by Dan Thomas
“Jag’s good, but he’s not some government-level hacker,” Pez grumbled.
“Look, if you are too scared, I’ll do this alone. It’s not just ‘revenge in-game.’ Remember that we all take out money from our Crew to live on, if you all want to just go back to living off of minimum wage, be my guest, but I’m not ready to give up what we’ve built. Maybe I’ll just ask Battledude to come join me.” Sam had that fire in her eyes that Max was beginning to recognize when she got riled up.
“Don’t bring Sienna into this,” Chopsticks snapped.
“Then man up,” Sam told him bluntly.
“I’m still in,” Max watched his friends carefully. “I’ve spent too long working on this to quit now and it just kills me that there are Crews like the Ravagers out there taking advantage of everyone because they’ve managed to, I don’t know, find someone to sell them data or something.”
“You know this won’t make a difference?” Pez asked. “If we even manage to take out the Ravagers without them doxing us, I’m sure their sponsors, or whoever they’re wrapped up with, will just prop them back up again or find another Crew to pump money into.”
“So what?” Sam’s cheeks flushed red as she shrugged. “At least we’ll send a message that it is possible to take down a corrupt Crew.”
“Does anyone really care?” Pez had a point.
“I’m not doing this for the greater good,” Max replied. “I’m doing this for us. For everything we’ve lost to them, all the time, the effort, and the money that they’ve effectively stolen from us. If that isn’t worth enough for you guys to want to take them down, then I’m not sure we’re going anywhere as a Crew.”
“You don’t mean that, Max,” Chopsticks insisted as he shuffled in his seat.
“I do. I bet those Ravagers are going to enter the Terra Trials. And they don’t deserve to win by cheating, or because someone just kept throwing money at them,” Max said sternly.
“Okay.” Chopsticks nodded.
“You agree with him, too?” Pez asked.
“Yeah. Actually, yeah, I think I do. I always thought that the winners of those tournaments are supposed to be the best of the best players, who have worked hard to learn how to play the game and master it. The Ravagers just take advantage.” Chopsticks’ usual humorous demeanor had dropped.
“Pez?” Sam asked quietly.
Pez stared down at the crumbs on the table before looking back up. “What the hell,” Pez broke into a grin. “I can always change my name and move to another country.”
Chopsticks paled. “Should I tell my mom to start packing now?”
“Not yet.” Max grinned. “Let’s take them down.”
“And hope they never get back up.” Pez still didn’t look too sure, but at least they were in it together.
“That’s good to hear,” Sam smiled, before glancing down at her phone. “Right, I’ve gotta head off, I’ve got some work I need to finish for tomorrow. We all know what we’re doing then?”
There was a chorus of ‘yes’ from Max and the other two.
“Good. Talk to you guys later.” Sam’s face disappeared from the TV.
“I’ve got to go, too, gotta call Sienna,” Chopsticks’ face winked out of existence, leaving the Jabber chatroom empty.
Max and Pez sat in silence for a moment before Pez spoke. “Is Chopsticks making that stuff up? About players disappearing?”
Max leaned back into the sofa. “Originally, I thought it was just his dino watching group being quacks, but recently there’ve been a few conspiracy theory posts on the forums.”
“Really?” Pez looked at him. “I don’t keep up with the news. Surely, it’s just a coincidence, there’s no way that they can know.”
Max took a deep breath. “You’re probably right, it would be a huge story if someone leaked data from Terra Verse. I think I’ve got a post about it bookmarked, gimme a sec.” Max picked his phone up off of the table, pausing when he saw a notification appear on his screen.
“What is it?” Pez leaned over his shoulder.
“It’s ShadowHog,” Max tapped onto the notification, telling him that his profile for Murf on the Terra Verse forums had a message.
Hey, Murf!
Base just got raided, all good, awesome battle though.
Wall has been damaged, you around tomorrow to help fix? Striker is looking for people with decent Construction Traits, thought you might have some.
“I guess we’re not the only ones who have it out for the Ravagers then,” Pez smirked.
