Frozen Soul, and other works

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Chapter 3 - Enter the Game

Two months after the beta run, Dreams Amongst the Stars was finally about to go live, and I couldn’t wait.

As promised, my EVA-02 pod got delivered a couple weeks before the game launch, so I had time to familiarize myself with the gear. The pod itself had an enclosed stand that held all the life support and recycling functions, while the ‘capsule’ part was a comfortable gel cushion bed. The procedure for getting into the pod was simple. Strip naked, close the hatch, and let the oxygenated fluid fill the chamber and ‘breathe’ in. That was the hardest part, honestly.

I wasn’t sure exactly how feeding and waste management worked. There were some very scientific words going on here, but I was an engineer, not a biochemist or whatever science was going on here. I’m sure the documents and releases I signed mentioned some of that, but the only thing more confusing than science speak is legalese. At least the scientists aren’t TRYING to hide what they mean. Usually.

Of course, that was only for the 02 pods. The 00s and 01s were sleeker, and lacked those life support functions. There were some things the pods shared, though. They were all hooked up to the internet, and there were plugins that allowed me to basically run my whole house from the pod, and check phone calls and emails while in the pod, maybe even while in game. Because of that, I’d cancelled most of my utilities, cutting back to just power and water. I also emptied my fridge, except for a few bottled drinks of various types, since I could definitely count on beer, water, and Coca-Cola to still be good without me checking on them but once a week. If I wanted to eat while out of the pod, I could easily afford to eat out.

So now I was in the pod, forcing myself not to panic as the fluid rose up around me. This was the fourth time I’d done it, and it was starting to get easier, now that I was familiar with the procedure. That first time was a pain in the ass, though. Fighting the “Oh god I’m going to drown!” response the body naturally has when you’re getting dunked in fluid is tough, even when you know that it is going to happen.

I was loaded into my ‘Home’ space. This had started off like the white room I’d met Morgan in, but over the last two weeks I’d customized it to be more like a traditional Japanese home. Sue me, I watched a bunch of samurai movies as a kid, and always loved how those buildings looked. And since it was all digital, I could do what I wanted. Well, almost. There were limits to what I could do with the basic options. Any of the REALLY cool stuff I’d have to pay to unlock. At least I still get the same 4:1 time compression ratio here as I will in the game.

At any rate, after talking with the science geeks, I made sure to set my digital pad up much like someone would a house in the real world. Kitchen, dining area, bedroom, bathroom, and so on. Honestly, I probably wouldn’t use most of it except for the office I made for editing my streams, the living area I made for entertainment, and the ‘dojo’, which was a multipurpose space I could use to practice skills and train, or create art if I wanted to try my hand at digital sculpture or whatever.

Why’d I pack so many seemingly useless things into my home? I’ll spare you the psychobabble, but suffice to say it is to try and keep me ‘grounded’ when most of my time will be spent in digital worlds. I might not physically need to sleep, but my brain might need a rest at times, and so a bed would help the brain cope and blah blah blah. Basically, it was so I didn’t go crazy.

Anyways, when I went to log in to the game, I discovered myself not at the chargen screen like I thought I’d be, but back in the white space I’d been in last time, after I finished my beta runs and chatted with Morgan for a bit. And sure enough, Morgan was there waiting for me this time.

“Hi, Stuart! Glad to see you logged in early. There’s a couple things we wanted to go over with you before we let you into the game world.”

“Fine, fine. I assume that this has something to do with the beta bonuses?”

“Yes! As you know, there are a variety of levels of play in Dreams. We call them Beginner, Casual, Advanced, and Hardcore. Now, over time a Beginner PC might grow to be just as powerful as a Hardcore PC, but it will take them a lot of work, especially in the early game. Our projections say that the differences will smooth out by the mid to late game, especially as people specialize into different roles in universe.”

That made sense. The kind of people who pick Beginner or Casual modes, and actually stick with it to the late game are generally not the kind of hardcore gamers that go on epic raids or do a lot of the elite, end-game content in MMOs. They are looking to spend a couple hours a day having fun and relaxing, not being the top of the leaderboards.

Hardcore gamers, on the other hand, might pick a Beginner or Casual character, but they only really do that to learn the mechanics before jumping in on an Advanced or Hardcore character, where they can get challenges they feel are worthy of them. Of course, in a game where level wasn’t everything, and one could improve their stats and skills through in-character actions and not just levelling up on monster kills or through gear, this meant any early-game bonuses would even out, while the new challenges of high-end content took their place as incentive for the hardcore crowd.

