The Universe is like a planet, peel back the layer called Reality, derogatorily called the flesh space for some, and you would find yourself either in the Void, the Ether or the UniNet.
Of these four layers of the universe, each and every one of them are coated by a thick membrane called the Weave and have their own sub set of rules built into them.
A thick membrane that could be pierced when enough influences are gathered.
These holes in the weave are called rifts, and the space hollowed out by the gathered influences is the inside of said rifts.
As holes in the weave, the rifts allow the rules of each of these planet layers to mix with each other, forming brand new rules.
New rules that often contradict the rules that the Architects have built into the fine workings of the universes four layers.
Like what was happening right now.
"Ach" Ester grunted in pain as he analyzed what type of rule the Rift was applying to them.
And from what he could tell so far, it seemed to be a healing rule.
How did he know that?
'Pretty sure that my legs aren't supposed to be healing this fast. Ouch.'
Flinching as his legs healed from falling into the Rift at Mach 'I can break your legs' thanks to a pulsing green mist surrounding and fixing it, Ester grunted in some more pain as he finally realized that the green mist wasn't just congregating around his legs.
Feeling the green mist tickle the sides of his ribs and select portions of his arms, at this point it seemed safe to conclude that this rift was one of the rare ones with healing properties.
Very effective healing properties seeing as it was forcibly setting his bones and knitting it together despite all the physical trauma it was granting him.
'What were the co-ords again?' Making a mental note to find out the coordinates of this place to sell on the market sometime later, Ester heard a hiss of air from his side causing him to speak.
"Are you good Eva?"
[-Crrrkkkck- Y-you bet your cute l-little ass it is.]
The sound of gears clattering and pneumatics hissed laboriously at his side.
[I'm p-pretty sure your g-gift b-broke though.]
"I see your speaker is doing better."
[B-better is debatea-able]
Ester chuckled through the pain. "It's at least better than your driving skills."
Eva let out a hiss of air as she retorted. [F-forgive me i-if I'm b-bad at driving a-a hoverboard that t-takes legs to d-drive]
"F-f-f-funny."
[H-how about you s-stop mocking my s-stutter and s-start getting up b-before I s-stab you.]
"Y-y-y-y-yes y-y-y-your m-m-m-maj-" [Shut it] "Yep"
Shutting up as per her command, after several moments of combined silence between the two, Eva interrupted the silence.
[So E-Ester I'll bite.] Eva's head poked over from the side of his vision, her mouth shell half torn off, exposing the glowing metallic insides.
"Hopefully not me so what's up?"
Eva took a moment to understand what he just said before her hand found his still healing side.
"Eek!" [G-get your head o-out of the g-gutter will you?]
Shaking her head, Eva continued her previous line of questioning.
[So E-Ester.] She moved to straddle Ester with a pair of broken legs, her stormy grey eyes staring into his own. [M-mind telling me w-why you l-let t-the girl with a f-five year long s-streak of leglessness d-drive something t-that needs l-legs?]
She paused before adding as if an afterthought. [And h-how did you f-find the best way t-through? I'm p-pretty sure t-that you d-didn't know h-how to do t-that before and I-I want to p-praise myself f-for following y-your orders t-that well in the f-first place.]
[A-also that was c-crazy ass p-plan t-that you made m-me p-pull o-o-off, h-how did w-we survive t-t-that?]
Ester waited for a few moments before opening his mouth.
"Can I speak now or are you going to ask some more questions?"
Eva nodded her head demurely.
Ester slowly pushed himself up and off of the ground as his wounds recovered to a level where movement was possible without being in agonizing pain as he organized all of her questions in his mind.
Having pulled himself off of the floor and now at eye level with Eva, he said. "Funnily enough, I can answer all of your questions right now."
Eva raised an eyebrow as she waited for an answer.
And an answer Ester did give her.
Explaining about how the Omni vision had given him not only a star bug's eye of view, but his own view, her own view and everything in between that to see the rift's surroundings.
Ester continued the explanation by telling her about the vision that he had seen about the place he suspected to be the site of Project Void Buffer.
