<link href="StyleSheet.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> <meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type"/> <style type="text/css"> </style> <meta content="urn:uuid:742f59e9-c2da-40e0-b7b7-7149cb817241" name="Adept.expected.resource"/> </head> <body> <table border="0"><tr><td><img alt="" height="48px" src="Images/chapter-i.png" width="100px"/></td><td><b>17 Aevum Oblivio</b><br/> Enter the Explorator</td></tr></table> <p class="first_para"><i><big>Z</big>he was feeling slippery on this whole three-dimensional gig.</i></p> <p><i>But the memories of Kaito Kayzi knew all about survival in this mad universe. </i></p> <p><i>Grinning, the technician held out his palms and exerted pressure on reality. His hands were filled with the cheap plastic handles of two zaibatsu-built railpistols in an instant. </i></p> <p><i>If the ancient enemy of the Multiplicity was here it wouldn't want to negotiate, after all. </i></p> <p><i>The first of the Golems blew apart as it came in through the door, forcing itself through the blastproof steel with a howl of ablating metal. Through the Golem-shaped hole it had created thronged more of its misshapen brethren; each a humanoid swarm of black nanos. Heat radiated off them in waves.</i></p> <p><i>Zhe unleashed a firestorm from his pistols, scouring the lockway as seething Slavesystems widened the gap. Kinetic rounds shattered the Golems into screeching, writhing fragments. Incendos delivered searing sheets of flame. Detonants popped and blasted, sending individual 'bots scattering like chaff.</i></p> <p><i>Without the limitations of actual ammunition or the need to reload, Zhe waded through the twitching, melting Golems, making for his carpetbag. Now twenty had fallen, now thirty. And behind him, the pieces of Everdark began of merge together, a puddle becoming an ocean of flickering blackness…</i></p> </body></html>