“What is the difference between the four?”

“Well, there’s some nuance to it, but basically the higher the difficulty, the more character points you get to spend at chargen, and you gain a bonus to increasing skills and attributes through repetition. On the down side, the higher the difficulty, the harder your start zone will be, the higher the minimum pain threshold is, and the nastier the death penalty is.”

“So I’m guessing other than pain threshold, you can’t change any of those settings after chargen? What effects does the Pain Threshold have, other than the obvious?”

Morgan smiled. “Well, a Casual character won’t be able to turn their pain levels down past 20% of what they would normally feel. Beginners can set it to 0%, while Advanced can’t go below 40%, and Hardcore can’t drop below 60%. During Beta, pain was set at 40%. Higher pain levels give you bonuses to grinding resistance skills, and also increase your reaction speed. You’ll also get more XP from kills and completed tasks while you have the pain higher. To try and curb cheating, you can only change your pain settings once per RL day. So you can’t set pain to 100% to turn in a quest or craft some gear, but then turn it down to 0% when fighting, but jamming it back to 100% just before you get the kill. You set it, and then are stuck with it for 96 hours in game. And time you spent logged out or dead doesn’t count to that time limit.”

I whistled at that. “Impressive. Seems your techs have put a lot of thought into keeping people from cheating their way to greatness.”

“Right. So going back to the Beta bonuses. As we discussed last time, all the Beta players got a free EVA-01 pod and copy of the game. They also get an increased starter package for their character, and a bonus to their starting points based on the mode they select. This will give them something useful in the early game, while not making them completely overpowered compared to normal players.”

“Makes sense. So, I guess this is where you tell me what the programmers thought up after my performance in the Beta runs?”

“Hah. And here I was, going to try for suspense.”

“Is this a light novel now?”

“Fine. Ruin my fun. Anyways, you’re still getting the normal Beta bonuses, at least, the ones that aren’t improved by your working for the company as a tester. But your performance, as you said, prompted the developers to offer you a little something extra. They thought about making a custom race for you, playing off your physical condition, but that seemed a little cliché, so instead, they are offering you a Nightmare difficulty.”

I leaned forward in my seat, suddenly very interested. “Oh? And what does this Nightmare difficulty involve?”

“Well, first, the minimum pain threshold will be permanently set at 100%, and the death penalty is going to be harsh. Second, you’ll be starting in the highest difficulty scenario they’ve created. Third, you won’t be able to select your race for… reasons. You can select one of the other scenarios if you like, but will have to give up on the advanced rewards.”

“Oh, that sounds fun. Sign me up for the Nightmare.”

Morgan made a few notes on her terminal, and then smiled. “All right. You’re all set up, and ready to start chargen. I look forward to seeing how your streams go.”

Then everything went dark.

Welcome to Dreams Amongst the Stars!

You have selected Nightmare Mode.

Effects:

Pain Threshold set to minimum of 100%.

On death, lose 1 character level, and 8 skill levels, chosen at random.

Race Selection has been locked.

Gender Selection has been locked.

Appearance Selection has been locked.

Faction Selection has been locked.

Adult Material locked to Allowed.

x1000 starting Character Points (CP)

Unique Title Gained

Choose a name for your character. First and Last name required. Nicknames and official Callsigns may be chosen later if you wish.
First	Mirikon	Last	Mollen
Nickname		Callsign

I’d already decided on a character name before logging in, so that part was easy. After all, it was the name of one of my main Shadowrun characters. One of my buddies aboard ship ran the campaign. Sucked having to leave those guys. But if I know them, they’ll definitely be looking into this game once their enlistments are up.

The whole bit about not even being able to choose my gender or appearance threw me for a bit of a loop, however. This must be one HELL of a starting scenario they had me going through. But then, there were monsters, or the equivalent, in this universe, right? Holy shit, was I going to be getting a monster race?

Breathe. All right, try to keep control. Hopefully, I get something good, and not something weird like a slime. I mean, I could make that shit work, but my streams would be crap for viewing. How the heck would a slime even ‘see’?

Now, I had a screen with two options pop up before me.

Steps Remaining:

Choose your path.

Spend Character Points.

Hmm. Let’s check the character points first.

