Condition Evolution 2: A LitRPG / Gamelit Adventure

by Kevin Sinclair

  The Hixus sighed. “How about this? Quig,” he said impatiently, his voice still took on a strange keening sound when he said the shortened version of his name.

  “Okay. Let me try that. Quig,” I said, trying to replicate the sound he made.

  I received horrified looks from both Calegg and the Hixus and Ember burst out laughing.

  Calegg finally stepped in, “Don’t worry Qigufumasculis. I’ll ask for you when we return,” he said, matching the Hixus’ name sound for sound and receiving a grudging nod from the salesman.

  “Seriously Calegg, dude. You hung me out to dry there. Why didn't you step in earlier?”

  “I didn’t know you were about to massacre the shortened version of his name and offend his entire culture, Captain. Forgive me. I’ll try to predict your social inadequacies a little better in the future.”

  “Calegg, you can be a right wanker sometimes. Do you know that?”

  Ember continued to snigger. Calegg remained silent.

  “Sorry about that,” I said to the salesman. “Can I ask for whatever manuals you have on this baby and any operational info for us to work on until our funds come through.”

  He nodded coldly, clearly not quite over whatever offense I'd given, then led us to his office. He went to some filling units, pulling out leaflets, brochures, and other paperwork. He didn't ask us to sit so we remained standing.

  “Here is all of the information I hold on the ship, from specs to operational manuals. I have also included the purchasing papers so when you return we’ll be able to make this transaction as quickly and as painlessly as possible. I’m sure we both want you to be on your way with all haste,” the cheeky bastard said, as he handed over the stack of documents.

  “Until we meet again then,” I answered.

  We left the dealership armed with everything we would need, then headed back to our own little slice of dilapidation.

  For the next few days, Calegg and Elyek poured over everything we had brought and whatever else they could find about piloting the ship. Elyek proved their worth, showing us a kind of information search engine on the ship we already owned. It made me really miss the technology we had at home. I thought we must be able to get similar things to smartphones here, but when I asked Elyek what was available, the answer wasn’t encouraging. Apparently, because of the whole ‘thousands of different planets’ situation. Network providers couldn’t reach everywhere, so the quality of the information available was purely down to the specific planet, ranging from nothing, to very advanced… Go figure!

  We devised a list of everything we needed for the day, like comms and info screens. We showed our trust in Elyek by using the meager resources we had to buy all of these things outright. This included the second load of fuel that would be loaded straight on to the ship we hadn’t even bought yet. If Elyek couldn’t actually afford it, we were royally fucked.

  C16

  A Bountiful Escape

  Almost a couple of days passed, and Elyek’s and Calegg’s confidence in being able to manage the new ship was growing. Unfortunately, they didn't get all of the time they would have liked.

  Our comms alert went off, signaling an incoming message.

  “MC-8314-Fe. This is Captain Galduay of the Fast Knife. We’ve been employed to collect the prisoner, Elyek. You are in breach of contract by deviating from a direct course to Weka Four and remaining here for an extended period of time. If you hand over the criminal, you will be permitted to go free. Any resistance to this outcome will result in your lives being forfeit.”

  We didn’t answer immediately. “Shit. What are we going to do?” I said to our fledgling crew.

  “Kill them all!” Havok answered happily.

  “Hand me over. I don't want to be responsible for your deaths. You’ve been good friends to me in this short time and I do not wish to bring ill-luck upon you.”

  “Fuck that!” Ember said. “Do you think you can fly the new ship yet?”

  Calegg looked a little uncertain.

  Elyek did not, when they answered firmly, “We will be able to fly the ship.”

  “Then let’s get the fuck out of this shit bucket. They only know where this ship is, not us.”

  “Yeah. You’re right, Ember. Come on, everybody. Grab what you can and let's get out of here.”

  “Calegg, call a Magnecab straight away.”

  “Um, a Magnecab Shaun?”

  “Yeah, one of the taxis we used.”

  “Oh a Burser?”

  “For fuck sake Calegg! I don't know, just get us some bloody transport!”

