The Life- Illusion

by Lincoln Greene

  The ruined city faded out from around him, the celebratory tone still ringing from his phone. He was loaded back into Jimmy’s lobby, Jimmy and Gadot already present and waiting for him. His friends were staring at him, a touch of awe present on their faces.

  “Well done Kurt…very well done.” Gadot maintained a serious expression. Kurt smiled gently in response.

  Jimmy shoved him on the shoulder. “You’re famous now though brother, you should see the kind of stuff that’s going on in the forums.” He pulled his phone back up, apparently having been watching the match after he was killed. “We have another Fox!”

  “Do me a favor. Keep that kinda shit to yourself.” Kurt grinned at his friend, ignoring the news and fame for the moment. His own phone was showing only the match end screen, a huge reward of five hundred million dollars his to claim. As soon as he hit the accept button, his clean cash account spun up, pleasantly refilled with far more money than they needed for the Pirates missiles. The cash counter finished, and suddenly his phone started filling with skill up notifications. They completed their tally, and a reward chime sounded. He had unlocked a specialist class.

  Specialist Class

  The Wraith.

  Naturally skilled at getting where they are feared and dispatching foes without discovery; The Wraith is a terrifying enemy to face, especially on the road. The Wraith specializes in striking from hiding, killing without mercy or hesitation, then fading away from retaliation unscathed.

  While The Wraith specialist class is equipped, a bonus percentage equal to twenty-five ranks is applied to each of the following skills:

  Ambush, Cartography, Combat Driving, Disguise, Driving, Gunslinger, Liar, Magnum Force, Planning, Small Arms, Sneak attack, Stealth, and Underhanded.

  Specialty services, clothing, vehicles, and weaponry have been unlocked for purchase and use. Lock Picking is 25% faster with this class equipped. Map presence is reduced by a further 25% with this class equipped. Player health and armor resilience while inside any vehicle is increased by 25% Player weapon damage while inside any vehicle is increased by 25%

  “I got a specialist class…” Kurt stared in pleased wonderment at his wrist.

  “The fuck you did.” Jimmy glared angrily at him from across the couch. Kurt reached in his pocket and removed his business card holder. It had morphed into a small black skull with glittering red jewels in the eye sockets and a thin stream of black smoke rising from its empty nose hole. When he allowed the jawbone to open, it exhaled in a sigh and a jet black card with silver embossed lettering was extended, coming to rest on the bottom teeth of the skull. He offered the card to Jimmy, a smug look on his face.

  Jimmy snatched the card, shaking his head in wonderment. “Three years I worked for mine. Three years man.” He sighed deeply, sitting back. “I shoulda played stealth.”

  Gadot leaned over, rubbing her cheek against his briefly as she looked at Kurt’s card. “No, you shouldn’t have.” She smiled gently at him, her arm around his back.

  “Haha ok, yeah.” He leaned against her a little more, happily extending his own arm around her shoulders. “To be perfectly fair, I HAVE gotten other specialist classes. They were all just garbage compared to my secondary, and I knew MINE was still out there.”

  “You can have multiple classes?!” Kurt was suddenly confused again, his smug attitude evaporating in the face of new information.

  “Uh, yeah. I’ve been running like…three specialist classes, depending on what we’re doing.” Gadot sat up again, raising her fingers to count. “The night we met I was using my Transporter class, then when we hit the Goons bank job, I went with my Smuggler class, and during the Pirates crew raid I was running the Trigger class.”

  “…You guys need to tell me this stuff.” Kurt shook his head as his friends burst into good natured laughter beside him.

  An update for the readers.

  So there will be no chapter this week, I am sad to report. I am indeed working on it, but I’ve realised its just moving too slowly to be anywhere near ready for this weeks usual deadline. There’s no writer’s block or anything, I am just being cautious and slow in how I shape this final bit of narrative. I’m also realizing that I will need to edit this book a great deal before it is actually ready for publication.