Based on difficulty level and Beta bonuses, you have 300000 CP left to spend. Character points may be spent on the following:
Attributes	Increase base attributes
Skills	Purchase skills to start the game with
Perks	Purchase Perks
Titles	Purchase Titles (may be restricted by race, faction, and build)
~~Gear~~	~~Purchase advanced starting weapons and armor.~~ (This option is not available for Nightmare Mode users.)

Oh-ho! Looks like I got quite a bit to spend before I actually start the game. Still, I best have a look at my status before going too far. Might affect what I want to buy.

Name	Mirikon Mollen	Nickname:
Callsign:		Faction:	None
Race:	Chimera	Gender:	Ask Later
Level:	1	Experience:	0/1000
HP:	100	HP Regen:	1 per hour
ST:	100	ST Regen:	1 per min
PP:	100	PP Regen:	1 per min
Fame:	-100000 (0)	Status:	Experimental Being
Credits:	0	Faction Points:	0
Titles:	That Which Should Not Be

Attributes
STR	10	INT	10
DEX	10	WIS	10
CON	10	CHA	10
END	10	Luck	0
Phys. Att.	10	Phys. Def.	10
Sp. Att.	10	Sp. Def.	10

Affinities
Mental	5%	Physical	5%
Energy	5%	Force	5%

Resistances
Mental	5%	Physical	5%
Energy	5%	Force	5%

Perks


Skills

Wait, Experimental Being? Aww, fuck! I’m starting as a lab rat! Now I’m going to have to find some way to escape, aren’t I?

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Sunday, April 9, 2017

Chapter 2 - Interview

I found myself in a field of white. After a moment, it resolved itself into a kind of waiting room. There was a desk, and chairs, and all of that, barely recognizable from the background since they were the same white color, distinguished only by the shadows they cast. Light came from above, but there was no visible source. And I was the only person here.

“Hello?” I called out, looking around as I did so. This was apparently some kind of shared space, for virtual meetings. Though the ones I’d seen before had all been better appointed. It was like this space hadn’t actually been fully designed yet, or they were intentionally going for a disturbing whitespace effect, like when movies try to depict meeting God or going to heaven, or that kind of deal.

“Sorry! Sorry! We didn’t expect you to finish so soon!” A female voice came from behind me. I turned, and saw a woman dressed in a ‘professional’ type outfit, white blouse and black skirt. Not bad, especially with her red hair. I took a look at myself, and saw that I was still in my game avatar, but dressed in my default black shirt and pants, rather than the ship suit I’d been wearing moments before.

As the woman crossed to sit behind the desk, she said, “As I said, you completed the Beta mission faster than any of our projections. You have the fastest time so far, even with using the Engineer character, which the programmers said was probably the weakest character. You even beat the programmers’ times, so they’re suitably impressed.”

I ran a hand through my hair, “Well, I’ve done a bunch of games in the last few years, and before I had my accident I was an engineer in the Navy, so ship drills are something I’m familiar with. Adding space to the mix doesn’t change that much, really.”

The woman blinked, and said, “Accident?” She looked down, and read what was on the floating blue screen in front of her. “Oh, oh my! You’re THAT Stuart Grosse? The one that was on the news last year?”

I sighed. “If you mean I’m the idiot that stepped in front of a truck to push some kid out of the way like I was in some kind of Japanese light novel, and wound up getting a medical discharge from the Navy because of it, then yeah, I’m the same one.” There’d been a big hoorah around the whole thing when it happened, but the Navy couldn’t exactly justify keeping me on active duty when lost the use of my legs. Hard to get around an engine room that way.

I’d been a Chief Petty Officer on a destroyer, working hard to become a Chief Engineer, and suddenly I was out of the service at age 33. To say I was having an identity crisis would be an admiral-level understatement. But that summer, there was an announcement that changed everything. The first truly VR system, the EVA Pod, was announced by NERV, the gaming company behind several hit games.

The Pod, as everyone quickly called it, used technology I couldn’t begin to comprehend, not being a neuroscientist, to directly interface with the user’s mind. You laid down in the pod, lights out, and then you’re literally IN a virtual world. All five senses (and any extra ones you might get), full range of motion, the works. And you weren’t worried about bumping into things like with older VR helmets, since the pod intercepted motion commands while it was active, basically only allowing involuntary actions to occur (like your heart beating).

Like I said, I understood absolutely jack crap about the science of it all. However, the chance to actually get up and move again? That, I got loud and clear. And when NERV said they were putting out a VRMMORPG for their new Pod, I knew I had to get in on that.

