Frozen Soul, and other works: September 2020

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Prologue - Trade Chat

(NERV Game Site – Official DAtS Offline Forums)

Number5Alive, Golddigger, BurtBacharach, CrazyCelt, Blaze, DoYouEvenLyft?, MarcoPolo, MightMakesRight, l33tpally, Bennie, SEA-TAC_Sweetie, Requiesce-in-Pace, MacD, HaveGunsWillTravel, TheDespoiler, Guardian, GunKitty, Chummer, Inquisitor, Lizard, RedFox, SemiSolidSnake, ElfMama, Not_the_Face!, Anonymous3, Anonymous4, Anonymous7, Anonymous9, AggregatorOfSorrows, M.Mollen, WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot, DigDug, BigGunn, Dolcett, Starwatcher, Backlog, DarkAvariel, Knocker, Hullu_Kapteeni, GrimDark, BloodForTheBloodGod, Queen’s_Bitch, BackDat@55Up, DoYouEvenDPS?, MajorTom, Parca, and DarkAngel are in the chat.

Anonymous3: So, I finally managed to get to Tsk’neth, see what went down there.

Lizard: Tsk’neth… that’s the place that the Black Stars went Cinder vs. Evil Dead on, right?

Anonymous3: Yeah. Anyways, the reports are true. Black Star owns the system now, and Tsk’neth IV is flat out GONE! I think what’s left will form a loose asteroid belt in the next few millenia.

DarkAvariel: What in the--? How did he destroy a planet?

TheDespoiler: I would assume that he shot it. A lot.

Not_the_Face!: But, even their rail shots wouldn’t be enough to blow up a planet, not anytime soon.

Backlog: He wasn’t limited to those railguns. I just checked the chat log, and he specifically said that the senior surviving authorities in the system signed off on the planet being both uninhabited by sentient life, and in need of Exterminatus.

DarkAvariel: So, what does that mean?

Backlog: The treaties involving using superluminal weapons against inhabited planets have loopholes. Namely, the fact that if someone in authority signs off on a planet being uninhabited by sentients, then the treaty doesn’t apply.

Backlog: And, under Alliance law, having the senior officials call for Exterminatus gives any mercenary company with the capability license to execute Exterminatus on that planet, using whatever legal means are at their disposal.

BurtBacharach: Wait, you mean he went and lawyered himself into a position where he could use Starbolts on a planet?

Backlog: Yes.

M.Mollen: In my defense, the planet really needed destroying.

RedFox: Hey, Mollen, what in the hell have you been up to in the Alliance? The spacer bars were talking about an upcoming Corporate War, and all the profits they could make from it, and now they’re pissed as hell because they won’t get to profit.

Starwatcher: Oh, yes. I saw that the Yathru Corporation declared a formal corporate war against Black Star. That was supposed to start yesterday.

RedFox: According to the spacers I talked to, it started AND ended yesterday!

M.Mollen: The spacers were right, then. Yathru declared war, and gave a set date for hostilities to commence, under corporate warfare bylaws. They were intending to launch a campaign of sabotage, sanctions, and subterfuge to try and win concessions from me. I declined to play their game.

Starwatcher: Is that why your entire damn offensive force, at every base I could get contacts with, used X’thari drives to jump out in the last couple weeks?

M.Mollen: Yes. As set down by the corporate bylaws, I did not start my attack until the set time. However, once that time came, forces that I had prepositioned struck the Yathru Corporation in every system they had a major presence in, destroying orbital infrastructure and sweeping away any defenses, before eliminating the majority of their assets.

Blaze: Wait, Yathru owned entire planets. Does that mean you…

M.Mollen: Greenwave was deployed on four planets wholly owned by Yathru Corporation, yes, including Maccara, their headquarters planet.

Blaze: Well, fuck.

DoYouEvenLyft?: Well, that would explain why Yathru’s stock has just gone through the floor.

SEA-TAC_Sweetie: Yes, I would think that anyone who owns Yathru stock is reconsidering their life choices at the moment.

WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot: So, Yathru challenges Black Star to a corporate war, thinking that they would play the game same as all the other corporations. Instead, Black Star goes immediately for the jugular, and wipes the corporation out?

M.Mollen: A fair approximation.

