Chapter 20 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 20 — Christmas Morning; the Ramp-Up

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 19 — The ruling; the ceasefire ends · Next: Chapter 21 — The southern trenches; rot stickers · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

“Hey, do you know if he ever made it into the dungeon?

Summary

The Christmas Morning interlude, in Carl's voice: back in Orren's office after the shelter, Orren says Paulie never made it inside the dungeon — 'the individual parts are often disposable. Remember that in any future dealings with their kind' — and the Containment Interface comes online. Carl asks to be sent to the Florida gas station with the memory-ghost dog. Beside sleeping Lightning Lou with a bag of chips, he opens the interface: not a button but six tabs of untranslated numbers about the device that installed the AI into the primal engine, a map with a red dot over Earth labelled Primary Zone Influence, and, after ten minutes, the Fuse page — five benchmarks, two met, and 'Override Conditions And Activate Fuse'. He wants to press it more than anything; Donut writes 'I MISS YOU'; 'But not bright enough.' Then the doubt: the AI is not in pain, it is having fun, so why allow this? A trap or a test. At the end of a list of twenty status lines is the only other button, Disconnect Containment, which renders the unit inert and kills the failsafe. Three options, and one question — which hurts the Syndicate most and protects his people most. He presses Disconnect. The interface blanks to the map, and the red dot over Earth starts to grow. 'Welcome to the party, pals'

Two Cookbook notes: Justice Light, eighth edition, on the one NPC he killed in anger — 'I have become what I hate'; Drakea, twenty-second, answering him across editions — 'They put you here […] Let them know fear.' Phase One, 180 hours: no offensive magic, no teleports, corridors only. Nine of ten teams; the Madness holds spots seven and eight. The base is an upset ant colony, colonels sending battalions ten miles north to the Operatic border and ten south to the nagas. Jurgen, colonel of the 105th Scream Warriors (a screaming Wendy's girl in a one-horned Viking helmet), flashes devil horns: 'Heidi, do you see? Carl lives!' The throne is locked and every throne room is on the map; Justice Light, an Origamist with one wing, black feathers and horn-tufts like Tina's, has prepared the throne room with his sluggalos. Rocks hit the shield, then poison smoke that mages disperse — chemical warfare without magic. Donut in her tiara with the Personal Guard she chose: Bomo, the Sledge, Very Sullen, were-castors, Jamal, former crawlers, Dong Quixote and Splash Zone, fifteen guards with a constitution bonus near a warlord. Ten Armor slots are full — Party Planner and Florin's nine flame spider tanks — so the chariot cannot take a missile launcher. Samantha has stowed away on the bomber to save Louis from his suicide mission, planning a log cabin and a beard; 'Louis, you gotta dump her out the bomb bay.' Elle: the elves have huge trebuchets and dozens of small ones from their inventories, mercenaries mounted on zebra things, and the rocks are cover for something. The cretins must walk; Clint, a kindergartener again as a flesh golem, and the bear cubs Randy and Todd ('We're going to bathe in apostate blood') try to join with training spears and are sent back to Miss Nadine. Carl's patch glows, Soul Poisoning returns, the ringing and the rushing under the surface; Dong Quixote takes the gunner's seat whispering to Jefferson the sock about long-term investments.

Characters

• Carl — Pressed Disconnect instead of the fuse; back in a chariot with a poisoned soul bar.
• Orren — 'The individual parts are often disposable.'
• Justice Light — An Origamist who has readied the throne room; 'I have become what I hate.'
• Jurgen — Colonel of the 105th Scream Warriors.
• Samantha — Stows away to save Louis; out the bomb bay.
• Princess Donut — Chose the Personal Guard; still faintly skunk.
• Clint Smashgrab — A were-castor warrior turned kindergartener, wanting to fight.
• Holger — Sends his best friend, now a child, back inside.
• Dong Quixote — Gunner, with a talking sock.
• Elle McGibbons — Trebuchets by the dozen and zebra cavalry.
• The System AI — 'It wasn't in pain like Paulie said. It was having fun.'

Locations

• The gas station — Florida, Christmas Day, a sleeping dog and two buttons.
• The base camp — Under rocks and poison; a front ten miles north and another ten miles south.

Motifs

• The failsafe — Five benchmarks, two met; Disconnect pressed; a red dot growing.
• 'You're not going to break me' — Said at the button.
• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Justice Light and Drakea, brothers across editions.
• Faction Wars — Phase One; Armor slots; a fifteen-strong Personal Guard.
• The Residuals — Paulie never got in; 'their kind' are swarms.