“Apparently not,” Max tapped the reply button. “Wait, this could be our chance.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah! If the walls are damaged, we should be able to take it down, either with the battering ram we just built or if we can get some explosives.” Max looked up to the ceiling, formulating a plan.
“They’re not going to hang around repairing it, although we aren’t in a position to attack just yet, and they’ll have rebuilt it by tomorrow by the sound of it,” Pez sighed. “If only we were ready.”
“We’ve got an inside man, though,” Max said. “I’ll tell ShadowHog I’ll be around to help tomorrow, and I’ll make sure that it’s the most painstakingly slow repair job ever.”
“Good idea, but don’t you have work tomorrow?” Pez raised an eyebrow.
Max waved his hand. “I’ll call in sick. But it’s your day off, right?”
Pez nodded. “Yeah, I was going to spend it training Abe and Lis some more. Why?”
“Okay, you remember where their mine is?” Max asked excitedly.
“Yeah, they don’t store any equipment there, though,” Pez frowned before it dawned on him. “But they do store stone there!”
Max clicked his fingers. “Bingo!”
Chapter Forty-Six
“Hey, Newbie,” Max called as Tero, the new Ravager recruit, headed toward the command tower in the center of the base.
“Yeah!” He turned around, wrench in hand.
“I heard they don’t need the wrench anymore.” Max leaned against the outside wall of the forge. He was waiting on ShadowHog, who was stacking the last of his quota of ingots in the storeroom when he saw Bullet57 approach the guy with the wrench and point to the tower.
“Really?” Tero looked disappointed as he eyed the tower.
“Yeah.” Max pushed himself off from the wall and approached the guy. In his peripheral vision, he could see Bullet hovering around the storeroom. Any minute now, he was going to come over and stick his beak in. The guy could not help himself.
“Not the wrench in the tower trick again?” ShadowHog joined Max as he reached the newbie.
“The wrench in the tower trick?” Tero asked.
“Yeah, Bullet thinks it’s funny to send every new recruit to the Crew over to the command tower.” ShadowHog turned to look at the tower. “Only the main Crew members are allowed in there.”
“So why did he send me?” The player was obviously not the brightest tool in the box.
“He likes getting the newbies in trouble,” ShadowHog continued to spill all the details. “Despite the ‘no-nonsense’ rule in place since Thursday, he’s still trolling.”
Max sighed and cast a sideways glance at Bullet57, who glared at them before turning back toward the farm area. He’d only planned to stop the newbie from going into the tower, not rat anyone out and cause drama. “Okay, we need to get going.” Max slapped ShadowHog on the shoulder.
“Ouch.” ShadowHog put his hand to his shoulder.
“Sorry, don’t know my own strength since I’ve gone up so many levels.” Max grinned.
“Murf used to have the job of shoveling shit,” ShadowHog started to explain.
“Now I’m on the building team and I have a job to do.” He took a couple of steps away. “Coming.” ShadowHog trotted after him.
They headed for the western lookout tower. Even from the ground, it looked as though it was in rough shape. The top of the tower and the walls that wou
ld normally act as cover for someone standing on the walkway were completely missing.
“So, what happened again?” Max asked as they strode across the base.
“Oh, Murf, you should have seen it. There was gunfire, there were dinos, it was something else.” ShadowHog sighed from the memory.
Max cracked a smile at his friend’s excitement. “I wish I had, but it seems I didn’t, I’ll need you to tell me.”
“Oh, yeah, so, the Viper Crew tried to raid us, they came at the base from the west with a ballista on a sled, that they pulled with an Edmontonia. They also brought a big pack of Deinonychus and a few Carnotaurs which they rode. They were really something else! They set up at the bottom of the hill, obviously, they couldn’t get past the rocks, and started shooting up at the wall. Mamba, and Krak, one of the newbies, and I, were up there firing back at them—I got a few nice hits in with my bow—while a load of the others ran down to guard the gates.” ShadowHog paused to breathe as they reached the tower.