Dolcett: Hey, Mollen. Why was the lovely lady I had over for dinner complaining about you ‘recommending’ that the Alliance declare Exterminatus on Maccara, even after you Greenwaved the place?

M.Mollen: Ah, that was an unfortunate result of operational constraints from various treaties preventing me from doing what truly needed to be done in that case.

Dolcett: How so?

M.Mollen: Well, the big brains at Yathru decided that experimenting with zombie plagues as a bioweapon was a great idea. And they put one of their primary research facilities in a subterranean complex located underneath the capitol of Rak’kun City.

Golddigger: I don’t know if I should be terrified, or sending the devs a case of beer.

M.Mollen: Why not both?

Dolcett: So, wait, the zombies, and any samples, were kept in a high tech facility, and Greenwave eats tech. What is keeping the zombies from overrunning the planet?

M.Mollen: Well, there’s a 15% chance that the destruction of the facility’s structural supports will cause the whole thing from collapsing, causing enough destruction to destroy the samples. I think that’s a little high, myself. I’d put it closer to 10%. But, anyways, other than that minor condition, well, it is only a matter of time.

DarkAvariel: THEN WHY DID YOU GREENWAVE THE PLANET BEFORE BLOWING THAT SHIT UP?

M.Mollen: Because the only way into the facility was a tunnel from a mansion on the edge of the city that belonged to one of Yathru’s owners. No weaponry permitted under the Corporate Court’s rules of warfare would do the job, which meant the only way to destroy the samples would be to send my people into a zombie movie.

DarkAvariel: But there are over 1 trillion people on Maccara!

M.Mollen: And they mean less to me than 100 of mine.

M.Mollen: For now, the threat is contained to Maccara. Even when it gets loose, it will be effectively impossible to gather samples without also introducing Greenwave to ships or facilities you’d rather keep intact. So, that makes it safe-ish, until the planet can be declared dead, and wiped clean.

DoYouEvenDPS?: What’s your beef with zombies, anyways? I mean, you’ve gone out of your way to go and blow up everything halfway connected to zombie outbreaks.

M.Mollen: Zombie outbreaks are fun in other games, like old school MMOs, where you know that the NPCs aren’t ‘real’ and they’ll just respawn, and once the event is over it will have just been a fun event. This game isn’t like that.

Requiesce-in-Pace: Ah, yes. When the world is ‘real’, that makes it all hit a bit harder. The Biohazard games are fun to play, but you wouldn’t want to *live* in one.

M.Mollen: Exactly.

Starwatcher: So, what did Black Star win in this little war?

M.Mollen: Ownership over a few systems that formerly had populated planets, and control over another Gateway. I’m going to sell most of what we won, though I’ll hold on to Maccara until I can figure out whether I’ll need to destroy the planet, or if just burning a continent to the mantle will work.

DarkAvariel: You aren’t playing around, are you?

M.Mollen: I just got through saying how this world is ‘real’, right? Why would I play around with things like this?

Previous Chapter Table of Contents Next Chapter

Be sure to read my published works!

Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J

Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):

Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL

Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y

City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):

Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):

Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF

Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR

SCI Stories (Dark Supervillain story):

Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RL93VQN

Winterborn (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):

Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082S3S3K8

Dark Fate (Postapocalyptic GameLit):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086S35WZ6

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

Thursday, September 24, 2020

Epilogue - Patch Notes 26.X

(A Virtual Room in NERV HQ)

“James, I just got off the line with one of the external group. We’ve got some real-money traders in the game, trying to farm resources, despite the fact that we made it about as easy to do that in game as it is in real life. Hopefully it is just people with more time than sense, but we need to check and make sure that they aren’t hacking or botting somehow.”

“Sure thing, Boss. You have a specific target? Because that’s a big haystack to go looking for needles in.”

Isaac laughed, “You’re in luck. One of them got sloppy, it seems, and left the guild name on the web site where they were selling in-game credits. The guild is supposedly called ‘LegitimateBusiness’. Get a team together, and go through their logs. Look for any ‘charitable donations’ or other patterns. You know the drill.”

“Got it. Look for any large donations. Think they’re smart enough to have a shell company?”

