The Life- Illusion

by Lincoln Greene

  Flames erupted from the massive gun barrels and the cacophony of their roar combined to create a vortex of sound that erased all else to anyone watching. The Broadsider rocked almost fully sideways in the bay, dipping wildly as its armored skirts swayed and splashed with the massive recoil. To the north, a section of the freeway vanished, replaced by a series of monstrous detonations as the high explosive shells tore concrete, asphalt, and the remains of military vehicles to shreds. In answer, the remaining Smerch trucks opened up with a volley of screaming rockets, smoke trails giving the Pirates an excellent targeting vector for their return fire.

  Jimmy sat down at the edge of the building and dangled his feet over the lip, watching in avid interest as the battle unfolded. The Broadsider posed the largest threat of the Pirates fleet and was taking a huge amount of fire. It’s hanging armor plating absorbed a great deal of damage, keeping the majority of the explosions from the Smerch rockets at bay. Even still, white smoke began to pour from the ships various ports and doorways, and it swung slowly to leave the harbor. Two Iowa class Battleships took the Broadsider’s place in a coordinated movement, opening up with their deck guns to pronounced effect as they began to pick apart the Smerch batteries and get the attention of the Abrams. One was decorated in all red, with gigantic swaths of red paint smeared along the hull in stripes and a completely decorative blood red sail trailing from its command deck. A name was painted on its flank; The Crimson Smear. The other was matte black, with thousands of bright white skeletons bolted to the hull and deck. It flew no sail, but sported a gigantic ramming spike on its bow, silvery steel spikes jutting from it in all angles. Its name was ‘The Black Death.” The massive warships created a wall in the bay to block the rest of the fleet, and Kurt squinted to understand the risky tactic as a tight formation of four smaller Virginia class cruisers approached and appeared to hide behind them.

  A series of distant booms drew his attention, and massive detonations on board the battleships in the bay made it clear that GoonStorm had a firing solution on the ships for their artillery battery. Smoke began to pour from the battleships as they sustained continued fire from the artillery platforms at the distant edge of the city.

  “Fuuuuuck that’s cheap…” Jimmy lamented as one of the cutters erupted from an artillery strike, launching its burning husk onto the shore.

  Kurt glanced at his wrist as a text from Kitty came through. “You better be watching Kurtis, this is what a two hundred million dollar trigger pull looks like.” He slapped Jimmy with the back of his hand and stuck his wrist out to share the text. Jimmy raised an eyebrow as he read it, then turned back to the battle with a shrug.

  In that moment, the cruisers settled into their formation, hidden fully behind the wall that The Red Smear and The Black Death created in the bay. A series of terrifyingly loud sirens began to wail, rebounding across the bay and weaving between the skyscrapers for a few seconds before cutting off. As the echoes died out, each ship erupted in flame, smoke, and sound. The air screamed as it was torn apart, as cruise missiles lifted from the decks of the cruisers and began their journey across the city. Ten identical streaks of heavy smoke followed the bright dots into the sky far above the city, and every eye on the battlefield was fixed upwards. They curved at high altitude, dropping in a thunderous strike on the far side of the city. The explosions were too far to hear at first, but the wave of sound and force that followed nearly knocked Kurt from his position on the roof. His jacket fluttered in the hot wind as Gadot hunched down and gripped Jimmy’s shoulder with one hand. Clouds of flame rose from what used to be the GoonStorm Stronghold.

  No further artillery strikes came into the bay, and the Broadsider swung around to make another strike on the gathered vehicle fleet. A distant sound of cheers rose from the assembled ground vehicle fleet as Kurt heard the roar of rushing air approaching to the north. In the wide shallow river bed a fleet of military hovercraft were rushing down towards the bay, led by a massive Zubr class hovercraft. The rest of the fleet consisted of smaller LCAC vehicles, each with an Abrams and two Humvee technicals strapped into their cargo beds.

