupied.'