Fast forward six months, and I’d been selected as one of the beta testers for the new game. NERV hooked me up with a trip to their corporate headquarters. There were like a hundred beta testers, all going into the pods on-site, since they weren’t available to the public yet. They were slick, mean things. Each Pod stood four feet tall, and was a glossy black. The lid lifted off on hydraulics, revealing a space inside.

Anyways, back to this interview. “So, Miss…?” I trailed off, allowing her to introduce herself.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! My name is Morgan Elliott, and I’m a customer service representative for NERV. We set up this virtual space to conduct exit interviews with each of the testers, so we could get your thoughts on the scenario, and if there were any problems you discovered.”

We spent another half hour talking about the scenario, and I made what suggestions I could, telling them what worked right, and what was problematic. After that, the conversation turned to other things, which is how I found that I’d caused a bit of a stir with the developers prior to getting in the Pod. As the only ~~gimp~~ ~~disabled~~ handi-capable (stupid PC crap) person in the testing group, they were interested to see if my problems carried over into the virtual world. I admitted that there had been some sluggishness at first, but that the tutorial room where we got used to moving in our avatars was helpful in adjusting to having legs that worked.

“I would suggest making the tutorial mandatory for all new characters. I set my avatar’s parameters to be roughly the same as my own, before the accident. But if you’re taller, shorter, heavier, lighter, different gender, different race, or have some kind of disability from a young age, I’m thinking you’ll have a lot of trouble in the game world if you don’t adjust first. Even the difference between a human and an elf in fantasy games could take getting used to, since your reflexes aren’t the same.”

“Wow, that’s exactly what some of the design team said!”

“Well, it is a common thing in those ‘LitRPG’ books that got so popular a couple years back. And then you also had that scene in Avatar where the guy had to spend time relearning how to walk in his blue body.”

“Ah, I see. So you figured the examples there would carry over to the Pods?”

“Didn’t see why it wouldn’t. This thing interprets brain signals, right? Then what do you think would happen if your brain is telling you one thing, but your body is a foot taller than you normally are, with longer limbs to go with it. Kindof like when you go out to sea, and have to spend time getting your ‘sea legs’, because the ground doesn’t stay still like you’re thinking it should. Or like going to rehab when fitted with a prosthetic limb.”

“You’ve put some thought into this, I see.”

“Well, since you announced these things, I did some reading up, since with my injury, this is the only way I’d be able to walk again. Docs can do a lot, but fixing spinal injuries is still a no.”

Another screen popped up in front of Morgan, and she said, “Hmm. It seems the developers are very interested to see more of you in action. Would you be willing to go into the scenario again, and try out the other archetypes? They said that if you can get times similar to your last one, they may be able to create an additional bonus for you, come release time.”

“Load me up! I’ll go through the other five archetypes, as well.”

(Several hours later)

For the second time, I found myself in the whitespace. I’d spent the last few hours running through the other archetypes in the Cumberland scenario. Marine, Pilot, Commander, Medic, Psyker, and Engineer were the archetypes they gave us. Each had their own style, and made it so each run was different from the last. Even started in different parts of the ship, so I couldn’t just retrace my old route, I had to solve new problems to escape the ship.

This time, I wasn’t alone, as Morgan was sitting there waiting for me. The redhead smiled at me, giving me an uncomfortable feeling in my virtual shorts. The accident had put a serious damper on my social life. Shaking away those thoughts, I smiled back, and sat down at the desk. “So, how’d I do?”

“Excellent, as you well know! The designers are very impressed with how you’ve put their archetypes to the test. Even with the Psyker, which has no real-world equivalents, you were able to pick up the basics pretty quickly.”

I shrugged. “That was the most difficult class to learn on the fly, yeah. But by that time I was really familiar with the way the skills and other controls worked, so I could focus on these new abilities.”

She was about to respond, when a screen popped up in front of her. “Ah, and that’s from the hardware people. They just got clearance from the VA, and are wondering if you would be interested in a medical trial, to coincide with the release of the game? Some of the tech we’ve been working on may have applications to injuries like yours, but it is still early tech. You would be the first human trial. If you agreed.”

“What kind of trial?”

“Well, the EVA-00 Pod that you’re using now for the test is the testing unit that the production model we’ll be selling to the public is based on. As you’re aware, while there is some life support capability, the system is not designed for play times longer than a few hours at a time. There’s no method for food and water consumption, regardless of what you might do in game, and no means of waste reclamation, which would make a stay longer than a few hours in a single stretch to be… messy.” We both chuckled at that image.