  The Zubr swerved around the flank of The Black Death and peppered its hull with deck cannons, capsizing a cutter as it ran the poor vessel over. It began to weave through the fleet at high speed, dropping large orbs with blinking red lights behind it. Any vessels that came too near one of these aquatic mines simply erupted, splashing the bay with fire and thick black smoke. The smaller LCACs engaged as well, with gunfire and tank blasts causing chaos and damage among the Pirates less maneuverable fleet. Explosions continuously rocked the bay, as vehicles from one side or the other would succumb to the damage being dished out.

  In the clouds above the skyscrapers to the north, the remaining Sabre jets fought a desperate retreat, smoke and flames trailing from all of them as they fled a combined swarm of Tomcats and MiGs. The combined Ursa and GoonStorm fight jet fleets had lain in wait and devastated the Pirates less agile fighters. Only one made it to the deck of The Broadsider, skidding to a stop with thick black smoke pouring from its engine. The Pirates began to turn and retreat from the bay, the swarm of vehicles too much for their fleet to handle, more of the support ships sinking. Only a single cruiser remained, and it swerved and dodged the aquatic mines as it left the larger ships behind.

  The Broadsider began to pour black smoke as fires broke out on deck. The Red Smear leaned in behind it to provide cover, but the Zubr was too quick and dodged the battleship, moving out in front of the Broadsider and beginning to lay mines directly in front of it. The carrier simply could not dodge the onslaught and struck three of the mines before it began to sink with a shuddering moan audible across the entire bay. Cheers rose from the ranks of the GoonStorm and Ursa army on the coast, most of them now just watching the aquatic battle.

  Using the smoking wreck of the Broadsider as cover, The Black Death poured on a burst of speed and burst through the clouds of oily smoke directly behind the Zubr. The vessels collided as a mine went off between them, sending a spray of water up into the air as The Black Death’s massive spike skewered the Zubrs hovercraft engine in a scream of twisting metal and became firmly stuck. It was the battleships last act, as both craft began to sink as fires broke out.

  The bay was an abattoir of sinking ships and blasted out hulls. Hovercraft and warships were scattered around below the waters, bubbles and smoke still rising lazily from the surface. The Pirates were in full retreat, their most powerful asset in ruins as a mere handful of their ships escaped. The devastation they had caused to the gathered army on shore was extreme but would not be enough to secure the city.

  “Like I said, we lose.” Gadot shook her head as she sat down heavily next to Jimmy, wrapping an arm loosely around his back.

  Kurt lifted his phone to check a recent text. It was from Jimbo. “The buyout is being held at a Hub, with both GoonStorm and Ursa forces protecting it until handoff tomorrow morning. I have our in, but it has to happen right before the handoff. I’ll let you know when, be ready.”

  His eyebrow raised. “Maybe not…”

  Another update for the readers

  So yeah, once again this chapter proves illusive to pin down in any kind of quick way. I did make some decent progress this week, I just didnt make anywhere near enough to post, and what I’ve got just doesnt end in a thematically satisfying place. I’m going out of town next week as well, on a mini vacation. (My first in literally 8 years, I’m so excited. All I’m doing is going to an impressively sized bookstore, but it sounds like exactly my kind of fun.) So there’s very little chance I’ll get a chapter up by next week either. For that lapse, I apologize. I do plan to try and get as much work done on it this weekend as I can, but I also work full time so that’ll be limited. Who knows, I might surprise us all, but I wanted to be really upfront and honest with you guys. I’ll reiterate that I am not abandoning this project, and I actually expect to have it done by the end of the month. Hopefully get it up on amazon by the end of
the year.

  As penance for my inability to meet deadlines, I have pulled out and dusted off a copy of something…truely horrendous. It’s this old writing project thing I did years ago, and I tried to be…(shudder) artsy with it. I mean, there’s a fun story in there somewhere, but it’s so bad. I’m posting it to kind of poke fun at myself, so feel free to check it out and join in the fun. Also, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE artsy, thats why I tried to do it. But yeah…that just isnt a strong suit for me. Anyway, link below, come make fun of me.