  The Magnecab, yes, I’m sticking with my much better name, was waiting for us by the time we left the ship. I don’t know why, but it saddened me as we left it in the dock. It hurt to just the ship, but we didn’t have any choice. She was just too damned slow, too damaged, and too difficult to fly. Still, she’d make an excellent decoy. Her final service to us.

  Once we got out in front of the dealership, we made sure no one was looking and Elyek went invisible. It was the first time we had seen the power used and it was astonishing.

  Rushing into the building, Calegg went over to the first person he could see and asked for Qigufumasculis. We all started moving toward his office as well. Havok got some unusual looks, but no one made a move to stop us.

  “Ah. Welcome back. Are you ready to make the purchase now?”

  “Yes we are! We're also in a mad hurry. A new job has just come in with our payment and we need to leave immediately,” I said, stressing our haste.

  “Of course. The sooner I’ve sold this ship and never have to see you again, the better it will be for me too.”

  I let his jibe go. It suited us to not have friendly chit-chat anyway.

  He took our purchase paperwork and began reading it. “This is all in order,” he said, as he put it into a machine that I assumed would process it. “Now, as the captain, if I can just have your bio-scans to synchronize ownership.” He did the scan and, even though I felt nothing, I imagined I could and gave a little shiver.

  Finally, the Hixus said while still looking at his computer, “If you could place your account token on the reader, please.”

  At this point Elyek reappeared. The dealer didn’t see it, but looked mildly freaked out when he looked up from his computer screen to see a fourth person in the room.

  Elyek, nonplussed, leaned forward in a fluid movement, sweeping a small token that hung around their neck across the payment pad. I hadn’t noticed the token before, and saw that as soon as it settled back on Elyek’s chest, it disappeared. Pretty cool way to hide your stuff, I thought. We waited as the salesman turned his attention back to his computer screen. He finally looked up again, smiling smoothly.

  “There’s always something with these big purchases. Bear with me for a couple of minutes.” He soon disappeared. As I feared, it took longer than I would have liked and I started to sense he was stalling.

  “Something’s up,” I said.

  “No duh, Shaun!” Ember kindly replied.

  “Scan the ship with the info scan we bought, Calegg,” Elyek said. We all looked questioningly at them, then to Calegg, who did as asked.

  “Guegumar Star: Explorer class. 90432 space folding…”

  “Who’s the fucking owner?” Elyek snapped, uncharacteristically.

  “Ahhh… Owner: Captain Shaun Sutherland.”

  “Huh. Why’s it under my name already?”

  “The sale of the ship has gone through. This salesman must have seen something on my account. The point is, that this ship is ours. If we want to continue this adventure, I suggest we take it now. We officially own it and we’re already being hunted.”

  “Yeah. Let’s just take the fucker!” Calegg shouted quietly.

  “Don’t have to tell us twice. Let’s go get our baby and get the hell out of here.”

  We left the office and made our way to the show warehouse. Before we could get to the ship, the entrance to the warehouse erupted with armed
men.

  “On the ship. Now!” I shouted.

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Calegg replied.

  “Don’t mess about. Get the engines fired up. I’ll hold them off until you're ready to fly.”

  Around fifty armed-and-armored men had entered the building.

  “Stop right there!” shouted the leader.

  I had no intention of stopping right anywhere. “Come on, motherfuckers!” I shouted at the new arrivals, as the rest of the team ran onto the ship. Ember slowed with me.

  “Ember, go! I’ve got thi...” I paused as I pulled Havok from behind my back. “We've got this.” I smiled confidently.

  “I believe you, Shaun. I’ll give you the word to get back on the ship.”

  “Cool. Now, get into cover while Havok and I enjoy this little soiree.” I made it to the bottom of our new ship’s loading ramp, and waited, almost relishing the opportunity to use Havok in battle again.

  “Step away. We only want the bounty. Hand the criminal, Elyek, over and we will not harm anyone.”

  “Fuck you. You, fucking fuck!” I shouted back intelligently, and I got the reaction I was looking for.

  Laser fire started immediately, and I moved Havok up, mainly just to get him in position. He did most of the rest.