Max frowned. “Wait, why didn’t you just ride out on our Carnotaurs and the raptors? If someone went out on the Utahraptors with the Deinonychus, you’d have been able to take out the ballista while our Carnotaurs and the Majungatholus kept everything else at bay.”
ShadowHog waved his finger at him. “Ah, just give me a second and I’ll get to that. So, there we were, firing shots back and forth, I was sure that they were going to get through the wall when all of a sudden Remington came charging out of the jungle from behind them riding the Majungatholus! He took them by surprise, and while they were dealing with him, Maeve and Striker took the Carnotaurs out in front and drove them all off! The wreckage of the ballista is still outside, though a little charred from the fire arrows we were shooting at it.”
Max raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t been expecting the Ravagers to just sit in their base and wait for another Crew member to come to the rescue. “That was lucky that Remington was outside of the base and close enough to make it back in time.”
“Well, that’s the thing,” ShadowHog glanced over his shoulder and lowered his voice. “I was sure that I saw Remington in the base, like, twenty minutes before, and I thought that the Majungatholus was still in the stable. I might have seen him heading for the command tower...but who knows? Everything was happening so fast I might be mistaken.”
“Really?” Max looked over as ShadowHog nodded eagerly.
“Yeah. I’ve heard a couple of the others talking about how the core Crew managed to get in and out of the base so quickly. I think they’ve got teleporters or portals in and out of the base.”
Max looked at him skeptically. “I don’t think that even the Ravagers would have the resources to keep a teleporter running or a portal open on this world.” Max was pretty sure that the explanation was a lot simpler and involved all of the doors he saw underneath the command tower.
ShadowHog shrugged. “Just speculation. Anyways, we better get on with the job.”
Max opened the door and stepped inside. Whereas the other tower had been mostly dim within, this one was well lit from sunlight streaming in from chunks of the outside wall missing from higher up.
“That’s worse than I thought it would be,” Max said as he and ShadowHog looked up from the door.
They began to climb the circling stairs up to the top of the tower, having to jump a small gap from where a few steps had collapsed from the damage. Max led the way, opening the hatch at the top and climbing up onto the wooden platform that crowned the tower.
“Oof, that’s not great,” ShadowHog said from behind him.
“Hm,” Max nodded as he stepped toward the edge. The barrier that would normally be built on top of the tower and wall was missing. Peering over the edge, he could see a pile of rubble around the base of the wall. Part of the walkway to his right had also collapsed but must have been cleared away.
“They were close to getting in,” Max muttered to himself. He had to fight to keep the smile off of his face. This was the opening Max had been looking for. The Viper Crew might have just paved the way for the Coprolite Crew’s imminent attack. But there still had to be a way to use the attack to their advantage. The wall wasn’t going to fall on its own any time soon, but it was a weak point.
ShadowHog joined him at the edge. “Are we going to have to build a scaffold?”
Max nodded. “Yeah, looks like it. It’s not going to be a quick job. I have to assess what we need and check with stores to see if there are enough supplies to fix this.” He looked down to the base of the hill. Just on the other side of the boulders was a pile of burnt wood that vaguely resembled a siege weapon. Even from here, he could see the bloodstained grass. He turned his eyes up to the jungle in the distance.
“I’ll come with you.” ShadowHog trotted along by the side of Max. The guy was buzzing about the attack and talk of conspiracies.
They headed back down the tower, moving as quickly as they could over the groaning stairs that threatened to collapse underneath them.
“Man, I wish things like that happened more often,” ShadowHog sighed as they exited the tower.
“You need to chill, man,” Max told him as they walked toward the storehouse.
“What do you mean?” ShadowHog asked. “This is the most fun I’ve had for weeks. When I came to join the Ravagers, I didn’t expect to be smelting iron ingots every day. It gets boring.”
“There’s a lot of stuff on Primeva that gets boring,” Max replied. “But you just have to do it.”
“Yeah, I get that.” ShadowHog followed Max across the grass.
“So just play it cool,” Max warned. “You don’t want to seem too excited about an attack on the base, right?”