“I doubt it, but check anyway. They could be looking at doing a bunch of small transfers to a central source if they are worried about automated systems. So, if there are any patterns of donations, follow them. If they were really smart, they would have set up two or three shell companies to move money through. But, if they were that smart, then they probably wouldn’t have put the guild name in the website.”

“Right. I’ll get right on it, Boss.”

As the game master shimmered and returned to their work area, Isaac turned to the rest of the group, who were more focused on the story and tuning elements of the game world. “All right, talk to me.”

“We’re tracking the fallout of the little corporate war. Well, not ‘little’, by corporate standards, but by the scale of wars in the game world, it was fairly minor. Obviously, Yathru was expecting to fight the war on mostly economic terms and maybe a few surgical strikes.”

Isaac chuckled. “Yeah, they tragically misread their opponent if they thought Black Star was going to work like that. Roy, have you checked with the AI, made sure nothing was bugged out, there?”

The third GM shook his head. “We checked, but there was no sign of bugs. From looking at the settings, I’d say that it is down to the higher-ups in the corp not believing everything they were told. The stories did spread to Alliance space, but at the high levels people mostly thought it couldn’t happen to ‘them’.”

Isaac sighed. “So, standard human (or humanoid, I guess) thinking? Too caught up in their own affairs to believe the ‘propaganda’? I guess that works. Check the scripts on other leaders, see if we can’t get the controlling AI to tweak them enough to take the stories seriously.”

The second GM tilted his head to the side, considering, “But why? I mean, sure, this fight was pretty one-sided, but it made for great RL advertising. We’re sure to get more players from this.”

“Sure, it is, Ted. But only in the short term. We let things go on too far like that, and it becomes a Goku situation, where the whole game revolves around Black Star, and everyone else doesn’t really matter. That’s great for a manga or anime, but crap for a VRMMORPG.”

“Right, I can see that.”

“Anyways, we want to nip that kind of thing in the bud before it really gets started. So, I want to see if there’s anything we can do to take the focus off Black Star for a bit, or at least not have any idiots go provoking them like that. I don’t care if it is bringing up someone to take the spotlight for a bit, or just keeping Black Star out of it for a while, but either way, we need to keep things from focusing on them.”

“I think we can manage to keep anyone from ‘poking the bear’, as it were, but that doesn’t mean the bear is just going to go in their cave and hibernate.”

Isaac laughed, “I’ll take what I can get at this point.”

A fourth GM raised their hand, “Sir?”

“What is it, Sarah?”

“What about Maccara? Black Star’s Greenwave attack has obliterated infrastructure and weapons on the ground. Worse, the underground facility beneath Rak’kun City has already been compromised, and the test subjects have escaped.”

Isaac took a breath, and said, “Well, I actually reached out to our favorite beta tester and corporate raider, and asked him about that, just after it went down. After all, he took such pains to sanitize all other sources of the virus so completely, and yet he just released it to go wild on Maccara? Didn’t make sense.”

“What did he have to say?”

“Basically? His hands were tied. The only possible way to ensure a nonrelease of the bioweapon would be to launch a full assault and take out the facility under Rak’kun City. He told me directly that he’s seen too many movies and played too many games to think that could possibly end well.”

Isaac took a breath, and continued. “Now, there are things he could have done, sure. He could have blown up the planet like he did in Tsk’neth. But that would have violated not only the corporate war rules that he was playing under, but also some pretty serious treaties. Basically, the whole galaxy would be bound by law to try and destroy everything he built.”

Sarah nodded. “And there’s no winning that fight, even if he’d probably make it hurt for anyone who tried.”

“Exactly. In Tsk’neth, the zombies had already spread completely, and he used some legal posturing that he recorded and broadcast to the appropriate bodies to ensure that it wouldn’t blow back on him. He didn’t have that option at Maccara, it seems.”

Ted chuckled. “So, he punted, and left the decision to the Alliance, all while Greenwave makes it impossible to get in there and get samples. And it is too early to know just how far things will spread. Depending on how easy it is for the virus to infect animals, the outbreak could even be limited to a single continent. Without air power to move around the world, you dramatically slow the spread of the virus, if nothing else.”