  On that note, there is a point of interest and editing that I need to go over with my readers now, before the next chapter/chapters come out. A few chapters ago, we explored a Pirate Hub, in the form of the giant tugboat. The Pirates employ those as mobile spawn points, and a way to immobilize targets at sea while they swarm their objectives. The concept of safehouses and hubs is something I hope I have covered in a way that they are understood in the book, but for the sake of clarity, I’m going to just lay out the rules around them here. A safehouse is a personal area players use for storage and respawn. They completely control access, regardless of faction. A Hub is very similar, but it’s used by a faction for those purposes and more. A Hub has a storage element, but anyone who can use the Hub in question has access to any items stored there, so they typically become areas that factions and crews use for strategic respawn, such as in a turf war. As long as you the player have access to a Hub, you can use all its various facilities, storage (removing and adding items), and respawn. Crews will generally employ several Hubs, depending on their size and needs. Hubs are also highly customizable, as long as you have the clean cash requirements. A Stronghold is a different beast though. Each crew or faction can only have one, and they are generally vulnerable to enemy takeover or destruction. (this varys depending on what quality possession the Stronghold was made from.) Strongholds act as a base of operations for your factions NPCs, and can be created from most structures or large vehicles. The high altitude cargo plane we have visited is the Stronghold for the Lace. Customization is also a large part of Strongholds, but it is not purchased or built by players like it is with Hubs, in spite of Strongholds being considered ‘owned property’. The NPCs of the faction perform the customization, based on the playstyle of the ranking players in the faction. I displayed this without explanation when Kurt approached the Lace Stronghold later in the book and discovered gun barrels poking from the sides. This customization was a direct result of Jimmy becoming a more prevalent part of the Lace faction. (This is something I feel I need to edit to make more clear.)

  Back to the beginning of the Pirates scene and the giant Tugboat. It is my intention to alter that scene to show the Pirates Stronghold instead of a simple Hub. The rest of the scene will be unchanged, and their rush on the cruise ship will still be facilitated by one of the giant tugboats/Hubs. (They have several, and use them liberally in their operations.)

  The Pirate Stronghold is the Jahre Viking. Kitty owns the ship, in the form of a Legendary Vehicle. In the coming weeks, I intend to edit that chapter to properly reflect the Stronghold and explore it slightly, and I will add a note to let you guys know when that happens. It’ll be a mostly minor change, that detail is just required. Can’t have the Pirate Queen make her appearance on so humble vessel as a giant tug. If you do not know what the Jahre Viking is, I would most assuredly suggest some google research, it’s pretty worth the time. I’ll just say here that it is the single largest manmade moving object. Ever.

  21. The War

  Chapter 21

  The War

  “We need to talk.” Kurt sat forward, suddenly grave.

  Jimmy raised an eyebrow. “We do?”

  Gadot’s cheeks tensed. She didn’t speak but leaned away from Jimmy a little bit and stared at Kurt.

  “The Pirates are going to lose this war. Jimbo was in that match, he actually saved me at one point.” Kurt steepled his fingers, pressing them against his lips for a moment. “He let slip that GoonStorm is no longer attempting to buy out the Pirates, they’re giving the whole thing to the Ursa now instead.”

  “…Oh.” Gadot’s shoulders slumped slightly. “Then…we lost.”

  Jimmy shrugged. “Don’t count Kitt
y out, she’s easily the most dangerous person I’ve ever met.” He glanced to his side, a consternated look on his face at Gadot’s glare. “Sorry, it’s just…true.”

  Kurt nodded enthusiastically. “No Gadot. You don’t compare to Kitty.” He breathed out a slightly shaky breath, in the throes of a nasty memory. “You shouldn’t want to either. She’s…actually a monster, I think.”

  “OK, you somehow still underestimate me, I get it. So, what’s the plan?” Gadot stared at Kurt expectantly.

  He didn’t answer right away, eyebrow furrowed in thought as he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. “He offered to help.” Kurt turned to face his friends. “He wants to steal the buyout, just me and him. Says he has a way in.”

  “Ahhhh, now I get it. You set him up for this.” Jimmy sat back with a clap of his hands, a pleased expression on his face as he nudged Gadot in the ribs slightly. “I told you we could trust him.” He nodded at Kurt, looking him in the eye appreciatively. “Kurt’s a lot of things, but he has never been disloyal to me.”