Finishing his explanation with the fact that the first time this ability had appeared during their escape from the Ground to Space Array, when he finished his explanation, Eva fell quiet.
[...]
For approximately 3 seconds.
[I-I-I w-will be honest E-Ester] She began. [I-I-I d-don't know what t-to s-s-say about t-this since Arc-architect damned b-b-blessings are-are the furthest t-things f-f-from my a-area of ex-expertise. V-voids toys even the o-old man's r-r-records don't h-h-have any-anything about w-what your experiencing.]
[A-and you know h-h-how much the-the o-old m-m-man t-traveled.] Continued, tapping her forehead against his.
[S-so I'll j-just a-a-ask you this. A-are y-y-you going t-to l-leave me?]
"...How did the topic suddenly change to me leaving you?"
[J-just answer t-the d-d-damn question.]
"No."
Eva's eyes curved into crescents. [C-c-cool, that's a-a-all I-I need t-to know.]
Running her hands over the back of his neck as she stared into his eyes, after several moments off extended silence Ester felt something well up in his chest.
It was warm.
A bit to warm in fact.
"...Bleh."
[W-wow, w-w-way to ruin t-the m-mood dude.]
"Not my fault Aether sickness exists."
Releasing her grip around the back of his neck as blood began to seep out of his mouth, Eva wiped his mouth with the hem of her shirt, her eyes turning into a frown as she noticed the blood already staining her right sleeve.
Opting for the left sleeve instead she continued. Ester slowly got up from the ground, observing his surroundings.
It was a strangely familiar yet unfamiliar place.
Familiar in the fact that a landscape of steel and plastic unfolded within the confines of the Rift.
Unfamiliar in the fact that the landscape just ended at certain points, cut off by a swirling layer of bright lights that Ester instinctively knew was the Weave.
'Better not touch that.'
Getting the instinctual feeling that touching it would lead to consequences that he wasn't yet prepared for, Ester looked at the long stretch of space akin to when someone dropped an unsecured roll of bandages, spotting the two bright lights at the end of the tunnel.
"Do you know where we dropped in from?"
[N-n-no.]
"Gambling."
[I-I-It's a f-f-fifty - fifty but!] Ester turned to see Eva point towards the hole in the weave behind him. [I'm p-p-pretty sure we c-came from t-that one.]
"Is that gambling instinct or is there a basis for your conclusion?" Ester asked as he finished checking the damages on his right arm, concluding that unless he needed the sword again, it was pretty much intact.
[M-my b-b-basis for my c-conclusion is t-the furrow we d-dug in the g-ground w-w-when f-f-falling in-into the r-rift.] Eva said, gesturing at the three furrows lining the ground where they stood.
"I swear those things weren't there before." Ester admitted as he stepped out of the furrow he was in, finding a hoverboard bent in half from an outcrop of steel beams nearby.
[B-better get t-those optic m-m-mods r-ready old timer, y-your fleshies a-are deter-teriorating.] Eva laughed at her own joke as she crawled over to fully charged Aether batteries littered across the ground.
Ester chuckled at her joke as he strapped the Bent hoverboard against his back when it failed to magnetize. "Well we better hurry before we have worse concerns than just the rising prices in the Mod Market."
Eva let out a hiss of air that led to blood leaking out of her neck piece.
[L-like this?]
"Just like that."
---
[I-I want t-to die.]
"You agreed to this plan, what the Void are you talking about now?"
Somehow, someway the Hovercart survived.
The Extractor strapped to it didn't receive the same treatment since it was the direct cause for the hovercart surviving.
But a good extractor could be made with blood, sweat, tears and grit, a way out of the Rift that kept them alive during the second Mach 'I can break your legs' would require a Hovercart with enough repulsion to keep them from being sucked right back into the rift.
Ester held no fantasies in his head that they would be able to get past the gravity and electroaethermagnetic waves creating this rift unscathed.
Especially so if they wanted to escape the Rift's pull.
So currently, Ester was overclocking the Hovercart in hopes of breezing past the waves forming the basis of the Rifts existence while making sure what remained of the Extractor could serve as their shield.