Isaac grinned. “Yep. And Maccara is too public for sneaky weapons tests, since the Gateway is there, so blowing it up later on, when people aren’t looking, isn’t going to fly. So, he dropped it in the Free Worlds Alliance’s lap, and is letting them deal with the headache.

“Now, Terry, what have you got for me on Cagliostro?”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Into the Black (Sci-Fi GameLit):
Book I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y

City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1

Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR

SCI Stories (Dark Supervillain story):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RL93VQN

Winterborn (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082S3S3K8

Dark Fate (Postapocalyptic GameLit):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086S35WZ6

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

Chapter 260 - Settlement

(Board Room, Yathru Corporation Headquarters, Rak’kun City, Maccara)

The fighting inside the Yathru building was going well. The Marines were steadily advancing up the building, going floor by floor to eliminate the security forces. The remnants of Wesker’s Strategic Target Acquisition and Retrieval Section team had been caught trying to use an executive elevator to the garage. Unfortunately for them, Raven had already directed a squad to meet them, and they had been quickly taken down by a rocket launcher the moment the elevator door opened. Explosions in a confined space are not great for barely armored infantry.

Now, I was leading my squad towards the board room where all the Yathru executives were huddling, trying to hide and wait out the battle. According to Raven, they were still desperately trying to order up new troops that didn’t exist anywhere except on paper, trying to get reinforcements to somehow stem the tide. As if that was going to happen.

Finally, we were at the last hallway. Ten security guards stood there, in light combat armor and blasters. They were clearly frightened, but that was fine. I wanted them to be afraid.

Raven’s analysis of their weapons came back. Low-yield blasters, designed for unarmored targets. In my armor, I could tank them easily enough. But I decided to play with another facet of my new sorcerous powers. “I’ll handle this, girls.”

Increased Reflexes

Physical Psy Power

Cost: 400 PP + 600 PP Reserve

Increases your mental processing and physical reaction speeds, to allow you to react to situations far more quickly than an unenhanced individual could. At current Sorcery skill level, increases your reaction speed by (DEX)%.

My DEX was currently sitting at 354. That meant my reaction speeds, which were already heightened by DEX, were further increased by 354%. Time seemed to slow slightly. As I extended the blade of my energy sword, everything seemed to be going in slow motion.

“Open fire!”

One of the guards yelled, and blaster bolts began making their way towards me, slow enough that I could see their path. My blade moved, intercepting the first couple shots, deflecting them, causing their energy to splash violently against the walls of the hallway. No, it wasn’t that the bolts were slow. My reactions were simply too fast.

I began walking forward, not needing to take any defensive stance for foes of this quality. More blaster bolts fired, and I deflected them all, my energy sword moving easily to intercept the bolts as I advanced. I decided to try something fun. With a flick of my wrist, the next bolt got reflected not into the wall, but into one of the other guards, killing them. The next shot, I managed to reflect back at the sender, hitting them center mass.

One of the guards started to panic. He turned, and began banging on the blast door to the secure board room. “HELP US!” He was screaming, desperate to get inside the room.

I deflected more blaster bolts. This was fun, but I wanted to try something else. I motioned with my hand, closed fist raised up, and one of the guards flew up to ceiling, hitting with a thud from the impact. As I passed under him, I waved my sword up, cutting him in two.

When the next guard fell from a reflected blaster bolt, I was almost in melee range. Only four guards were still trying to stop me now, the other two desperately trying to open the door, against the wishes of those inside. With a wave of my hand, and a telekinetic pull, the four guards who still had some fight in them lost their weapons, the guns clattering to the ground behind me. Their shock froze them momentarily, but that was enough. They all fell to my blade.

One of the two tried to turn, a Gauz male. I wrapped his throat in telekinetic force and lifted him into the air. With a wave, I threw him against the wall as his throat was crushed to paste.

The final guard, an Ihm male, did not even have the courage to look death in the eye, it seemed, still banging on the door, desperate to escape. His hope ended when I stabbed him through the spine, the blade penetrating through both him and the door until the hilt touched the guard’s back. His agony only lasted moments, as I drew the blade to the side, slashing his heart.

Now, all that was left before me were these blast doors. As my companions joined me, I began pressing on the hilt of the blade, slowly carving a circular hole in the door. It took almost a minute of concentrated effort, but soon there was a perfect circle carved in the blast doors.