  “Not sure I understand.” Gadot looked between the two men on the couch. “Set him up?”

  “I wouldn’t say ‘set him up’ really, I just…took a chance.” Kurt rubbed his chin absently. “I knew he was working for GoonStorm and might be able to get us some intel on the buyout. I put the idea in his head that’s all I was doing this for, to get close to the buyout and steal it.” He sat back with a sigh. “He’s gonna screw us though.”

  Jimmy cocked his head to the side. “I know you’re good at this side of it, but…why?”

  “His name isn’t Jimbo.” Kurt scowled at nothing, obviously in thought. “It’s Yojimbo.”

  “Ah. Yeah, he’s gonna screw us.” Rubbing his hands slightly, Jimmy also scowled at the ground in front of him.

  “This must be what crazy feels like.” Gadot glared in annoyance at Jimmy and then Kurt. “Somebody explain what that means please?!”

  “Yojimbo is the name of an ancient Kurosawa film. The main character works both sides of a…well, a gang war. He screws em both.” Kurt shook his head at her. “There’s no way this guy picked that name and doesn’t play to that exact detail.” He blinked a couple times. “I’ll just have to screw him first I guess, we can’t pass this up.”

  Gadot nodded slowly as he explained. “Damn, good catch Kurt. Ok so how do we fit in?”

  “We can’t exactly plan this one. I’ll go in with him, try to out-fox him when the time comes, and then I’ll need your help for the getaway. Once we jack their load, we will have every faction in the city gunning for us.” Kurt chewed on the inside of his lip, shaking his head slowly. “I have a couple ideas that might help…but it’s going to be off the cuff this time.”

  “Whatever dude, that’s how I operate best anyway.” Jimmy pulled his wrist up, swiping at the air above it. “I’m logging over, gonna go see how the war is going.”

  “Oh, right!” Kurt hurriedly pulled up his phone and allocated two hundred million of his new clean cash fund, sending it to Kitty directly.

  She replied within seconds. “Hey thanks. A touch late, but I should still have a ship around here somewhere capable of what you need.”

  “Late?” Kurt texted her back, confusion on his features.

  Her reply was nearly immediate again. “Yes Kurtis, late. The war has been on like Kong since last night. That rhythmic booming you hear occasionally, while not helping? That’s their artillery softening our lines and taking out our vehicles.” A second text came through a moment later. “If you have a rooftop, you may want to get to it in the next five minutes.”

  Kurt shook his head. “We should log over.” He glanced at Gadot to see her swipe at her wrist and vanish, before he did the same. The game loaded in his hearing first, and he could hear Jimmy talking to Gadot about the war. He had reached out to some of his contacts and discovered it was going very poorly indeed. As Kurt’s sight loaded in, he listened to his friend describe the events of the day and prior evening.

  The Pirates had begun losing territory almost right away, being outmatched by the GoonStorm vehicles fleet. They had capable drivers and pilots, and the Pirates fleet was much cheaper, but they still had to destroy a dozen or more GoonStorm vehicles for each of their own lost to make a difference. They had numbers and enthusiasm, but it wasn’t enough to hold on, merely lose slowly. The Pirates had lost all their turf to the south already, and a surprise raid by the Ursa massacred their foothold north of the city as well. Jimmy shared a report that GoonStorm and the Ursa were not quite on friendly ground yet, with the occasional hostility shaking up their lines, and both sides still being fiercely territorial about their turf. They were, however, coordinating on attack and defense against the Pirates.

  Once Jimmy stopped to take a breath, Kurt jumped in. “We need to get on the roof, is that possible?”

  “Uhhhh…yes?” Jimmy looked around for a moment before cupping his hands to his mouth and shouting. “Hey Tigg!”

  She appeared from the direction of the shooting range, looking annoyed. “…Yes?”

  Jimmy turned to face her with one of his customary grins. “Which way is it to the roof?”