  He spun and blurred like lightning: I could barely keep my hands on the crazy bastard. We – he, deflected every shot. They were frustrated at the result of their attacks but didn’t let up one bit, moving forward as one. I had to move slowly backwards up the ramp to the doors as they had begun to circle around. It worked effectively: Now they could only get to me by coming up the ramp in threes and the width was restricted to four abreast.

  Once a few of them were on the ramp, I stopped my retreat and lunged forwards, with a huge sweep of Havok. Though I took a shot to the gut, by the time I finished the wild swing, four of my foes were slain, and Havok had already healed my wound.

  In amongst them, I killed en-masse. They didn’t stand a chance, and I couldn’t believe as many tried to gain the ship this way. They soon realized the certain death that waited. When the engines buzzed to life, they changed their tactics and decided to start firing on my beautiful new ship. I actually felt tears begin to well up. I couldn’t let them damage my new baby. I jumped from the ramp like a madman. As I was mid-leap I heard Ember scream:

  “We’re leaving, Shaun!”

  “One minute!” I yelled back. Havok and I went into overdrive amongst the enemy. It didn't take a minute before the last few of the attackers gave up on the Havok-Shaun, meat grinder. They had bolted away from us when I heard Ember screaming for me to run. Turning in her direction I noticed I’d gone quite far from the ship and it was lifting up from the ground.

  With no time to spare, I started sprinting towards it.

  Ember screamed again, “Jump!” From her position on the edge of the ship's ramp.

  I did as she asked without question, launching into the biggest jump I could manage. I was a far cry from being able to get anywhere near the leaving ship. I felt a bit ridiculous to be honest, until at the peak of my leap she caught hold of me with her telekinesis, bringing me all the way back into the opening of the ship. It was an unsettling feeling being levitated like that, but this wasn’t my first rodeo. I landed in a heap and was relieved to see Ember roll inside as the ramp began to close up.

  “Thanks for not leaving me behind,” I gasped, flat on the floor. My chest was heaving from the exertion of the last minute-and-a-half. “That was intense.”

  “Why did you fucking jump off, you idiot? We could’ve been away!” Ember said.

  “They were shooting at our new ship, the pricks. Thought we might be fucked if they hit an engine.”

  “Yeah. I was worried about that too. Good job! You killed forty-two of the bastards!”

  “We’re getting too good at this,” I said.

  I received a grim smile from Ember and a resounding, “Yes we are, partner!” from Havok.

  Once we’d recovered our wits, we got up from the floor and headed to the bridge to see how Elyek and Calegg were doing. I strolled through the new ship with Ember, feeling like a total boss. Another planet down.

  We found Calegg concentrating deeply, but looking quite calm. From the view out of the front-screen, it appeared we didn’t waste any time moving from the atmosphere like the missile we now were. I couldn’t feel any noticeable difference in speed. However, looking through the viewing screen, the difference was night and day.

  “It looks like we’re going to be okay,” Ember said, leaning against my arm.

  “Onto the next adventure. I’m glad we’re not being chased. It’ll give us more time to work out how to use the folding drive properly,

  Calegg said, happily. Elyek was over the terminal that controlled the folding drive.

  “Now that I’ve had the chance to look, it seems straightforward enough. There is a long recharge rate on it: Two whole days. Not to mention it takes fifteen minutes to warm up when you want to use it in the first place so it’s not going to be great if we're surprised and need a quick getaway. I suggest that we should just use the propulsion engines to get to Necrus and keep the folding drive in reserve. I’ve a feeling we’ll definitely need to use it to escape from there,” Elyek said. “Still, for now let’s enjoy our new ship. We’ve just over a day to prepare for the Juntos Bank.”

  “Good idea. I’ve been wanting to check the food synthesizers on this baby.”

  “Typical, Shaun. Just typical,” Ember laughed.

  “You saying you don’t?”

  Ember smirked back, “Well, maybe a little. Come on, Elyek, let’s go to the canteen. How about you, Calegg?”

  “No way am I leaving the bridge yet,” he said, and hugged his flight terminal. “Would one of you mind bringing me something meaty back.”