“The EVA-01 Pod will have some support features included, such as internet access, and the ability to route calls through the pod, so you don’t need to worry about missing calls while in the game. I’ve also been told that there is a video editing suite available in the support features, for those who wish to post videos of their adventures. Most of these features will run through a customizable ‘Home’ space, like what we’re in now.”

“The EVA-02 Pod, which you’d be testing, is designed for long-term use. Nutrition and waste management systems are included in this model, and there are systems in place to prevent muscle atrophy. The nutrient packs have to be changed weekly, which would require you to log out at that time. There are some proprietary medical technologies involved, as well, which the scientists have been begging to test.”

“And what compensation would I be getting for this? If I’m spending all my time inside the pod, that will make things like paying rent problematic, you know? Plus, the whole guinea pig thing.”

Morgan smiled. “In addition to the EVA-02 Pod, which you would get for free, in place of the free EVA-01 Pod all the other beta testers will be receiving, the company is prepared to offer you a substantial compensation package. This is separate from the bonuses you’ll be getting as part of the beta tester package, you understand.” I nodded, and she continued.

“First, the nutrition packs and system maintenance on your Pod, as well as your game subscription, will be free of charge for the first real-world year.” My confusion must have showed, because she said, “The production version of the game will have a 4-to-1 time compression ratio. This will allow people in busy jobs to still have some extended time in-game.” So I’d have four years of gameplay essentially free. Not bad.

“Second, we’ll offer an advanced tester bonus of $3000 a month for the first year, with an option to renegotiate later. This is dependent on your agreement to use streams of your adventures as promotional material for the company on the company’s streaming site. You would also get a royalty of 10% of funds generated through the stream.”

Three thousand a month wasn’t exactly ‘independently wealthy’, but it was better than what a petty officer in the navy got. And if I was staying in my pod most of the time, then my bills were going to go down dramatically. Still, the streaming bit made me pause. “I agree with that, in theory, but I’d like the ability to edit the streams, for privacy, and to prevent griefers or PKers from knowing my location and activities in real-time.”

Morgan nodded, and said, “That sounds reasonable. I’ll have the contracts written up and sent to your home so you have time to look them over. I’ll arrange for your pod to be sent out early, so that we have time to test and make sure all the enhanced systems function normally. Does that sound good?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Morgan smiled, and extended her hand. “Then that will make you an official NERV employee once the contracts are signed. Welcome aboard, Stuart.”

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Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Chapter 1 - Abandon Ship

By now, the air had finished evacuating the compartment, so I didn’t have to worry about random things becoming shrapnel if the leak got worse. We still had gravity, so I didn’t bother with the mag-boots just yet. I made my way to the keypad, and typed in the standard override. A temporary air-shield popped into place, telling me that there was air on the other side of the bulkhead. Whether the air was breathable was anyone’s guess, and we could have new leaks at any moment. So I was keeping my helmet shut.

The alarms hit my external mic the moment I stepped through the air-shield. I ignored it, and sealed the hatch. Heading towards the bank of escape pods, I cursed. The ‘graze’ had slagged the escape pods in this section. I could try and traverse the ship, head to the starboard pods, or go aft to try and find pods that weren’t disabled or already launched. Or I could try and find my own way out. Pulling up the Cumberland’s schematics on my HUD, I considered, and saw that Secondary Flight Bay A was close, just one deck down and one section aft. The closest (working) escape pods, according to the damage control readouts, were starboard, or well aft. By the time I got there, the pods would be gone, or the ship blown up from under me. According to the readouts I was getting on my engineer interface, the bay was intact, and there was a standard scout ship in the bay. I used the nav software to map a route to the flight bay.

The ship had seen better days. Signs of battle damage were everywhere as I made my way through the corridors. A power conduit overloaded in this section, killing two crewmen. A third was moaning in pain nearby, her suit compromised by plasma burns. Probably didn’t do anything good for her legs, either, by the look of it. Quickly, I injected a dose of the nano-meds into her by the burn site. It wouldn’t be enough to completely heal her, and would do crap all against the suit damage, but it was a start. While the nano did its work, I turned to the two dead crewmen, and began checking their gear for anything I could salvage. Another ten doses of nano-meds, a second plasma thrower (with three more clips), and a blaster carbine, 20 shots with four spare clips. It was more powerful than my plasma thrower, which was a Good Thing^TM. The real prize was a set of four minidrones, which I could control from my basic deck.