  Tigg scowled at him and raised her finger to point up, not answering verbally. Kurt started chuckling as Jimmy looked up in consternation. Gadot shook her head and stepped forward. “Is there an access panel or door anywhere? Please?”

  Placated, Tigg led them to a ladder neatly hidden behind the large movie screen. She stood next to it and pointed up again, only glaring at Jimmy when they filed past her. They climbed up onto the roof, with Kurt lifting the heavy metal hatch and pouring in the cool night air. He slid slightly against the slick metal siding, turning and looking out over the city.

  A few neighborhoods were burning, and the sounds of the war reached them even at this removed distance. Kurt stared in open wonder over the warzone Illusion had become in his absence, lips slightly parted. “Is it like this every weekend?”

  “Oh hell no dude, this is all us.” Jimmy clapped him on the shoulder and started carefully walking along the slick rooftop towards the far edge to get a better look. “We fucked the place up good and proper this week.”

  Gadot started following him, slipping slightly and regaining her balance with a small arm pinwheel. She shook her head as she walked, trying to keep her boots from the slicker areas. “Yeah, we kind of did. Right now all we’ve done is make it easy for GoonStorm to take the place though.” The Downtown Cluster spread out in a wide inverted crescent ahead of them where it met the bay, a few blocks north west.

  A trio of Grumman F-14 Tomcat fighter jets in a tight triangle formation screamed by overhead, their digital blue camo paintjobs visible as they streaked out over the ocean. The groups eyes widened as they followed the Tomcats and saw the Pirates fleet moving slowly into the bay, as fire blossomed from a carrier’s deck, bombs dropped from the jets at low altitude. A fleet of large slow moving ships of war were surrounded by a myriad of smaller vessels, all scrambling for cover from the jets as they turned high above for another attack run.

  The Pirates fleet was chaotic, cohesion not an important theme for them. Each ship was customized in whatever manner their owners had chosen, but each one of them was adorned in a large stripe of red paint somewhere on the vessels prow, likely their only defense against friendly fire. A massive Nimitz class aircraft carrier led the fleet, one half of its deck free of aircraft and instead stuffed full of sixteen-inch mark 8 gun batteries. The heavily modified vessel sat low in the water, with armor plating hanging off the deck and skimming the waves it crashed through. The deck had eight gun emplacements on the side of its main runway, with three of the massive gun barrels poking from each. It sported the name “Broadsider” in vibrant red paint on its skirts of hanging armor plates.

  The Broadsider swung into the bay, ignoring the wasp-like attacks of the fighter jets swooping to drop more bombs onto its deck. A single gun battery went up in the explosion, but the rest of th
em swiveled to face the city as one. A modified speed boat leapt into the air from the Broadsider’s wake, launching a series of colorful flares into the air above the larger ship and diverting the incoming missiles the jets had launched. The Broadsider unleashed its own fighters then, eight F-86 Sabre jets trailing red smoke as they took off from the main deck in a rapid procession. Each jet maneuvered in a different direction as it left the main deck, and they swept up into the air above the bay to counter the Tomcats as they approached for their next attack run.

  A trio of Cutters darted out alongside the Broadsider and opened up with their deck mounted defense cannons, sending streaks of light into the jets as they flew by overhead. One of them erupted in flames, spiraling down into the water to explode beneath the waves as the others diverted over the city. The Sabres gave chase, guns and guided missiles forcing the faster Tomcats to engage in evasive maneuvers as they darted between the skyscrapers.

  Kurt followed their movement, taking in the full force of the GoonStorm and Ursa counterattack. Half a dozen of the giant Smerch trucks were rolling down the freeway just to the north, flanked by dozens of Abrams tanks, BPM-97 armored personnel carriers, and Humvee technicals. Any hapless civilians were simply crushed or rammed aside as they scrambled to get to the coast and set up a line of attack. The vehicle fleet followed the roads alongside a giant empty concrete river basin, taking the quickest route to the bay. As they approached the dockside businesses Jimmy had set up their new Hub in, the Broadsider opened up with its deck mounted guns, and suddenly Kurt was deaf to all else.