Yue

 24th January

20:44 GMT

The gravitational distortion is such that I can't really see him, but he's definitely being hit. Though the space behind him-.

"-and did you really think that no one had tried gravity weapons on me before?!"

Ring, map of local gravitational effects.

Map available.

The wiggly lines clearly show the beams I'm firing at him, as if the effect they were having on local light wasn't enough to convince me. But he isn't being distorted, and the effect isn't affecting anything behind him either. Graviton siphon? I mean, I've never seen one -much less one integrated into armour- but this appears to match the description. I cut the beams off and dismiss the constructs and he rises towards the force field below me.

"Have you come to admire it?"

It.. presumably being the object in the shield.

"It's certainly unusual."

Ring, what was he firing at me?

Uncertain. Profile appears to match theorised Bleed-based energy-actualisation weapon.

Ooh. A weapon that spontaneously generates energy by altering the rules by which energy works. That's not fun.

"That fool Starkaðr had no idea what I had when he destroyed this place the first time!"

"Are you saying that device was here at the time?"

"Of course it was. It can't be moved."

I frown. That seems a little lazy. Shouldn't he have checked the wreckage? He'd have to have checked for life signs before attacking… "It is fairly large. And the equipment-."

"No, fool. It can't be moved. It resists every attempt to alter its makeup or location."

"Alter relative to what?"

And… Transmute air into… Pink Flesh Eater? It seems that the people of Tartarath were fairly literal in their description of high-lethality airborne diseases. No point altering the air composition; the filters will just scrub any gas.

"It moves very slowly relative to the nearest stellar objects. The Technons found it centuries ago, studied it continuously until they understood a fraction of its power and then used that knowledge to create my armour."

"Which you promptly used to butcher them."

"No, my revelation didn't happen for several days. And I would say 'massacred' rather than 'butchered'. I didn't plan to eat them."

"I apologise for implying that you did."

"Not because I have a moral qualm about cannibalism. I just wasn't hungry enough to have eaten more than one before the bodies putrefied."

"So mass murder is fine but gastro-intestinal upset? Unthinkable."

He floats up, and I'm careful to keep the force field between the two of us. He stops once he's level with me and settles for watching me across the force field covered area.

"Is this humour?"

"No, this is humouring. I don't know what's going on and I'm hoping that you'll tell me."

"Then why not just ask?" Ah. "If you're anything like the Green Lanterns then I know that you despise me, but did I ever attempt to conceal my purpose from anyone?"

"You accepted conditional surrenders and then broke the terms, so… Yes."

"Does it really count if I did it so often that they would have to have been fools to believe me?"

"Yes. Yes, that counts."

He raises his right hand and has whatever strange energies the Bleed is feeding him… Bubble for a moment. "I'm literally called 'The Traitor' by the people of the entire Sector. My purpose is to demonstrate that ruination and betrayal is the natural pattern for life to follow. If I tell people that I will betray, slaughter and pillage, how have I concealed anything when I actually do it?"

This is not productive. "What is it?"

"The most perfect energy draining weapon ever devised. Even the mighty knockoff the Technons produced cannot compare to the destructive capacity this holds."

"I didn't realise that you were a researcher yourself."

"I wasn't a researcher two hundred years ago. Today, I know that rendering down the universe is not simply a matter of throwing a fleet at a target. Spending decades floating in space with nothing to do but talk to my armour's computer left me with little room for anything else."

"I didn't think your species usually lived that long."

"This is the ultimate armour designed by my species' greatest technologists. If I died too readily then I would hardly be their ultimate warrior."

"Were the people who worked on you really stupid, or just blindly focused?"

"To this day, I have not been able to decide."

My eyes move to the device for a moment. "Where did it come from?"

"I have no idea. When I was fitted with this armour, I saw things. For a long time I thought it was an epiphany about the nature of the universe. Then, I wondered if it might have been an attempt to indoctrinate me by the Technons; one which by their standards backfired horribly. But the first time I saw this armour I felt such a kinship with it… I believe that it was a message from… Something or someone, associated with this armour."

"You're sure that it's armour?"

"What else could it be?"

"A ship's primary weapon? It's far too big for… Most species I can call to mind to wear. And too small for virtually all of the rest. Or it could be a tool."

"No. Something… I know it is a weapon, a piece of armour."

"The voices in your head tell you that?"

"The instincts I've had since putting on this armour, yes. I repaired this facility to try and learn more. So far it defies analysis. Could your ring tell you any more?"

"Not with an initial scan. I think that I'll hand this over to one of our more research-orientated Lanterns rather than try and study it myself."

"You study such devices? Do you believe as I do then, that nothing exists but pain and death? Do you seek to be an agent of universal destruction?"

"I'm struggling to imagine anything that interests me less. I'm a builder. I believe that the future will be better than the past, and I seek to create that future."

The purple bubbles once again rise from his hands. "Then I will kill-."

The wall behind him melts as Mister van Wyck launches his assault.