“Ugh.” The woman was coming around. Still looked to be in pain, but she looked like she’d be able to keep moving, which was a bonus. As I got a good look at her, I realized her collar inside the suit had officer tabs on it.

“Ma’am! Engineer’s Mate Johnson. Your suit’s leg is compromised, and we have leaks in the ship. I’m going to need you to switch with one of these men. The lower half of their suits are still intact.”

The woman nodded slowly, and opened her suit seals. Her leg still wasn’t fully functional, so I had to help her slide the emergency suit off a set of legs that I probably would have spent more time admiring if she wasn’t an officer. Or wounded. Or we weren’t on a ship in the middle of a battle. Imminent death is NOT as big an aphrodisiac as some make it out to be. Not until the danger has passed, at least.

When her suit was sealed, and she was back on her feet, I took a moment to observe the officer. My HUD brought up her file from the ship’s roster. Lieutenant Ramirez, Beta shift helm officer. She was average height, and had a better plasma thrower than mine in a holster on her hip. She also had a blaster carbine, so we’d be fairly well off if it came to fighting. “Thank you, crewman. What’s the situation?”

“Unknown. The nearest evac pods were damaged when the X’thari beam grazed us, and there’s an Abandon Ship going out. I was making my way to the Secondary Flight Bay, to try and get out on one of the shuttles.”

“Good. Lead the way. If they haven’t blown the ship by now, the X’thari are probably boarding, trying to salvage her.”

I nodded, and began leading the way, following the map my nav software gave me. “Not much we can do about that, ma’am. If we were in Engineering, I could rig something that would deny them the ship, but…”

“But there’d be no walking away from that one, and we have no idea whether engineering is still accessible. I agree. Our priority is to get away and report Cumberland’s loss to the Fleet.”

We lapsed into silence as we made our way through the ship. As we got closer to the cargo bay, we saw more signs of damage. An emergency bulkhead was fused shut, emergency welds, by the look of it. Not something any engineer would do, but I could see a Marine using it as a brute force solution. We had to slip through one of the service conduits to get around it. Fortunately, the hatch in the service conduit was still open. Probably the marines (and the X’thari) didn’t know about it. As we came back into the corridor, we began to hear sounds of fighting. Blaster carbines, like the ones we carried, and another sound, probably X’thari beam weapons. Damn, they were already on board. Not wanting to wander into a firefight, I sent one of my drones ahead, to get a view of the corridor.

The buglike carapaces of X’thari warriors greeted my eyes, but fortunately we were behind them. A group of ten were hunkered down behind some debris, blocking one side of the corridor. They were busy fighting a group of marines down the hall. Couldn’t get numbers on the marines, but they were clearly getting pushed back. And who knows how many more X’thari there were in the bay. We’d need these Marines to help get any escape moving.

I looked at Lieutenant Ramirez, and she nodded, and counted down with her hands from three. I doubted either of us had done on-ship combat training since basic, unless you count drills (you shouldn’t), but training was training, and I followed her lead. Ducking around the corner on one knee, I felt Ramirez’s suit against mine as she stood over me, allowing us to present as small a target as we could and both fire.

Blaster carbines are nasty weapons, and one hit should take any man not in security armor out if they’re hit center mass. Even the Marine armor could only take a few hits before the wearer was coming back KIA. The damned X’thari took five shots to take down. Each. Still, between Ramirez and me, we managed to bag three. The Marines, with their higher-powered weapons (and better skills) used the crossfire’s distraction to eliminate the other seven in short order.

“CEASE FIRE!” As the last X’thari fell, a man’s voice (clearly a Marine) called out over the close-range combat bands. As we approached the door to the flight bay, we saw five marines, led by a Corporal, from the insignia on his suit, come around the barricade to meet us.

Lieutenant Ramirez nodded to the Corporal. “Report!”

“Corporal Knight reporting, ma’am! We were engaged with the boarders when the Abandon Ship call came in. We couldn’t disengage without giving them the run of the ship, and ship comms have been offline since that big blast, so we didn’t know how far the evac has gone.”

“Good job, Corporal. Johnson! Use those drones, and give me a view of what’s inside that flight bay! We need to know what we’re dealing with.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.” I got to work, engaging the stealth field on one of the drones, and sending it through the doors into the flight bay. What I saw was a mixed bag of news. On the plus side, there was the scout ship. Designed for long range recon, it was lightly armed and armored, but fast and had good stealth abilities. Even better, it had a short-range transition drive, allowing for instant escape, if we could get clear of the local gravity fields. It had life support for ten people for three weeks, though it only had a single head, and no cabins.