  “Sure thing, pal,” I said.

  Our new food synthesizer was awesome. Much better even than the synthesizing unit on the Thoth, which only provided nutritious, tasteless, sensible food options. This gave you the opportunity to create, mix, and match. I had entered some information on a chocolate cake and was about to create it when Ember kindly reminded me.

  “Remember the three C’s, Shaun.”

  I growled and ordered a chicken salad instead, then sat down at a table in the canteen. I looked up as Ember came over to the table to see what she had ordered. It was a warm gooey slice of chocolate cake. I stared at her in disbelief. I was nearly brought to tears when Elyek came over with the same chocolate cake. In the end, I had to laugh.

  “Are you in on this, too?” I asked Elyek.

  “In on what, Shaun?”

  “Chocolate cake,” I said, sulking.

  “I don’t even know what it is. I just smelt Ember’s option and it was amazing, so I copied her,” Elyek said, raising a full fork to their mouth.

  “Oh my god. That’s the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. Shaun, why did you get leaves when you could have this?”

  “Once upon a time, this strapping hunk had far too much food like this. Now, he avoids the three C’s altogether,” Ember added helpfully.

  “What are these three C’s?” Elyek asked with a confused expression.

  “Cake,” Ember pointed to her plate, “cookies, and crisps, all delicious, all moreish. I’ll introduce you to them all. However, you can only eat them in moderation. An important lesson that Shaun never learned.”

  “There were extenuating circumstances, but I’ve bloody well learnt it now,” I said, sulking. I finished my chicken salad quickly, not wanting to sit with the two pieces of cake any longer.

  “I’m going to take something for Calegg. I’ll see you both back on the bridge in a bit.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Ember saluted and chuckled.

  “How’s it going, Calegg? I’ve brought you a chicken salad, the same as I had. It actually tastes really good. Is that okay?

  “Yeah, sure. That’s fine, I’m not really hungry. I’m just so exci
ted.” He took the plate and sat in the chair at the pilot’s station. “This baby really flies like a dream.”

  “That’s good, huh?”

  “Well, I don’t have huge amounts of experience. Nevertheless, from what I know, this is amazing. We really need to give her a name.”

  “Yeah, sure. Anything in mind?”

  “Not at all. You’re the captain. You should choose.”

  “Well, do you have any ideas? I’m pretty shit at naming things. It was over three weeks before I was named Havok.”

  “We should ask these two, anyway.” He indicated to Ember and Elyek with his fork as they walked back on to the bridge.

  “Hey!” I said. “Calegg made a valid point. We need a name for the ship.”

  “Yes. It’s bad luck to not name a ship,” Elyek said.

  “So, what have we got so far?” Ember asked.

  “Nothing at all,” I smiled. “What about Revenge? We can get revenge on all these assholes who keep trying to step on the little guy.”

  “I don’t really want to fly around on a ship called ‘Revenge’. It’s a bit...well, dickish,” Ember said.

  “How about Uprising?” Elyek said with a smile.

  Ember snapped her fingers, “I fucking love it. It keeps the sentiment of what Shaun said, but in a more positive light.”

  “I like it,” I said, and clapped Elyek on the back.

  “The Uprising! It’s beautiful!” Calegg damn near shouted.

  “While we’re all here, I want to go through the plan for Juntos Bank. I mean, we're going in blind. Does anyone know anything? How do we even prepare?”

  “Well, we really just have to play it by ear,” Elyek said. “One thing I can tell you is that the people of Necrus are the Mazltor. They, like the Hixcus, are among the top-five most powerful races in the empire. The Mazltor have markedly different castes within their race too: They have a warrior-caste named the Tri-bor, who will probably be guards in the bank. They are huge, seven-foot muscle-mountains, naturally violent, super resistant to damage, and completely resistant to fire. Their working class are the Im-bor, who are small, quite weak, and generally unthreatening. Their leader-caste, the Ang-bor are between seven and eight feet tall and physically imposing. Only, the main danger comes from their cunning minds. They’re a clever, manipulative race and we should try to tread carefully around them. They are not good enemies to make.”