A low growl. More noise from the darkness that unfolded before us. There was a chewing sound in the distance, something that probably each of us found unnerving. A few more steps and we heard the sound of a heavy object being dragged through the dirt, scrapping against the spare pieces of wreckage and metal junk that littered what was once an underground cavern. Dust drifted upward as the five of us marched forward. I could feel the damp air hit my face: even with a respirator covering my nose and mouth I could still taste the copper that was collecting in the atmosphere. Gorge was the only one of us that didn’t have a breather on. I guess being mostly machine he didn’t quite need it but that didn’t stop him from pinching his nostrils time and again.
‘Are you sure about this?’ said Cass.
‘We’ve gone too far now,’ I said. The two of us were nestled between Gorge, who had taken the lead, and Kira who was shadowing us alongside the camera and Nel.
‘Lights off,’ said Cass, pointing towards a creature approaching us from the right. It looked like some kind of giant bear, only that parts of it were in different states of decomposition. We ducked behind what used to be some kind of metal cargo container. A small creature landed on my hand. It looked like a moth but its back end lit up, turning it into a lightning bug with a dim blue light. Fortunately, the glow did not seem to catch the bear’s attention but for some reason I felt hypnotized by it.
Voth
Level: 5
Hostile
The Voth bit me. I felt it attach itself to me and the moment I grunted in pain, the bear turned towards us. It felt like I stepped into a mound of fire ants. The burning, stinging sensation made me want to scream. Cass looked at me with her finger raised up over her lip. She saw the small creature attached to my hand and quickly struck it down. The Voth was gone but the pain lingered on. The bear was on the other side of the container moving closer to towards us.
Thorn
Level: 55
Nuetral
Quietly, we attempted to sneak by the creature as it turned away again and continued upward through the cargo container.
+5 Stealth
As we began to clear away from the area we heard a loud roar and saw the Thorn was being attacked by a horde of the vampire moths.
+10 Luck
It fled in the opposite direction to us.
We made our way to the next area and turned on our lights. Just as the pain in my hand was starting to subside, a large explosion erupted from nearby. The dark dungeon lit up around us and I saw a giant Arachnid come running in our direction. Gorge opened fire. The screeching the creature made my eardrums want to bleed. There was a small pile of rubble we ducked behind for cover. Kira landed a better shot than Gorge from behind as the Arachnid, level 30, spit acid towards us. The acid caught Gorge off guard. It was a toxic variant. Not just a normal Arachnid. Blood streamed down from his fingers and he opened his mouth as if he wanted to scream. There was nothing. Like he had put his vocal chords on mute. Despite the pain he must have felt, Gorge never let go of his weapons and fired again. This time a direct hit: right between the Arachnid’s eight eyes. Kira ducked back and fired again. So this is what it was like to watch two high level players battle. Her bullet slammed into the spider’s torso and it fell striking the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust as its HP reached zero.
Gorge ripped off a part of his shirt and covered his bleeding wound. ‘More than acid, I think that thing had poison.’
‘Are you going to be alright?’ asked Kira.
‘Nothing more than a scratch, I can’t get poison damaged so I’m just glad none of you got hit, guess that’s a part of the reason you let me volunteer to go first,’ Gorge was laughing now.
The game had taught us how to kill but that didn’t change the fact that any of it felt less horrifying. There was a rush, of course, when you felt your life on the line, but the feeling that you could lose someone you’d become close to never made it any easier. Each of us knew what was at stake now. Even Gorge had been filled in on the Whisper in the Void quest and the player deaths that had occurred. He had shrugged it off, as he’d always thought it was only a matter of time before real world deaths took place.
The Arachnid disappeared slowly, leaving nothing but a smudge across the ground and a small pile of loot in its wake. Having picked it up, Gorge insisted we moved on. Unfortunately, since I had missed when I had fired at the Arachnid, I gained 0 EXP from the encounter.
‘Hang tight,’ said Gorge. There was something moving ahead of us.
Gorge grabbed a small grenade from one of his side pockets. The grenade was only a few inches across and yet he threw it with force, screaming at us to get down. There was a flash of light as several dozen smaller, charging Arachnids disappeared into the mist.
‘What was that?’ I asked.
‘Dark matter grenade!’ Kira answered for Gorge.
‘Yeah,’ Gorge rubbed his hands together happily, ‘kind of a home-brew, made it myself. Used to do all kinds of experiments back in the Spire, you know, before my shop blew up.’
Dark matter grenades were dangerous. Unstable energy that could corrode state-of-the-art combat armour and even melt the hull of a Titan. Against organic matter they basically evaporated whatever they came in contact with.
‘Did you kill all of them?’ asked Cass.
‘Think so, looks like we stumbled across a nest,’ Gorge answered studying the web around us as Nel shone a light through the darkness. There was no sense in hiding our presence anymore. Any chance we had at sneaking around was lost.
‘Anymore useful tricks?’
‘I got lots of those,’ Gorge shook his head and pulled out a piece of jerky from his satchel, taking a bite and offering another to the rest of us. Like Cass and Kira, I declined.