The bad news was that the bay was literally crawling with X’thari. I didn’t bother counting them, since the computer did it for me. Sixty-five enemy warriors. So, a brute force approach was out. There was also a X’thari lander there, and I could see that the airshield was still functioning. I shared the feed with the group, so they could formulate a plan.

One of the marines grunted, “Blow the shield, and send them all into space. The bugs need to breathe same as us, don’t they?”

Ramirez shook her head. “Their carapace works as a basic enviro-suit. Not a full seal, I think, but enough to give them time to get to their ship. We need a distraction. Something to pull them all close together so we can turn the tables.”

We reviewed the feed again, this time with an eye towards what the marines called ‘field expedient mayhem’. There. “I’ve got a pile of incendiaries here, ma’am. I can rig the drone to cause enough excitement that the drones will need to check it out. If one of the marines can nail the drums with their rifles, we’ll have a nice explosion, and take out a lot of them. Then we drop the air shield, and give them something else to think about while we get to the ship.”

“How long to prep the scout ship for flight?”

“By the books? Twenty minutes. Maybe ten if I cut corners. But we’ll want to be on our way there before we start warming up the engines. That’s guaranteed to draw attention. It will take me another twenty to arrange the airshield failure. Those safety protocols are not meant to be overwritten.”

Corporal Knight said, “I can make the shot on the drums. That’ll get us our boom. But half an hour at the earliest is a lot of time for shit to go wrong, Lieutenant.”

Another of the marines spoke up, “I cross-trained on the scout ship during basic. I wouldn’t know what corners to cut safely, but I can run through the remote checklist, and fly locally. I’m not qualified for Transition calculations.”

“Fortunately, I am,” Ramirez said. “All right, Weatherly, you start prepping the ship by remote. Do everything except warming the engines. We’ll start that the moment Johnson’s distraction starts. Johnson, give me airshield control and that distraction.”

“On it!”

The next twenty minutes were a flurry of computer code as I tried to get the air shield and the drone to do things they weren’t intended to do. In fact, they were actively programmed to AVOID doing what I needed from them. Still, twenty-five minutes after we started work, both Weatherly and I nodded at the Lieutenant. We were ready.

I turned the drone’s stealth capabilities off, and made it fly up and down into the metal drums full of incendiary fuel. Ships no longer used oil or gas like old blue-water navy ships, but small ships like the scout we were going to steal couldn’t support big tokomak reactors, so they carried some high-energy reactive fuel to get the high power thrust they needed. Fortunately, we had a bunch of the stuff sitting out ready for fueling incoming ships.

The metal clangs of the drone drew the X’thari warriors’ attention, and about half of them began moving in that way. They didn’t try shooting the drone, because even idiots knew what happened when you shot the bright red drums, and no one wanted to make that kind of (usually fatal) mistake. Explosions on board a ship were absolutely no fun.

Fortunately, Corporal Knight was a good shot, and ensured that thirty-two X’thari warriors got a very good education on why one does not shoot the high-explosive drums. At the same time, Weatherly started the engines warming up. That would take a minute until they were ready. Just as the warriors turned to face the new ‘threat’, I sent my command to the bay controls, killing the airshield. Unfortunately, it also killed the gravity in the bay, as circuits disrupted by battle damage blew out under the strain.

The result was quite emphatic. Anything that wasn’t tied down in the bay went out the bay doors into space. Only a few X’thari were left, those who had been lucky enough to grab hold of their ship before they were thrown out of the bay. The marines made short work of that. Fortunately, null-grav maneuvers were still taught in training, because stuff like this happens. Getting to the ship was only moderately risky once the atmosphere finished evacuating from the compartment behind us. A firm jump in the right direction, followed by magnetic grapples to reel ourselves in, and we were at the ship.

The lieutenant entered her command codes, and we all got into the scout ship and pressurized. Lieutenant Ramirez and Weatherly set up in the cockpit, going over final preparations for launch, while I linked my deck to the ship computer, and used it to download any logs we could still get out of Cumberland. They were patchy, but oh well. I felt the ship move, and then we were in the black.

The Lieutenant called back from the cockpit, “We’re away! Stealth looks to be holding. The X’thari ships aren’t coming after us. They seem to be… oh god. They’re shooting the lifeboats!”

