Fire at Will: A Space Opera Adventure With LitRPG Elements
Page 2
“Really? It shouldn’t. Believe me, death is preferable to Kregan interrogation techniques if you ask me.”
Kevin’s heart beat like a racing freight train, and he took a long, deep breath with his eyes closed, trying not to let his rising anger explode at the person on the other end of the interstellar call.
“I wasn’t asking you. And that’s just great, thank you for putting me in danger once more.”
“Oh…you’re perfectly welcome then. If you enjoy danger, you’re not going to be disappointed by what comes next.”
Any and all other attempts for Kevin to remain calm failed shortly after that.
“I was being sarcastic!” shouted Kevin.
“Riiiiight. Never mind then. May I suggest you pick up your phone and start running?”
“Why?”
“Well, if my implementation of the Kregan life form detection sensors I built into your phone is anywhere near correct, I’d say you have five, maybe ten seconds, before the operative reaches your location.”
Kevin swallowed hard. When Boomer jumped around and started barking harder than ever before, it gave Kevin his cue. He grabbed the phone and shoved it into his pants pocket. When a red laser-looking blast flew between him and Boomer and obliterated a tree nearby, panic overcame Kevin and a hefty dose of adrenaline flooded his body.
Kevin ran the opposite direction from the now intensified blaster fire. “Come on boy, we gotta go.”
Boomer didn’t need the encouragement, as he darted in the same direction as Kevin.
“Hey, interstellar dumbass? I don’t think they want to extract anything from me,” he screamed. “Help me!”
“What’s a dumbass? Is that blaster fire I hear?”
“No, it’s a techno dance party! Of course, it’s blaster fire!”
“Oh, I see, you’re being sarcastic again. I’ll attribute that to your elevated vital signs and stress levels.”
And I’ll put my foot up your ass if I make it out of here alive.
“How long until the probe finds me?” said Kevin, panting from sprinting madly toward the forest in the hope of losing his alien attacker.
The next blaster impact incinerated a bush in front of Kevin’s path, and he had to adjust his heading to the left.
“Yeah, about that, it’s more along the lines of you finding it than the other way around. There’s a good chance it may land near your current position, though.”
“Ok, you listen to me—” but Kevin felt compelled to duck as blaster fire burned through some of his hair. He finally reached the forest and kept running, with Boomer close by his side. “You listen carefully, I don’t care what you have to do, but you’re going to get that probe here STAT, and you’re gonna find a way to help me lose that Kregan assassin while you’re at it.”
“There’s very little I can do with the hardware you’re carrying.”
I miss my old phone.
“I don’t care! Just do something, or I will die, and if I die, how do you expect me to rescue Killiopa?”
“Kalliopy.”
“Whatever!”
“Alright, alright. Give me a minute.”
More blasts grazed Kevin’s right shoulder, burning through his T-shirt and probably some skin as well, and then it blew a football-sized hole in a tree meters in front of him.
“I—don’t think—I have that kind of time,” he panted, darting between trees.
“Hang on…”
“Wish I could, but if you don’t do something soon, then I’m afraid—”
Before Kevin could finish his sentence, he saw copies of himself begin to pop up and run parallel to him; it took a while for his brain to process what was happening.
Woooow. . .Holo-decoy, that’s wicked.
“Did you just do that?”
“Well, you asked for help. Would you rather I deactivate the holograms?”
The blaster fire was growing wider, and it was clear that the Kregan wasn’t only firing toward the real Kevin but also on the decoys.
“Are you fracking kidding me? No! Keep the holograms on. Can you cast more of them?”
“I’m afraid there’s not enough memory on your device for that. My genius compression algorithm can only do so much.”
Kevin wanted to throw a smart-ass comeback at the alien regarding its overinflated sense of modesty, but he decided against it, seeing as he had just modded his nearly ten-year-old crappy smartphone via subspace to cast holographic projections.
“I wonder what you could have done with a full-blown iPhone.”
“What’s an iPhone?”
“Never mind, let’s just say I take back everything bad I ever said about my crapola 1Xe shit-brown edition.”
Kevin’s lungs were burning from the intense effort as his body filled with even more adrenaline. He had never run this fast for this long. Fortunately, Boomer was still by his side, probably also pushed by his own fear. Thankfully, the holographic distraction didn’t seem to affect the ever-loyal Beagle.
That’s when Kevin noticed his skin began to glow blue.
“What’s this blue crap all over me?”
“Electrokinetic-energy, I had to find a way to recharge the limited power source of your crapola.”
“Am I powering my own smartphone?”
“There’s nothing smart about this device. But, technically, your running does, yes.”
“What happens when I stop running?”
“I’d rather not say. Somehow I think you know the answer to that anyway.”
Perfect, just perfect.
“Meanwhile, can the decoys fire back?”
“Holographically, I doubt your pursuer will fall for it for more than a few seconds. It might also help him reveal the real you.”
That’s a chance Kevin was willing to take if he could put more distance between him and his hunter.
“Well, I’d even take half a second advantage at this point. Just have one of them cover behind me by returning fire. Hopefully, that will buy me some time.”