‘I got a chocolate bar too if anyone is interested,’ he said.
Kira narrowed her eyes, ‘you should have brought more grenades.’
With a laugh, Gorge threw her the chocolate bar. Kira managed a brief smile before taking a bite. Like the rest of us, she was probably wondering how many more surprises he had hidden away.
Lights flashed above us.
Several small plants had begun to glow with a pale amber hue.
‘Save your batteries Nel,’ I commanded.
‘I don’t run on batteries, I run on nuclear fusion thank you,’ Nel responded. I turned towards the others and we began moving forward. I didn’t waste time arguing with Nel, she knew I was joking.
The bioluminescent plants shined like fluorescent lights through the tunnels. We could see several paths ahead of us just past what remained of the Arachnids nest. We took the path to the left and found ourselves traveling through what looked like more of the starship.
‘This part must have hit the ground first, the fore side of the transport,’ said Kira as we wandered into another large dark room.
‘Nel shine your light again,’ I said.
‘So bossy,’ Nel replied, lighting up the environment. It was a stasis chamber.
Cass lowered her rifle. ‘A room with a thousand lost thrones.’
‘Yeah, think any of the NPCs are still alive? Maybe they could help us?’ said Gorge.
‘Most likely they’ll turn into aberrants or raiders and try to chew our heads off,’ said Kira.
Gorge looked over at her and shook his ahead. ‘That’s comforting.’
We stepped forward and investigated what looked like a terminal in the centre of the room. After touching the analogue screen the terminal flickered to life with a username and passcode required.
HACK
30% Chance Success
I stepped back and let Kira take a crack at it. Her chance for a successful hack was 80% and after about thirty seconds we were in.
Terminal - 4
Statis Pods Active - 104
Stasis Pods Inactive - 896
Open Stasis Pods - Yes / No
‘Can you tell us anything more about the transport ship?’ I asked.
‘Well the world is watching,’ I replied pointing towards the camera following Kira’s every move. Suddenly, she seemed just as annoyed by it as I had been earlier. The drone stayed out of the way for the most part, but it was still weird to think that people were watching our every move. It made making decisions like this seem fatal in a way…like watching a horror movie and yelling at the screen when someone hears a noise and must investigate. Fortunately, we could at least say that investigating mysteries was a part of our job. Exploring the unknown and all that.
Meer is dead. After his parley with the Chel on neutral ground he was betrayed and ambushed. The bastards murdered him in cold blood. All we ever wanted was our freedom. The chance to set out on our own without their guidance and intervention. We’ve been destined for something more since we came through the world gate, but they insist that we learn from this. That Meer’s death was inevitable and that they themselves had nothing to do with it. They sit safe in their tower on their thrones…the last of their kind and yet no one questions why. Why did their empire fall? We deserve answers. How could they justify the genocide of millions of worlds and yet welcome us to their most spiritual place in the Spire. None of it matters now. The Leviathan is on the move and we launch at dawn. We are fleeing their tyrannical empire and going our own way along with six others. They won’t know who to chase first and to make sure they don’t come at us with everything they’ve got we’ve taken one of their own. I’d never even seen a real Chel before last night but having now seen one in person I’m not surprised by how they have been treating us. We’ve locked the prisoner in a stasis pod on the fore most part of the ship. Should they come after us we’ll execute her.
It won’t be long now. We’ll take back the stars.
Adam Asher, Captain
Several of the pods started to open.
‘I hit NO, dammit, I HIT NO,’ shouted Kira, banging her fist against the terminal. Gorge pulled her back and blasted it.
‘Hard luck.’ Gorge grimaced.
‘Probably a safety built into the system in case someone hacked it, if nothing was wrong they could all just go back to bed,’ said Cass.
‘OK, what now?’ I asked.
The four of us stood back to back, looking around at the open stasis pods around us. We could hear the metal pods grind as several of the chambers were stuck. Above us, we could also hear what sounded like an animal screaming. The humans in the pods weren’t human anymore.
‘The quantum radiation mutated them,’ said Cass. As one of the creatures approached us, I got a quick scan of it.
Aberration
Level: 45
Hostile
‘I thought you said this dungeon was going to be level forty-two?’ I yelled, firing at the abomination. The creature looked humanoid, only it had multiple elongated limbs similar to an Arachnid, along with a tail that looked similar to the rats we saw running down towards the core earlier. The Aberration was still wearing an old Remnant officer uniform. I could only imagine how difficult it would be to defend against any that were wearing combat gear. Luckily, thanks to Gorge and Kira these ex-crew members would never get the chance to put on armour. Cass and I got about 100 EXP in assists as the two high level players lit up the battlefield around us, firing at the Aberrations on the ground and also at in the pods opening above us. For a moment it felt like we were drowning in the bodies of the awakened dead but we were running. Running forward through the halls of the stasis chamber as the doors around us continued to open, until finally we found a room with a hatch and we closed ourselves in.