“Oh!” ShadowHog had a lightbulb moment. “Oh.”
Once at the long stone building, they both stepped inside through the smaller side entrance, Max leaving his friend by the door. He was never going to complain at another chance to check out the storehouse and see how the Ravagers’ resources fluctuated.
Inside the storehouse was fairly bright, lit by Illumine Crystals that had only been replaced a week ago. Max walked past the pallets of stacked iron ingots, the sacks of grain and vegetables, barrels of arrows and spears, mentally cataloging the resources he could see while he had the chance.
He soon came to the pallets of stone blocks. There were two small piles of rock next to each other.
“Nowhere near enough,” Max said to himself with a smirk. Max had taken the gamble that the Ravagers hadn’t stockpiled any more stone from the last time he had been in the storehouse, and it looked as though that gamble had paid off.
He weaved his way in between the various other stacks of mortar bags and other resources, checking for more stone and taking the opportunity to look through as much of the storehouse as possible. When he couldn’t find any more, he headed back toward the door and the sound of voices. ShadowHog wasn’t alone anymore.
As he stepped around a crate of charcoal, he saw that ShadowHog stood awkwardly in between Suzaro, one of the core Ravagers he hadn’t seen in months, and an unfamiliar face.
“Casing the joint?” Suzaro asked as she looked at him.
ShadowHog for once had decided to keep his mouth shut. Max wasn’t sure if ShadowHog was in fact chilling, or if he was too nervous to speak in the presence of girls.
Max smothered a smile and straightened his back. He had nothing to hide. “I was checking out the supplies. We don’t have enough stone to fix the wall.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” the unfamiliar woman said caustically.
“Do we have more coming in today?” Max asked.
“Do we have more coming in today, Suzaro?” the strange Ravager asked sardonically.
“We did,” Suzaro replied. “But someone’s been up at the mine. And all the stone we’d mined, ready for carting down to the base, has been trampled.” She leaned toward Max. “Crushed to dust.”
“Wow. That sucks,” Max said, deadpan. “Someone must have left the gate open
.”
Suzaro nodded slowly. “Sure. Or maybe it’s the fence that’s been knocked down that’s let all the dinos in that hate neatly stacked building materials. What do you think, Maeve?”
“I think someone’s fucking with us. And if I were to guess who, I’d say it was those Vipers that we sent packing the other day,” Maeve spat.
Suzaro stepped away from ShadowHog. “I’d put money on it. And so, you two are going to go and dig out a load more stone so you can patch up that wall before they come back for round two. And fix up that fence while you’re there.”
Max glanced at ShadowHog, who was standing stiff as a board. “Why can’t Remington do it? He normally manages our mining. I could make a start with what we’ve got here.”
“Remington isn’t online today,” Maeve said. “And everyone else has other jobs, so you two get the joy of smashing rocks.”
“Hop to it, boys,” Suzaro said with a wave of her hand as they both headed out into the sun.
ShadowHog visibly slumped when they left.
“Well, I guess that’s our plan for the day figured out,” Max said. He had been hoping the Ravagers kept backup supplies in the vault so that he had an excuse to go in there. But from what ShadowHog was saying, there might be secret entrances into the base, and he had just been handed an excuse to go outside to snoop.
ShadowHog smiled wryly. “Seems like it. At least we’re not stuck inside all day.”
“Always look on the bright side.” Max paused. “Is Maeve new? I haven’t seen her around before.”
“Uh, she joined a couple of months back. I don’t see her around much, though, but I think she’s Suzaro’s friend from somewhere.”
“Huh. Well, let’s get the Centrosaurus out, and load up some tools.” Max left ShadowHog to figure out the tools they’d need for quarrying, while he headed out of the storehouse to the stables.
Once inside, he beelined for the pen housing Saturn and Jupiter. He knew how their equipment worked, roughly how much they could carry, and that they performed well as beasts of burdens. At least that was Max’s reasoning aside from the fact that he just wanted to spend some time with them again.