With a telekinetically enhanced kick, that circle went flying into the board room. I could hear the shouts of shock and alarm as people tried to dodge the massive object. From the sounds, one person, at least, was not so lucky.

I ducked slightly as I stepped into the room, careful of the still-molten edges of the hole I’d cut in the blast doors. There was a bloody splatter on the far wall of the board room, where the plug had hit. Scanning the room, it looked as though the only faces not present were Wesker and Zwellspn’cer. I knew Wesker had fallen from the building after I took out his shuttle, so that meant the CEO would be the splat on the wall.

“Ah-ahem. Welcome, Mister Mollen. We have been expecting you.”

The speaker was the shipping director, Gl’dman. She seemed to be doing her best to try and ‘handle’ the situation. I decided to show her how we would be handling things. Her scream as the energy sword cut her down caused all the other board members to scream in terror (or, in one case, beg for mercy). All their voices were swiftly silenced, one by one, until the only sound was the humming of my energy sword. A flick of the switch, and the blade extinguished, and silence reigned.

(Flag Bridge, BSN Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, Maccara orbit)

“Master, welcome back.”

I nodded to Virstina as she welcomed me to the bridge. “Thank you, Commodore. Are all our people off Maccara?” The battle had been won, any forces capable of challenging us swept aside, and the executives responsible for starting this war personally seen to.

“Yes, sir. Though the Marines sent to the site that the Yathru operatives were trying to reach uncovered some disturbing news. Apparently, the research facility we tasked Second Company to destroy was not the only research facility studying the bioweapon from Tsk’neth.”

Great. That was just great. “How bad is it?”

The knelfi woman shook her head. “At the moment, containment systems are holding, and power has not been interrupted, despite the fighting, thanks to independent generators. Unfortunately, all of those will be destroyed if we deploy Greenwave as planned.”

I sighed. “So, not the worst-case scenario, but it would be rather awkward if we blasted all other sources of the bioweapon, and then left Maccara to become a prime source of it. Well, that complicates things substantially. Options?”

Virstina shook her head. “Unfortunately, they are limited, if we wish to abide by the terms of Corporate Warfare. The facility’s primary access is in a mansion outside Rak’kun City, but the facility itself is located underneath the city, deep enough that even ground-penetrators would have trouble getting to it.

“First option would be to send in Marines to sterilize the facility manually. But that opens us up for more casualties on our side, and even a small mistake could see an accidental release of the weapon. And, frankly, people would question why we need to bother with it.

“Second option is to ignore the corporate warfare regulations, and use enough ground penetrating nuclear weapons to open up the facility to the surface, and then forcibly sterilize it. This has the best chance of success, but would be resource intensive, and would undermine the work we’ve done to carry this campaign according to the bylaws. But we would destroy the weapons.

“Third option is to collapse the access tunnels with explosives, sealing the facility as best we can, before launching Greenwave. However, unless we forcibly evacuated everyone from the facility beforehand, then there would be potential carriers to be infected. Or, they would try and escape, and let the nanites in. And once Greenwave gets to the facility, the weapon would be released. The chance of a catastrophic release is nearly certain.

“Finally, we just… do nothing. Use Greenwave on the planet, as planned, and leave warnings for everyone who might want to land. The weapon would be released, and the likelihood of the population surviving with both their technology failing and having to deal with the undead bioweapons… Well, it isn’t good. But, strictly speaking, they are not our responsibility.”

I nodded slowly as Virstina ran through the options. Frankly, none of them were good ones. So far, we had been lucky, as far as casualties went. Sure, we’d taken some. That was unavoidable in war, even when you were going up against bush league foes. But, across all theaters, we had only lost 6% of our people, with another 13% wounded to some degree. 19% total casualties for such a large operation was a great number, and I didn’t want to go screwing that up.

Still, I couldn’t just bury my head in the sand like a politician who chose to ignore the implications of their decisions. From a business standpoint, as well as one of my own personal feelings, then it was simplest to just go with the fourth option. But, if we simply used Greenwave on the planet and called it a day, then the likelihood that the civilian population of the world would be slaughtered and turned to the undead was near certain, especially since they would not have access to any of the technology they relied on. It would be kinder to simply line them all up against the wall and shoot them.