[I-I-I w-want to d-d-die.] Eva repeated with an empty gaze as he messed around with the wiring.
"Why are you so dramatic Eva?" Ester suppressed a grin as he connected the servos in the Hoverboard to the Hovercart. "It's just temporary."
[T-t-temporary my a-ass.] Eva wriggled in place as she placed her hands on her burning face. [Y-your not g-g-going to let this g-g-go.]
"Think of this as my revenge for the Architect situation two weeks ago." Ester retorted as he sifted through the mess that was the Hovercart's innards.
'Whoever made this thing ought to be ashamed of themselves.' Ester thought as he bypassed the shoddy safeguards meant to prolong its life while introducing several dozens of inefficiencies Ester cracked his knuckles.
"Hold onto the Extractor if you don't want us to die."
[I-I-I want t-t-to die] Eva repeated for the umpteenth time in a row as she wriggled against his back.
"We all do Eva, we all do." Ester comforted Eva as he tightened the straps holding Eva to his back.
"I just want us to die away from this trash planet." Ester continued, eliciting a shrill hiss of surprise from Eva as she contorted her body sharply.
[I-I don't w-w-w-want to d-die y-yet?]
"That's the spirit." Ester grinned as he raised the final wire required to bring the Hovercart to life.
But before he could connect it to its related port, Ester had to ask "Are you ready?"
[M-m-maybe?] Eva said as a harsh hiss of air escaped her.
Ignoring the fact that blood splattered onto his back when she let the harsh hiss of air escape her, Ester swallowed down the warm sensation welling up in his throat as he brought down the wire.
"Good enough."
---
Deep underground in some unknown corner of the trash planet a transaction was occurring.
A transaction of knowledge.
[You b-better be telling the truth a-about those Vegetables info seller.] A towering figure spat mechanically as they stared at one of the few screens capable of transmitting images through the heavily polluted Aether waves.
[If w-we find out that-that you are lying about t-this we can track y-your coordinates n-no matter where you h-h-hide.] The towering figure threatened at the hooded figure hiding on the other side of the screen.
[I-it would t-take only a m-microsecond to track the s-source of the broadcast b-back to you and put a bounty o-on your head.]
The hooded figure on the other side of the screen shrugged their shoulders before a distinctly relaxed male voice exited the speakers besides the screen.
[Don't worry your m-m-metal domes about the truth o-of the matter, I-I-I can guarantee on my status that I'm n-not telling you any lies.]
The towering figure bent down to stare better into the screen, exposing a number of camera's hidden within the darkness of the underground. [I-i-if that is t-the truth give u-us the tracker d-data.]
[That would t-take payment.] The hooded figure said, rubbing his fingers together with emphasis.
[We a-are wiring the p-payment to you n-n-now.] The towering figure said, a bright light flashing behind their numerous camera's..
The screen crackled and jittered for a brief moment as the hooded figure confirmed the transaction, a low whistle exiting his mouth. [F-five rifts? T-t-that's quite generous of you.]
[T-tracker data.] The towering figure demanded.
[Sending i-it to you know.]
The Towering figure's cameras blinking lights all flashed in unison as they received the information.
Moving to shut down the conversation, right before they could do it the hooded figure spoke up again. [B-before you e-end the conversation milords.]
[W-w-what is it Info seller] The towering figure said with audible irritation. [T-the price h-has been paid.]
[Aha! T-that's the thing mi-]
The Towering figure moved to end the conversation prompting the Hooded figure to hurriedly finish their words before the towering figure could press the button.
[It in-involves the people y-your tracking!]
The Towering figure paused, their numerous camera lights blinking slowly.
[S-speak.]
The Hooded figure let out a sigh of relief as he leaned into the camera, exposing two small tusks protruding from the corner of his smiling lips.
[How much w-would you l-like to pay to know who's h-hunting the heirs of the Gravesmith?]
---
13 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
+++
Happy new year y'all, it doesn't feel real that a whole ass year passed by.
Time passed way to quickly for this tree's liking.
Tree