‘I said I think this is going to be a level forty-two dungeon,’ Kira was panting, her rapid breaths visible in the ins and outs of her spandex torso. I felt my own heart beating inside my chest. I wanted to log out. I was surprised the game had continued to let me play this long. If I had to guess, I would bet Lady Gray had overridden several of my safety protocols for the sake of the viewing figures. This unique adventure must be attracting thousands.
‘I can deal with Hollows, Wraiths and rats but what the hell was that?’ shouted Cass.
‘Aberrations, mutated human corpses. Hybrids of man and whatever else lives down here,’ answered Gorge. He was eating yet another piece of beef jerky when Kira gave him a sideways glance.
‘Rare creatures, usually they are fully formed monsters by the time most players dive into dungeons. Right now they still look human,’ Kira added.
We could hear them banging against the metal door.
‘Can they break through?’ I asked.
‘No, that door should hold, they aren’t as driven as the Hollows and will probably give up pretty easily. Most likely, they will start wandering the ship or killing one another until only a few of the stronger ones remain.’
‘Another terminal up ahead, want to take a look inside?’ said Cass.
HACK
70% Chance Success
It took me twenty-nine seconds to override the terminal. I knew Kira could have done it faster, but I appreciated the +10 XP she let me earn.
Terminal - 7
Statis Pods Active - 1
Stasis Pods Deactive - 0
Open Stasis Pods - Unavailable
‘Do you think that is the Chel they were talking about having taken?’
‘What else could it be?’ Kira stepped in and began decoding the log.
There is a god among us, living in silence aboard the Leviathan. They told me what happened to Meer but I just can’t believe it. He never would have agreed to this…Asher is an insane idealist. He really believes we can find Earth again. It’s been years and the world gate above the Spire only goes one way. Even with the new STL drives it will take centuries to map all of the known quadrants. What does it matter anyway? Earth was dying, by the time find what is left, it will be nothing but a wasteland. What Asher doesn’t know can’t hurt him…I know she can still hear them. They whisper in her ear, in her dreams. Upon her return to the material world she will have her vengeance upon us. Forgive me, for I must forsake my oath. I must make it so that can never happen. If we can’t find Earth in a hundred years I’ll have no choice. I’ll make sure we land on a habitable planet and that the god never wakes again.
- Adrian Parker, First Class Medical Officer.
‘That was brutal,’ I said staring at Kira.
‘What do you say we go have a look, I’ve never actually seen a Chel. Those rare times when they meet with players, they do so as glowing avatars,’ Kira motioned towards a door with a blood splatter on it.
The door looked like it had been welded shut but that didn’t stop Nel from finding a quick way in. Once Nel finished cutting open the door, we stepped inside and found another terminal beside a massive stasis pod that must have been twenty meters across and ten feet high. The stasis pod looked like a shark tank the way it was designed: it was slightly curved out from the wall and there was some kind of vibration filling the inside the room. The inside of the pod was covered by some kind of pitch black metal plating.
‘Backup power generator,’ said Gorge putting his hand against the covered glass before pointing towards another terminal.
HACK
80% Chance Success
I stepped up and again had a successful hack but nothing appeared on screen. Only a line of code I couldn’t decipher. I let Kira try to make sense of it.
Terminal - 8
Before the collapse, my people were hungry and defiant and quickly we turned on one another, Meer promised us food and drink, he promised us a future and for many that was enough. When he asked we follow him I was one of the few to raise my hand and take up arms against the ones who had promised us their empire. As we prepared for war with the eternals we found ourselves trappe
d. Humanity had divided. The gods had abandoned us and cast us aside. We showed them. We rose from the ashes of a lost rebellion and took one of their own. Turns out I was wrong. The Chel were no different than us. Biologically they were more like us than we wanted to believe. They could mimic the human form, our emotions. The young woman we kept prisoner. Frozen in sadness. She was just like us now, far from home. Far from all she ever knew and wanted. Her elders had taken us in and promised us the stars but when we learned the truth, that we had to earn it, that we had to build the gates ourselves and complete tasks for power we could just take, we turned on them. They were few and we numbered in the hundreds. What chance did they have? They had the immortal giants. The guardians slew hundreds before we finally ran and the rest of humanity bowed. They probably won’t even remember us. Doesn’t matter. I can see her crying sometimes. I know they are calling out to her even now, they want their child back…And that is never going to happen.
- Michel, Director of Operations.
After the log ended, Kira managed to decipher more of the terminal’s hidden code. There was a backdoor built into the computer system and it looked like Terminal 8 was the only way to access it. With a look over her shoulder, Kira questioned whether or not we should open it. Curiosity had the better of us. Even knowing it could be a trap or that there could be some kind of boss beyond the veil we nodded our heads. We had come this far as a team, we weren’t going to stop now. The Chel were hiding something. Humanity itself had a secret past that no one had spoken of before. Maybe whatever was behind the black iron covering wouldn’t give us answers, but it would give a form, a shape to at least one of the mysteries of Bane.
The metal plating began to slowly slide open. The floating camera turned away from Kira and I as we gazed upon the tank. We were about to show the world what a Chel really looked like. Only...
Star Divers- Dungeons of Bane Page 12