So, yes, it wasn’t technically our problem. My problem. But that didn’t mean that I wouldn’t be to blame for all the deaths if I did this. But there didn’t look to be any better options, that still protected my people. And, when it came down to it, I cared more about my people than the civilians on the other side.

A calm came over me. That was it, wasn’t it? The simple truth was that I did not care about the people on the other side as much as my people, and so I would work to protect my people, first and foremost.

I took a breath. “Very well. We won’t risk any more of our people on this business. Are the special munitions loaded and ready?”

“They are, Master.”

“Then you may fire when ready.”

Virstina nodded, accepting the situation. “As you wish, Master.” She turned to the officers who were watching, and said, “Ensign Fletcher, signal the fleet. Special munitions to fire in thirty seconds.”

“Aye, Commodore.”

Thirty seconds later, a single torpedo was launched from the Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi, her sister ship, the Kunwu, and the ten Knight-class destroyers in the group, each named after a mythical warrior from old Terran history. Twelve torpedoes, to cover a world, and take it from the age of space and technology, and cast it down into the stone age.

Oh, sure, Greenwave only destroyed post-industrial technology, but on a planet like Maccara, there wouldn’t be any pre-industrial technology around. And the population wouldn’t know how to build any of the old technology, anyways, since those skills would have been lost a long time ago. It was, in essence, a less violent way of bombing them back to the Stone Age, but this time, there would be zombies to contend with.

As the torpedoes launched, I took a breath, and then said, “Raven, compose a message to the Corporate Court, and copy to the Free Worlds Alliance Assembly. Inform them that, as of this moment, the corporate war between the Yathru Corporation and Black Star Company is at an end. We will not be pressing for any sanctions or indemnities upon Yathru, beyond the funds, materiel, and research that we have already seized. All Black Star ships will return to their previous posts.”

“As you wish, Admiral.”

“Then, comprise a second message, direct to the Assembly, and put in a formal request that they consider using Exterminatus-class weaponry on Maccara at their earliest convenience.”

“It will be done.”

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Dark Fate (Postapocalyptic GameLit):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086S35WZ6

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Chapter 259 - Back in the Game

(BSS Starlight Raven, approaching Yathru Corporation Headquarters, Rak’kun City, Maccara)

“…and that is what the Board is discussing right now.”

“Forward the information to the Ama-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi. Inform Commodore Virstina that I request a detachment of shipboard Marines to execute a quick strike on the facility, to prevent that sort of fuckery. And have Shadowdancer come in to cover the landing field they were talking about.”

“Orders sent, Admiral.”

I smiled at Raven’s acknowledgement, and turned my attention back to guiding my personal ship through the war zone. Not that I was all that worried. Any facilities on the ground that were capable of attacking me had been destroyed by the Marines, and the facilities in orbit were dead. I was in little danger from anti-air fire.

On the other hand, while the primary military base was currently under attack and being destroyed, we hadn’t had time to go and take out all of the facilities around the planet. There was always the chance that Yathru could have some strike fighters (or more likely drones) that could try and make a difference. While the Raven was far more capable than a light freighter ought to be, she was still a light freighter, and there was a limit to how much abuse she could take.

This ‘Wesker’ had come up with a really wicked plan. Well, wicked, if you hadn’t played any video games in the last few decades. His plan, at least the way he described it to the board, was to get the executives to a fallout bunker, while a strike team of Yathru operatives from the Strategic Target Acquisition and Retrieval Section went to a secret storehouse Wesker’s faction maintained in the city.

That facility was supposed to house several weapons that the corporation supposedly used for covert action. The weapon Wesker told the board he was going to use was a nuke. The idea was to set the nuke off in the city, and make it seem like Black Star was stepping over the line. This would bring other corporations into the mix, who would also be eager to try and get a piece of our tech.

I frowned to myself. Thinking about it, the plan didn’t make sense. A nuke, especially nuke going off inside the city where my troops were, wouldn’t be enough to get enough corporations involved to make a difference, especially not in time to save Yathru.

“Raven, keep watch on Wesker. His plan might have sounded good to people desperate for a way out, but something just doesn’t sound right to me. I think he’s going to do something.”