  21. The War (B)

  The battle below them was most assuredly complete, with the majority of the Pirate’s fleet now rusting at the bottom of the bay as GoonStorm and the Ursa celebrated. Jimmy sighed and started moving back to the interior of the Hub, checking his phone as he went. He slipped on the roof slightly and righted himself, stopping at the ladder to scowl at the content his phone was producing.

  “The battle of Illusion bay, they’re calling it. The moment the Pirates lost the war for the city. That…sucks.” He was uncharacteristically somber, shaking his head again as he watched the comments pour in, confirming that the games community agreed with his assessment.

  “How can we help babe?” Gadot spoke in a small voice, stopping to stand beside Jimmy as Kurt climbed down the ladder first.

  “…I dunno. I feel like hurting some Goons though.” Jimmy leaned against her slightly, and she seemed reassured by the simple gesture.

  “Hurting Goons is always a good time, let’s go.” She smiled up at him, slipping onto the ladder. “I need to work on Eleanor anyway, I think I figured out my first tier upgrade.”

  Kurt scowled at that, drawing the Messenger and scanning it. The scan sheet spit out the usual information, but this time he saw a small counter in the bottom corner. It read: 3/25 and had only a single line of information as a hint. ‘Prostrate before it, they knew the message before it arrived.’

  He rubbed at an eye in frustration, his face scrunched up. “What the…what does that mean?!”

  “Hm?” Gadot slid down the last few rungs on the ladder and landed next to Kurt, eyeing The Messenger in his hand. “Oh, that’s your unique? That’s pretty sweet.”

  “Yeah, but I’m trying to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing to upgrade it.” He frowned at the scan. “It just says ‘Prostrate before it, they knew the message before it arrived.’ There’s a three out of twenty-five count, so I must have done it at some point…”

  “Well that’s just maddeningly unhelpful.” Jimmy delivered the line with the appropriate accent, making Kurt smile in spite of his less than pleasant mood.

  “Eh…not entirely.” Gadot said, clearly missing the film reference. “These things are typically pretty thematic to the item in question. So for example, I got Eleanor, from the Gone in Sixty Seconds remake. I’ve actually seen that one, so I know in the last big cop chase scene the main character drives the car without damaging her, but when he DOES, she stops working as well.” Gadot glanced at them briefly to make sure they were still listening before pulling up her phone. “I got a movie line from that scene as my riddle, so I figured that driving without collisions while the Heat was on me would trigger an upgrade. Turns out I was exactly correct, and that’s what’ll unlock my first rank. I need one hundred miles unscathed with at least a four bar Heat on me. Once I take collision damage, I get to keep what miles I made so far, but I need to get a fresh Heat to keep going.” She paused for a breath. “So! All we have to do is decipher your riddle.”

  Jimmy looked up at the open hatch above them with a grimace. “With a gun, it’s almost always linked to how you get kills.” He began climbing the ladder again, banging the hatch above them shut before descending in a slide. The ground shook heavily beneath him as he landed in a cloud of dust from the armor. “Hehe, oops.”

  “Yeah, that’s kills for sure.” Gadot glared down for a moment. “Did you get any when they knew you were about to kill them?”

  “Yeah plenty. More than three for sure.” Kurt cocked his head to the side. “Hang on…I got three really specific kills, where the player I killed knew exactly what was about to happen and couldn’t do anything about it.” He thought back to the terrified man in the hallway, then Molly right after him, and finally the poor bastard he had hidden with in the smoke-filled room. “Yeah, I think I got it. They have to know I’m about to kill them with the Messenger, but not be able to do anything about it.”

  “Well there you go, I solved it. Easy fix, you’re welcome.” Jimmy turned to face Gadot, cracking his armored knuckles in a cloud of dust. “Shall we away my darling?”

  She scowled at him for a second, looking back to her phone. “Don’t talk like that please, it’s super weird. But yes, let’s go kill some Goons.” Finished with her phone, she swiped it away. “What are you working on?”

  “Oh just Big Bore still. There’s a gun I’m after, pretty sure it’s tied to that, it shoots REALLY big boolets. I looked it up on the old web, there’s no way they didn’t put this one in.” Jimmy shouldered his BAR as they started walking away. He shouted over his weapon back at Kurt. “You should go kill some Goons too dude, we need to thin the herd if we’re gonna have a chance.”

