Channelknight Fadran

"Here we have at least a rough idea of their forces and where stuff is. They've established a presence, which means we have targets to attack."

"There isn't any singular world that they depend on. Again, redundancies." Fadran thumbed behind him. "We're starting by cutting off some control here in the colonies. Cause general chaos and whatnot. From there we can work our way a bit deeper into the heart of the Clan and start dealing some real damage, but for now, simply giving the people here some hope and a fighting chance just for themselves is enough."

"Not me personally. The locals who've managed to sneak by security and build this base." Fadran gestured at the caverns.

"I absolutely agree. And that is why we are starting off small."

"I can. A lot of people can. It's just very far from everyone."

"There's no such thing as an original copy of a newspaper. There aren't any independent news sources, except those who remain in a Clan-controlled bubble of Clan-controlled news. As for what other universes know, the answer is very little. Macrocosmic travel is extremely limited in most situations. In fact, pretty much every universe within the Clan's control isn't anywhere near developing such abilities--several are physically incapable of doing so--which means that while there's undoubtedly several universes who have information that we don't, going out and finding them, talking to them, getting them to join our side... all that's going to be ridiculously unfeasible."

"Why don't you just help me move faster instead?" Elya petitioned.

She cut three small slits first, holding her weight on the fingers splayed across Lyanor's most pressing wound. Elya reached in with the forceps as smoothly as possible, but had to feel at it for just a moment in order to find the chunk of lead and pull it out. "Alright. That's one."

"No." That was all she said. Elya gestured to Ji to hold Lyanor down, just in case, then rinsed a dagger in antiseptic to reach at the first bullet. @Mystic Syn

"It's easier than you might think to simply hide everything behind an edited newspaper or a trail of bribes. People know that the Clan wages wars, conquers worlds, punishes innocents; but how, when, where, and why is all kept hidden. The vast majority of the 'citizens' within the empire are trapped in a small portion of a planet for the entirety of their lives. Travelers are monitored, upper-class people are given stakes in it all, and in the case that someone becomes truly dangerous, they're simply executed."

Elya had darted over the moment she cut down the last Pacis. Ji and Verim were okay: that was good. With luck they'd have completed the mission, too. But then there was the stream of blood across their newest comrade's fallen form, amidst empty bullet shells and a wafting-away scent of sulfur. She dropped to her knees, reaching inside her jacket for a pair of forceps, a length of bandage, and antiseptic. "Hold still."

"Nothing's perfect. Again, we do have some of it. There's no such thing as foolproof, no matter how many redundancies you have. It's just..." Fadran sucked in a breath. "It's just that the Clan has a lot of redundancies. For everything. Fallback plans upon fallback plans, secrets upon secrets... there's a reason they managed to amass literal millions of universes."

"The Clan is not conventional by any means. They understand better than anyone that putting all of anything in one place is the easiest way to get it all ruined. Armies are spread thin throughout the universes, which in a pinch means that resistances like ours have a chance, but even if we completely succeed on one planet, we've barely made a dent in anything at all. Not to mention that important information, resources, and the like are all locked behind their own doors, both metaphorically and literally. Full-scale incursions are almost always required just to acquire a fraction of something larger."

Elya kicked off the wall, launched aside Altei, slid to a sudden stop, then feinted between his arms again. Another slash of red appeared on him, this time across his stomach. He kept going, by some miracle--or perhaps just the standard training--and swung once again at her. She avoided it easily, dragging her sword with a swish across his bicep. Another exchange of fists and blades, ducking with a condensed spin to the side, and then a slash across his leg. The Mystic stumbled for a moment; the second mistake he'd made so far. With a somewhat pained grunt, Elya buried her blade in Altei's chest. She rammed it in as far as she could, then yanked it out. A bit of blood speckled the air for a moment, then pittered to the ground like a light rain. His lungs had been completely severed from his head. The Mystic couldn't breathe, shout, or scream in pain. He collapsed. Flicking the blood off her blade, she said, "I'm Elya." The last look on his face was that of shock, fear, and agony. A pity, really; she'd know more than most. Then another scream sounded from the alleyway. Right. The new person. Elya spun on her heel, hurling her daggers at the nearby Pacis. Two hit dead-on, right in the throat, while the third clattered off somewhere distant.

"We do. The fact that we have as much as we have is the product of years. The fact remains is that the Clan is incredibly thorough with everything."

"It does." Fadran looked up, a little defeated. "But there isn't exactly anything we can do about that."

"Yeah."

A shriek pierced the air. Not one of the Pacis; it came from the alleyays. Elya puffed out her anger. It wouldn't serve anyone. Instead, she ran at the Mystic with renewed vigor, slashing between his arms and chest to leave a deep gash on his neck. He'd grown more sluggish and predictable: his advantage would be hers in just a minute. Hang on back there. She thought, thinking of Lyanor. Keep it going.

"Colony Fourteen is one of a few settlements on this weird chunk of rock and metal with artificial gravity." Fadran turned to Echo Three. "And yeah. We could. But thus far we haven't, so they probably haven't found us yet."

The bang was enough. The Pacis swiveled their weapons back at where the shots had come from, and the Mystic stopped for just a moment. She still couldn't breathe. Elya gripped a dagger, hurling it at Altei's leg: it sunk in deep, making him shout in pain and stumble. In. Out. In. Out. She could handle this. It was all in her head, right? Elya forced herself back up to her feet, holding her sword somewhat shakily and staring down the other Mystic.

"The universe we're in right now doesn't go by any name, really. There are plenty of ports that the Clan uses to travel between 'nearby' universes in the colonies, but they're all very heavily controlled. And I'm not sure about anything else; if I was, then we could account for it immediately." "What do you mean?"

"Quite a bit, but most of it's area-specific. In general, though, it's also got a recruited series of magic warriors. Pretty much every universe under Clan control has a group of elite watching from the shadows."

"The Macrosmos doesn't really follow any laws. You could probably map out each universe individually, given a lot of time and resources, but trying to position and connect individual existences is simply impossible." Fadran stretched a little; talking about the Macrosmos was always tiring. "That said, there are probably tons of maps of individual provinces somewhere in the Clan treasury, but getting to those would be ridiculously difficult."

Why?

Who art thou? Six posts, huh... new person? Welcome to the Shard! I guess I'll drop some standard-issue questions: Hogwarts House Favorite Color Favorite Sanderson Book What do you want written on your gravestone? Hobbies