Raven acknowledged, and I focused on flying. Soon enough, the headquarters building was in sight. The plan was to land on one of the executive landing pads, and perform a surgical strike behind the corporate security lines.

“Captain, Wesker’s teams are heading to platforms 90-A and 90-B. Shuttles are standing by, presumably to take them to the target facility. Wesker is currently leading the STARS Alpha team personally.”

“Thank you, Raven. Highlight the pad Wesker is using, if you please. And have one of the fighters swing by to take out the shuttle on the second pad. Just in case.” With that done, I changed to the shipwide channel. “Everyone, get ready. We’re landing in five.”

I saw the target show up on my HUD. Sure enough, there was a shuttle on the pad, currently prepping for flight. I could see a squad of heavily armed and decently armored troopers heading towards it. That just wouldn’t do at all.

BZAP! BZAP! BZAP!

I smiled as I pulled the trigger. How long had it been since I fired the Raven’s guns at live targets? It might have been back when I killed those Kul’tiran ships while testing Starbolts for the first time. Hell, I didn’t even get to use my guns that time, just shooting off torpedoes.

The particle cannons blasted the shuttle into a cloud of debris on the landing pad. Of course, that left the wreckage burning all over the area I wanted to land. It could scratch the paint, and that just wasn’t allowed! So, I used the Raven’s shields to scrape the wreckage off the pad, letting it fall down to the ground ninety stories below.

Some of Wesker’s Alpha Team (the ones that had survived, at least) started to recover from the shock enough to try and take potshots at the Raven, but a few blasts from the keel turret ripped them apart. Their armor may have been good for corporate security, but that was like asking a bulletproof vest to stand up to a tank round. It just wasn’t happening. A quick scan showed that there were no more life signs on the landing pad.

I locked down the ship’s controls, and grabbed my helmet. I was already in my armor, and had my weapons ready. For the first time in ages, I was actually getting into the thick of things!

(Yathru Corporation Headquarters, Rak’kun City, Maccara)

“Go! Go! Go!” First Blade Kr’ss Blufield yelled at his team. This whole mess was a bad job. It wasn’t bad enough that the corporation had picked a fight with a clearly superior foe, but they were currently in the process of getting absolutely destroyed by these Black Stars! And now, in the middle of their company headquarters getting attacked, they were supposed to fly outside of town to the Zwellspn’cer mansion, and use the access tunnels to enter a secure site which supposedly would have weapons they could use to fight off Black Star.

The whole thing stank. It stank to the infinite singular abyss, but there wasn’t anything that he could do about it. His best bet for making it out of here was to follow orders, and hope that the Black Stars declared victory before things got completely out of hand. Of course, given what he’d heard through the infonet before it went down for ‘maintenance’, there might not be much of the company left when that was done.

That is when the world exploded.

Particle cannons! Those were ship to ship weapons, not something his team could stand up against! Hell, even the shuttle couldn’t take that!

Shrapnel flew across the landing pad, taking down all the Alpha Team members outside. Jo’frost and V’ckers went down, burning shuttle debris tearing through them. Then, the shuttle was literally shoved off the pad by the freighter (the freighter!) that had just killed their transport.

On the landing pad, Wesker stood, and shouted for people to get up, and start firing. Ji’valtine started to charge forward and answer the call, but Kr’ss grabbed her by the back of her armor, and yanked her back, just as the turret on the freighter’s underside began firing. The first blast hit the side of the building above the doorway. As the blasts tracked down to focus on the Alpha Team members outside, their view was cut off by a massive chunk of the building’s facing crashing down just outside the door, with enough force to crush a being caught in its path.

In a shocked voice, Burton, one of the human members of the team, looked over at Ji’valtine, and shook his head. “You almost became a Ji’valtine sandwich!” The female Ihm was not amused.

Kr’ss cut off that line of discussion immediately. “Enough! We’ll route back to platform 90-B, see if we can get a ride with Bravo Team.”

Ji’valtine looked at him. “What about the rest of the team, First Blade?”

Kr’ss made a cutting motion with his hand. “They are dead already, or wishing they were. We move, now, and see if we can get out of this death trap. Move!”