  “Yeah I plan to. Hey, be around early tomorrow please!” Kurt watched them leave, still working on his plans for the night. Standing thoughtfully for a moment, Kurt narrowed his eyes and gazed into the doorway his friends had used.

  Tigg walked up beside him and crossed her arms, tilting her head at him slightly. “Assault course?”

  Kurt took a deep breath through his nose, turning away from her and moving to the couch. He pulled up his phone and swiped to his saved vehicle customization for the Testarossa. “No thanks Tigg. I’ll need Drake though.” Stopping his work with a small scowl, Kurt looked around the room searchingly, his eyes settling on the bronze coffee machine beside the bar. He stood with a smile and made himself a steaming cup. Sitting back down at the bar, Kurt continued working on his design, tilting his wrist to share it with Drake when the man arrived. They went back and forth for most of an hour, finally settling on a design that Drake assured Kurt would perform to his unconventional requests.

  “It won’t do it long, mind…that’s a lot of structural damage with each hit. But with those special modifications, it’ll do what you want from it.” Drake held up his black plastic phone and tilted it sideways, a small smile on his face. “Yeah, that’s an unusual request. Should I get started on it now?”

  “No, I have other stuff to do first, I’ll let you know.” Kurt paused, glancing at Drakes phone. “Hey, where can I get one of those?”

  Drake scowled in confusion for a moment, looking at the phone in his palm. “Ask your attaché, I just do the garage work.” With that he left, muttering under his breath.

  Watching him go, Kurt smiled wryly before taking the grouchy NPCs advice. He texted his attaché about getting him a plastic phone and adding the looper consumable to his normal shopping list and set a waypoint to his safehouse. He noted with some slight frustration that his armor had been dropped off at his safehouse instead of the hub where his respawn was set to. Shaking his head, Kurt decided to check the spawn and drop off points options later and went out to his car.

  As he drove through the city, he did his utmost to avoid the GoonStorm patrols and constant Heat everywhere. He noticed in certain areas that the red and blue lights of the Heat were attached to military vehicles, indicating a ten bar in progress. Kurt avoided those zones in particular. The short drive ended up taking him roughly half an hour, way longer than usual. He was annoyed, and looking forward to disrupting GoonStorm activity, once equipped appropriately. Giving Leo a call, he had the quartermaster come to his safehouse, waiting for him impatiently while sipping coffee from the bar at the back of the train car.

  After a short wait, a pleasant chime sounded from his door and Kurt walked over to answer it, letting Leo wheel his cart inside. As the train rumbled to a start once more, Kurt and Leo sat down
and discussed what Kurt needed for the next day.

  “Upgrades.” Kurt sighed after saying the single word, sitting on his luxurious couch and sipping at his steaming mug, a relaxed look coming across his features.

  Leo’s eyebrows raised slightly as he tilted his head. “How wonderfully vague. Shall we attempt to clarify the subject a bit?”

  Kurt smiled, leaning forward and setting his mug down in the cupholder to his side. “Sure thing. I need my armor upgraded as much as possible. Ignore stealth, pile all the strength onto it you can.” He began to strip out of his gear, piling it up on the bench next to him. Once he was down to his standard white boxers, he opened his wardrobe and stood back as a fresh dummy slid out on its track. Loading his gear onto it, he spoke over his shoulder to Leo, who sat facing the other direction taking notes of his requests. “I’ll also need the most powerful pure damage rounds I can get for a .357 magnum.”

  Once his normal outfit was equipped onto the mannequin Kurt smiled and swiped up his phone to save it. The track activated, and the saved outfit slid back into the cabinet being replaced by a dummy wearing a full suit of GoonStorm apparel, complete with armor and helmet. Kurt began to get dressed, strapping the Messenger to his hip instead of trying to hide it. It felt awkward there, and Kurt immediately hated the heavy armored vest that came with the outfit, but he shrugged a few times to get used to the weight and turned back to Leo.