“Understood.”
And an advantage it did give Kevin as the blaster fire now sounded more distant with every new step he and Boomer took.
“We should have stayed in bed, right buddy?”
Boomer barked, and Kevin realized that this could give away his position.
“Shhh…sorry boy, let’s just keep running.”
Fortunately, Boomer didn’t answer. They exited the dense forest into a clearing when a metallic object fell from the heavens and crashed to the ground, creating a large crater about five hundred meters ahead of them.
“Tell me that is what I think it is?”
“The probe? Yes, it’s just landed.”
“You and I have different definitions of what actually constitutes a landing.”
“Well, let’s just say I had to boost the speed of the engines so that it arrived quickly.”
“I sure hope it didn’t get damaged in that landing,” said Kevin between gritted teeth.
“Hey, my stuff is well made.”
So is my foot, as you’ll, hopefully, soon learn.
“I’m almost there, then what?”
“I think you’re going to laugh.”
“Why don’t I like the sound of that?”
“In order to reach you faster, I had to burn more energy from the probe’s power cell, as a result, the transporter range may have been shortened, which means while you can transport anywhere within its new diminished range, you can’t quite make it to my ship just yet.”
“Are you fracking shit—” but Kevin ended the cuss word in his head. “I’m assuming you have a way to fix this?”
“Kinda, yeah.”
“How long is ‘kinda’ gonna take?”
“A couple of minutes, five at most.”
“There’s no way the Kregan will need that much time to reacquire me now that the probe landing gave away my position.”
“You’re correct about that. In fact, the Kregan will be upon you
in about forty seconds.”
2
Kevin’s fear levels elevated at lightning speed. Now that his own body and life were in physical danger, he didn’t feel a similar thrill as when his consciousness had been transferred to the ASF Thalamos a week earlier.
“I can hear it coming behind me,” protested Kevin. “I’m nearly at the probe, what do I do when I reach it?”
“That depends,” answered the alien voice. “How good are you with weapons?”
“I don’t know, I never fired anything outside of a video game.”
“Well, then I guess you’re about to find out.”
“You can’t expect me to hold my ground with a trained killer for my first time?”
“I’m sure you’ll do great. The moment you’re at the probe, just touch it with your palm, it’s been programmed to recognize you. It will synthesize a weapon for you to use and I’ll provide you with a shield. It won’t last very long, though, so try and distract your attacker for a minute or two. Or make sure you’re not hit too many times.”
The sheer burning inside Kevin’s lungs from the long, continuous effort was beyond anything he had ever experienced. Strength was slowly leaving his muscles.
“You’re not running fast enough, what’s going on?”
“I’m getting tired, I’m not used to running for this long.”
“Let me see what I can do.”
Kevin saw a green energy bolt shoot from a dust cloud around where the probe crashed, and before he could do anything, let alone try to dodge it, the bolt hit him full force on the chest. At first, he thought he was shot, but instead of pain, he felt his energy levels rise up to a much higher level than he thought his body was capable of experiencing.
“Wow! Thanks for the power up.”
“Don’t thank me, yet, you’re gonna need the energy. The Kregan will catch up with you in fifteen seconds.”
“How will I know how to use the weapon?”
“The nanites inside my tech will form a neuronal bond with your brain. The weapon’s basically gonna obey your wishes and your thoughts are going to shape the weapon to your mental images. It’s a prototype, so hopefully it works. Actually, it only needs to for about a minute or two.”
“Make sure it’s not more than that. And make sure to beam out my dog with me.”
“What’s a dog?”
“The smaller life form that’s running next to me.”
“Oh, alright, I’ll reprogram the probe accordingly.”
Kevin was a mere five meters away from the crater, and he skidded on the grass, like riding a skateboard, the rest of the way before gravity unceremoniously planted him next to the probe, face first in the mud.
He turned around and spat dirt as he saw blaster fire streak past him again.
He looked around trying to locate the probe as Boomer caught up to him, barking sharply. Kevin found the sphere under a mound of mud and quickly pawed through the debris so he could touch it. A small white light sphere grew from the side of the probe, and the metal that had been there vanished, revealing a small compartment with a metallic cylinder inside.
“What the hell is this? How am I supposed to defend myself with this?”
“Grab the cylinder.”
Kevin felt like arguing, but when a red bolt blasted a column of mud upward like a geyser less than a meter away from him, he knew time was of the essence.
The moment he grabbed the cylinder, he felt a tingle and something strange happened inside his body. A persistent humming sounded as a green shield enveloped him like form-fitting armor. The cylinder in his hand morphed into the coolest blaster he had ever seen, with pulsating cyan lights on each side of the weapon.
When Kevin asked himself where the trigger was, one morphed into place.
“Is this thing really reading my mind?” he asked.
“It’s an oversimplification of the tech, but basically, yes.”
Now I don’t know if I’m hoping this is a nightmare or if it’s real, but damn, it’s just too cool!
A creature, the Kregan Kevin assumed, growled from the top of the crater. Kevin aimed the weapon at the crater wall and shot through the dirt. It created a smaller cavity.