As they approached the platform, the building was rocked by another series of explosions. Turning the corner, Kr’ss saw fires sputtering as burning fuel tried to burn the plascrete walls. Two figures could be seen, huddling against one wall. Looking out through the doorway, Kr’ss gaped. The platform was simply gone, having been blown off the building entirely.

Turning to look at the two survivors, he saw that one was a medic, and the other was Blade Leader Enmarini. The Blade Leader was gasping for air, a jagged piece of debris lodged in his chest. As the Blade Leader choked on the last of his lifeblood, the medic looked up at him.

She was a knelfi, like most of the medics the STARS group employed. Light, nimble fingers were better suited to medical work than thick claws like his. Clearly trying to choke back a sob, she offered a single salute, “Reveka Chambers, Medic, Bravo Team. Th-they’re gone. They’re all gone!”

Kr’ss clapped the knelfi on the shoulder. She was in shock. That much was obvious. They didn’t have time for her to break down right now, so he went the other way. Give her a task to focus on, and let the breakdown happen later.

“I understand. You’re with Alpha Team now, until we have time to sort this out. For now, we can’t stay here. Can you move?”

Dully, Reveka nodded, and rose to her feet. Looking back to the rest of the team, he said, “All right, we can’t stay on this level. Options?”

Burton nodded. “The underground garage. The main elevators are probably locked down, and the stairs will be monitored by Black Star, but there’s an executive elevator on an isolated system. We can access it through one of the executive offices one floor up.”

Kr’ss nodded. It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was still a plan, and that was better than what he had right now. “Right. Ji’valtine, on point. Burton, rear-guard. Reveka, with me. Move!”

(Landing Pad 90-A, Yathru Corporation Headquarters, Rak’kun City, Maccara)

Cali and Jaynie flanked me as I stepped off the ramp, Sheila, Shearah, Carissa, Raven, and Sana filling in behind me. All of them were armored up, weapons in hand. We hadn’t gone out as a tactical team in a while, but for this, when we were likely only going to be facing corpsec at best, rather than the X’thari swarm or the crazed followers of the ‘gods’ of chaotic space, we weren’t expecting that high a level of danger.

It was a damn impressive sight, to be honest. Too bad that there was no one on the platform alive enough to appreciate it. The corpsec that hadn’t been caught in the shuttle’s explosion had been ripped apart by the turret guns. Unfortunately, the first shots had been off, since I was out of practice remote targeting the guns, and there was now a very large piece of plascrete blocking the door.

That, as one might say, was a bit inconvenient for me, since I wanted to get into the building and hunt down the executives on top of the corporation. Since I had not figured out how to do things like turn into a ghostly mist, or teleport short ranges, or walk through walls, that meant I needed to get the rubble out of my way. And Firelord 3’s attack on the other side of the building had just taken out the entire platform, so I was hesitant to start using big booms to move the mess.

That was fine, though. I was more than just a guy with good looks, good toys, and good women. I was The First Sorcerer, recognized by the game itself.

I took a deep breath, and then stretched out with the force of my power. A blue field surrounded the largest piece of rubble, the visible effect of my Telekinesis ability, which I hadn’t used in combat for ages, but had been diligently training when I could. Slowly, the plascrete slab, which had to weigh almost four tons, lifted up into the air, just a foot off the platform. Gently, I pushed it to the side, so that it was no longer over the platform, and let go.

As the rubble fell, I took a breath to recover, and said, “All right, move out.”

(Below)

Wesker grunted as he pulled himself up over the railing of balcony on the thirtieth floor. It had been risky, jumping off the platform when the freighter began to open fire, but the experimental gravity belt had slowed his fall enough, and given him enough control that he was able catch the railing without ripping his arm from the shoulder. That would have to be enough.

This was a setback, for sure, but it was just a minor setback. He wouldn’t be able to get to the research lab outside the city, and get the data he intended to sell to the other weapons companies, but it was just a setback. He still had other cards to play.

A shadow loomed over him. Looking up, he saw a massive piece of plascrete falling, directly at him! “No, don’t come this way!” The plascrete did not listen to him, however, and his ‘setback’ was no longer minor.

Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354X

Dark Fate (Postapocalyptic GameLit):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B086S35WZ6

The Kalipshae Affair (A First Contact Short Story): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0739V6R6T