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Chapter 16 - Iron Nadya
Chapter 16Iron NadyaAnnie moved through the apartment like she owned it.Within moments she was pulling frozen meals from a freezer drawer, and minutes later they were settled in front of the holo with hot meals and cold drinks.Annie flipped through channels until she found an overacted drama involving aliens and a psychic corgi. She talked over most of it while he ate, pointing out plot holes and retelling past character arcs. Finally, she highlighted the betrayals that led to the corgi’s death, only for it to revive in a burst of light and s...
Chapter 15 - Tut, Tut. Driver.
Chapter 15Tut, Tut. Driver.Alexander jolted awake as Annie shook his shoulder. He checked the time via implant: 10 p.m., right on schedule.“Thanks, Annie,” he murmured as he pulled himself to his feet, rubbing sleep from his eyes. It hadn’t been a good nap, but it was better than nothing.He’d taken first watch after they’d both had enough of walking through flickering, identical maintenance tunnels.The time hadn’t been wasted, at least.They had spent hours combing through the implant’s information, accessing deeper evaluations and...
Chapter 14 - Welcome to the Multiverse, Nerd
Chapter 14Welcome to the Multiverse, NerdThe tunnels wound on, twisting through concrete and steel like veins through a buried giant. Their footsteps echoed, the only sound above the low hum of power moving through the conduit below. Annie kept one hand resting on her new katana, as if daring the next fight to come sooner rather than later.Alexander replayed the encounter with the bounty hunters in his head, turning over what worked and what he needed to work on.“... and I’m telling you,” Annie was saying, “if that guy was a hero, then ...
Chapter 13 - Second Spark
Chapter 13Second SparkAnnie slid to a stop just ahead of Alexander as she stepped out of the narrow smuggler’s tunnel into a maintenance corridor.The tunnel stretched into the distance in both directions, dimly lit by scattered overhead strips. Narrow walkways clung to the walls, bolted into reinforced concrete. Between them yawned a two-meter gap bridged at intervals by thin crosswalks.Below the gap, a massive cylindrical conduit dominated the trench. Its ceramic-and-metal shell housed bundled power lines, data cables, and coolant pipes. Acc...
Chapter 12 - Ambition to Burn
Chapter 12Ambition to Burn[ Veritus Praxis Neuroadaptive Noetic Implant: Series 1 - Ascensus ]Welcome to the Veritus Praxis Series - Ascensus.IDENTIFICATION REQUIRED> Alexander RookeConfirmed.Welcome, Alexander. You are now a registered member of the Ascensus program.Administrative override detected: Privacy mode enabled.Scan in progress…[ Ascension Potential Index ]Known Power & Baseline Classifications: Technopathy (C-A, 1-3)Personal Power Classifications & Tiers: Evaluating…Physical and Cognitive Assessments: Evaluating…Self-Actualizat...
Chapter 11 - Surviving is Winning
Chapter 11Surviving Is WinningThe woman called out.“Annette Sheridan! You have an active bounty, and we are officially registered collectors. Surrender and—”Really? Get the drop on me and start monologuing? My turn.Annie charged.She went for the wiry guy, deciding he was the easier target. That was a mistake.He shoved his palm toward her, mimicking a palm strike, but the poor form told her it wasn’t a practiced motion. The rain warped, droplets rippling toward her in the same motion. Then a force hit her square in the chest like a truck...
Chapter 10 - Wanted
Chapter 10WantedONE WEEK LATERRoutine, especially as a part of recovery and keeping oneself busy, was damn good for the soul, Alexander decided. It was important to have enough variation to hold boredom at bay, though.They had stayed up late into the night, that first night when Frank had burst into the workshop, Volt Cannon waving like he was ready to unleash life lessons in regret upon anyone foolish enough to have trespassed his domain.While he used the little bathroom connected to the workshop to get cleaned up, Frank had found a local supe...
Chapter 9 - Home Sweet Workshop
Chapter 9Home Sweet WorkshopAlexander woke to the slight jolt of the hovercar touching down. The machine’s gentle hum faded into silence.His neck ached. A fresh pain, late to the pity party. So did his shoulder, his ankle. Really, his whole body. The last couple of hours, going from chaos with a side of near-death, to Annie’s driving, and finally leaving wilderness for long, uninterrupted stretches of highway, had given him a chance to get some rest.Not good rest, given the back seat was just as cramped as his old slab.Ah, already feeling n...