“Get in there, buddy, and don’t you move, okay?”
Boomer was whimpering and trembling with fear. Kevin insisted by pointing his finger toward the newly made depression, and the trusting Beagle obeyed.
A second later, Kevin felt something smack against his back, and his translucent green shield lit up like a Christmas tree.
“You won’t be able to get too many hits like these before the shield fails,” said the voice.
“Copy that.”
Kevin turned and started running away as more blaster fire screamed past him. Their vector gave him a good idea of where his attacker was, so in between shots he turned and aimed his blaster in a reflex motion and depressed the trigger.
A blue energy bolt exited the weapon and hit the Kregan. An orange light glowed around him.
“He’s also shielded?” protested Kevin.
“I would think so.”
“Thanks for the heads up.”
“Remember, your personal shield can only take a handful of hits before it collapses.”
The shield deflected a second bolt headed for Kevin’s shoulder. Capacity was already down by a third.
“This is the shittiest rescue in the history of the world, I hope you know that?” screamed Kevin as he jumped to dodge the next salvo of incoming laser fire. “If I get out of here alive, I’ll kick your ass.”
“Your motivational speech doesn’t exactly incentivize me to work any faster.”
“How long?”
“Forty-five seconds. Give or take a minute.”
“Oh, come on!”
Another shot hit Kevin in the leg. Again, the shield did its work. A familiar female voice inside his head cooed.
Shield integrity down to fifty percent.
“Mira? Is that you?”
Hello, Kevin, miss me?
Kevin ran and hid behind a boulder.
“Bet your ass I did. Tell me, how do I gain an advantage over my attacker?”
This weapon is intuitive. It pretty much does what you think. So the bigger your imagination, the more powerful you can make it. Remember your experience on board my ship? Well, this is similar. Just think of what you want and let the weapon do the rest.
A corner of Kevin’s mouth arched into a grin. “Now you’re talking.”
Kevin waited for the next salvo of enemy fire to impact on the boulder before he slipped out of cover, aimed his blaster at the Kregan, and thought rocket-launcher boom. A massive blue bolt of plasma shot from the blaster and hit the Kregan with an enormous explosion. It sent the alien spiraling high in the air.
Rapid-fire, thought Kevin. Super-fast streaks of blue energy shot from the blaster into the still falling Kregan assassin, draining his shields. But it took too long.
Force push, bitch!
A powerful, focused shockwave blast smashed into the Kregan and sent him tumbling over a hundred meters.
“I love this thing!” exclaimed Kevin.
I’m afraid ‘this thing’s’ power source is now fluctuating. It won’t be able to shoot for a while, said Mira.
That wasn’t good news, but Kevin’s hunter had been temporarily taken out of the fight, so hopefully, the power would be restored before that changed.
“How come you’re here? I thought you had perished with the Thalamos.”
Long story, but I’m the operating system for the probe, so I hopped on board the blaster as well. I thought you could use the assist.
“Good call, I’m so glad you’re here.”
In place of an answer, static saturated Kevin’s inner ear.
“What the hell?”
“A nearby field is interfering with the weapon,” said a staticky high-pitched voice. “Mira is offline.”
“Why haven’t we been beamed out already?”
“And does the lock need to be perfect?”
“Well, that depends if you want to share DNA with your dog, perhaps end up with a mixture of his features and yours, I could try an unsafe beam out, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Yeah, me neither! What do I do?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to defeat the Kregan warrior.”
“I was afraid you were gonna say that. Worst. Rescue. Ever.”
“Look on the bright side, Kevin, you’re still alive.”
“Will the weapon work? Or am I supposed to just scare the Kregan to death with my ugly mug?”
“I could drain twenty-five percent of your shield to fix the power fluctuation, but you’ll probably only get a shot or two out of it. Depending on what you come up with, that is. I would not recommend your explosive or shockwave firing solutions though.”
“You’re killing me, you know that? Don’t answer that. Here goes nothing.” Kevin looked at the crater hoping he would see Boomer safe and sound before sprinting toward the Kregan who was only now getting back to its feet.
The moment the Kregan saw him coming he raised an arm and blaster fire resumed. Kevin did his best to zigzag slightly as he approached the Kregan.
“Why aren’t you firing?” asked the voice.
“Not now!”
Two more blasters bolts collided with Kevin’s shield and it flickered. He was only a couple of meters away from his target when he decided to end his mad run by skidding again on the grass. The next couple of incoming shots missed by mere centimeters. Once Kevin was nearly upon the Kregan massive warrior he thought—
Lightsaber.
The blaster morphed back into a cylinder, and the blade made of burning plasma shot upward, and as Kevin slid between the Kregan’s legs, he slashed most of the warrior in two.
Sparks shot from his lightsaber and burned his fingers, causing him to drop the weapon. He jumped back to his feet, his heartbeat playing a speed metal version of the Star-Spangled Banner as he looked at the Kregan who remained on his feet but didn’t move. Smoke rose from its body, and a small breeze delivered a strong smell of burnt flesh directly into Kevin’s nostrils.