That brought a bunch of mumbled curses from the rest of us, but no one objected when the Lieutenant kept on course, and got us running. There wasn’t anything one scout ship could do against a pack of Mothak cruisers. Once we were clear of the cruisers, the Lieutenant abandoned stealth and opened the throttle to full, racing for the heliopause, and transition. Once the computer said that we were safe from the X’thari cruisers, everything turned to black.

You have completed the Beta mission.

Thank you for playing Dreams Amongst the Stars!

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Into the Black - Table of Contents

The first truly immersive Virtual Reality system has just been announced. Made by NERV, the EVA-series immersion pods promise a Better Than Life experience, unlike anything that's been seen before. Gone are clunky goggles and wired controls. Now you simply lie down, and the machine does all the work.

Following up on their previous hit games, NERV has created the first true VRMMORPG, a sci-fi offering called Dreams Amongst the Stars. Because of the impressive display he made during the closed Beta of the game, one player has been offered a contract as a paid streamer, and the chance to play the game on the highest difficulty possible. Watch as he forges his own path, into the black.

Table of Contents

Book I: Game Start

Prologue - Dying Light

Chapter 260 - Settlement

Epilogue - Patch Notes 26.X

Book XXVII:

Prologue - Trade Chat

Chapter 261 - Simply Business

Chapter 262 - A Day in the Life

Prologue - Dying Light

ABANDON SHIP! ABANDON SHIP! ALL HANDS TO ESCAPE PODS!

I groaned as the darkness slowly gave way to the red-tinted hallway before me. “Wha--?”

ABANDON SHIP! ABANDON SHIP! ALL HANDS TO ESCAPE PODS!

Blinking a couple times to clear the spots from my eyes, I looked around, and remembered where I was. Deck 10, Section 13, Port Side, Crew Quarters. The CNS Cumberland. We were… fighting. The X’thari. That’s right. We were under attack from X’thari Raiders. We were a Kinseki-class Battle Cruiser. Not as heavily armed or armored as a battleship, but able to hold our own against pretty much anything smaller than that. At least, in a straight fight, we could. X’thari didn’t believe in straight fights. They’d come at us with eight of their Mothak light cruisers.

The Mothak was a capital ship hunter. Oh sure, it had some point defense to ward off fighters, and a few turret guns and missile tubes, but the ship was little more than an engine to push around the massive Charged Wave Cannon the bastards carried running down the centerline of their ship. A hit or two from one of those could take out a battleship’s shields if they got lucky, and against an unprotected hull? They were death itself.

Of course, they had problems, too. You had to line your ship up to take the shot, like an old blue-water navy submarine. The cannon was slow to recharge, taking over two minutes between shots. And the range was a light-minute, at most, but if you wanted to be sure of a hit, you had to either take your opponent napping, or get in knife range, so they couldn’t dodge.

But the Mothak class was a helluvalot cheaper to build, man, and maintain than a Kinseki-class, to say nothing of the heavier battleships or fleet carriers. Which is why the X’thari could afford to send the damned things in packs, like wolves. They’d stagger their shots and constantly maneuver as if they were ready to take their shot, to keep you guessing about where the threat was coming from. If you were lucky, you’d get a group of rookies that shot their load in order, and then fired again the second their weapons were charged. That was still a bad deal when you were going eight to one, but being predictable was fatal if your commander knew how to dance.

Captain Walther could waltz with the best of them, but we weren’t going against any rookies, but the Thrush Squadron, the elite of the X’thari forces. The bastards were legends, the best of the best of the Raider fleet. We had them out massed and out gunned, and the Cap’n managed to keep them from killing us outright, dodging most of the beams with some insane maneuvers. Still, two hit the shields, taking them down, and then one clipped the port hull but good on the second round.

Which explained why I had my bell rung, and was coming to in this compartment with that annoying hissing sound trying to drown out the alarms. Oh, fuck. That was a breach! I was already moving before I even really registered what was happening, ripping open the emergency locker, and already a foot into an emergency suit.

Suited up, I took stock of my gear. Environmental suit, 98% integrity, 6 hours on the oxygen. 12 if I carry the backup tank. Standard adaptive multitool, full charge. Basic cyberdeck. Basic plasma thrower, 100% integrity, energy for 15 shots in the clip, and three spare clips. Magnetic grapple for zero-g maneuvers. Class I Dimensional Storage device, rated for 150 lbs. Emergency Nano-Med Pack, 3 uses remaining. Not great, but it’ll do.

Now, if only I could get to the escape pods before someone decided to blow the ship out from under my feet.

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