Chapter 8 - Cognitive Resonance
Chapter 8Cognitive Resonance“I saw him.”Officer Talia Kim stood ramrod straight, hands clasped behind her back. Her braid brushed the curve of her hips as it swayed, threaded with fine metal wiring from a clasp at the back of her head down to a spiked tip.Director Li didn’t look up from his tablet. “You saw Annette Sheridan escaping. That has been confirmed. We have already issued the standard bounty package.”“She wasn’t alone,” Talia insisted.Li tapped something on his screen. “Our manifest does not support that, Ms. Kim. All...
Chapter 7 - Class R
Chapter 7Class RAnnie’s driving, Alexander decided, was not good for the soul. Or his stomach. Or his ankle. And his shoulder had already filed multiple complaints, too.He was sure the experience had shaved a few years off his life expectancy, assuming it hadn’t already been shortened by train collisions, chemical injections, repeated beatings, and just the worst luck in the world. In the galaxy? Whatever.Hovercars were a marvel of modern engineering. Graceful, nearly silent, capable of traversing impossible terrain with the ease of a drift...
Chapter 6 - First Spark of Will
Chapter 6First Spark of WillAnnie had been hauling ass for the nearest exit when she heard fighting in one of the rooms she passed. Sliding to a stop, she turned to investigate.Two corporate bullies were beating on a wounded patient. Despite his obviously medicated state, and the fact that the attack must have been going on for some time, the poor bastard was holding on.I am a goddamn superhero, she told herself, planting her feet shoulder-width apart, hands on hips.“Hey!”Her voice boomed across the room. She was pleased to see she had ever...
Chapter 5 - Pick On Someone Your Own Size
Chapter 5Pick On Someone Your Own SizeAlexander hesitated, inexperience costing him the initiative.The guard’s foot lashed out, slamming into his shin. Pain flared, and his leg slipped out from under him. He hit the ground hard, jarring the shoulder wound he’d already half-forgotten.He scrambled backwards, but the guard lunged, dragging himself forward with a single good arm. If he hadn’t known better, Alexander might have thought the man was a zombie. The movement was clumsy, one side of his body hanging limp, but the man came for him wi...
Chapter 4 - No More Chains
Chapter 4No More ChainsAlexander no longer bothered counting the days. Exhaustion had taken up permanent residence in his bones, and his routine, if it could be called that, had long since turned into something others might call madness. Still, it had kept him grounded. For a time.He broke each day into three activities.Sleep. Exercise. Meditate.Each activity revolved around the slop delivery pipe. During his sleep, it was a repetitive disruption, never allowing him a proper night’s rest. During exercise, it gave him an excuse to stop. During...
Chapter 3 - When the Sky Shattered
Chapter 3When the Sky ShatteredSIX WEEKS LATERSpecter whistled tunelessly, helmet tucked under his arm, as he made his way towards the uppermost level of the prison. It was ironic to him that wearing the black helmet, with its intimidating black face guard, made it harder for him to slip through the prison unnoticed. Two of his powers didn’t really work properly if his face couldn’t be seen.He’d spent the last few months in this shithole, and he was ready for today’s epic conclusion.Though he could have gotten the job done quicker, he...
Chapter 2 - The Collar
Chapter 2The CollarThe routine Alexander had been forced into over the past several days was nothing short of torture. He couldn’t say how many days had passed. The only clues came from the cell itself: the pipe embedded in the rear wall, and the toilet tucked into its shallow cubicle. Both activated on what he estimated to be an hourly schedule.He’d started counting the subtle vibrations that preceded each cycle. A few seconds later, a thin stream of watery slop would spit from the pipe. The toilet flushed at the same moment. He’d manage...
Chapter 1 - REDACTED
Chapter 1RedactedBoredom was not good for the soul. Alexander Rooke reminded himself of that every morning, but his routine was a means of survival. Of keeping the intruding need to make decisions simple and sane.Shower. Dress. Eat. Leave.Making his way to work through the bustling city, he sidestepped a man about to slip on some wet trash. The dull thud of a body hitting the pavement behind him was proof of Alexander’s real problem.He saw too much. All the little mistakes nobody else noticed. People’s lack of awareness, how negligence and ...
Continue the Dream
Thanks for being here at the very beginning. This Patreon exists for one simple purpose: publishing chapters of The Machine God as I write them.The Machine God follows Alexander Rooke and his team of unlikely supervillains as they navigate a world where reality itself is becoming the gameboard for an entity that is breaking all the rules. The System is waking up, transforming Earth into just one battlefield in a multiversal war where Dreams collide and only the strongest survive.What you'll get here:Early access - 25+ advanced chapters.Mont...
