Just trying to get a scan on him was a dangerous thing.
‘You have us, let the refugees and other players go, end this siege,’ said Gorge.
‘As if. You think we’re going to let the Lady get away with what she did to us!’ Set was shouting. The second figure, Ra, put his hand up and at once the smoke seemed to begin to clear away and several soldiers that were firing on the refugees from behind the smoke stopped. The fighters above seemed to stop as well. Angrily, Set turned to Ra and snapped, ‘what the hell? We aren’t actually going to listen to them are we?’
The second figure didn’t say a word that we could hear. Instead, he communicated with Set and the others by some other means, a private channel or even text. Bane had built in several workarounds for access to allow players with disabilities to immerse themselves inside the game, including a link that allowed players that were deaf or mute to communicate via text.
With Ra’s hands being replaced by canons, we weren’t able to see if he was actually moving his fingers or not.
‘Ra asks that you, the one named Breq join us, become a member of the Crimson Kings and all your sins will be forgiven and together we will share with you the secrets that will allow you to cross into the cold,’ Set said as though reading, then, in his more natural voice added, ‘cross into the cold? What does that mean?’
I knew exactly what Ra meant but I wasn’t going to take his deal. The last thing I was willing to do was abandon my family. ‘No.’
‘Fine, not the game I wanted to play but we’ll do things your way,’ smiled Set, ‘looks like the boss wants to take both of you alive back to the Spire, collect the bounties on your head. Your lady up there in the sky: looks like she’s in for one hell of a nasty surprise,’ Set might well have been laughing as he pointed upwards towards the sky.
‘No, that can’t be possible,’ said Gorge.
I was shaking. ‘What? What’s not possible?’
‘The Wave Maker is falling,’ said Gorge.
‘That can’t happen? They can’t take out a Titan?’
‘Three against one; the Crimson Kings have brought everything to this siege, sacrificed an entire Titan against the guardian and now have two more colliding into your boss’s ship,’ Gorge shook his head in disbelief. Cass was standing behind us now, while Kira, holding Chaz, who was still recovering, was holding him up against he limped towards us.
‘Disarm yourselves now or logout,’ Set ordered.
‘Perhaps we can compromise; maybe take a few pictures; make amends,’ I heard Nel’s voice from behind us. Although Nel was an AI and a part of our team, this intervention and attempt to speak for us all was unprecedented. Something strange was going on. ‘I believe that if we all become friends we can do wondrous things,’ Nel continued floating towards the front of the line. Set and Ra were standing on higher ground than us.
‘Stand down robot,’ said Set.
‘I don’t actually stand, think of the adventures we could have: the Corpse Divers and the Crimson Kings…we could be King Divers, all of the quadrants could be ours,’ Nel stopped just in front of us.
‘I said, stop talking,’ Set was getting angry. He lifted his finger, poised to order one of the mechs to fire on Nel.
I wanted to scream. The Crimson Kings were no better than Lady Gray: carelessly decimating another planet along with innocent players and NPCs.
Nel’s somewhat mocking voice continued, ‘it could be so easy.’
None of us logged out or disarmed.
‘Doesn’t look like they are taking this seriously,’ Set said, looking across at Ra, ‘should I show them how serious we are?’ Set was smiling again as he took out a small knife from behind his back and began to cut his arm. With his arm bleeding, he scattered drops of his blood on the ground in front of us. Hands, just like the nanites from the dungeon, began to emerge from the ground. We stood back and readied our weapons. Kira, still holding Chaz, moved away, taking cover near some of the soldering wreckage from the Dauntless.
‘I tried doing this the easy way,’ Set said.
A creature that looked like a sabre-tooth tiger, made of metal and black bio-organic fluid began to take shape. Set was a tech-mage and his blood must have been infused with nano-machines…nano-machines he was using to create the mechanical golem that now stood in front of us.
‘Nice kitty,’ said Nel unperturbed, ‘remember it is not too late.’
The creature roared but waited for Set’s command.
‘Interesting, why don’t they shoot us?’ muttered Gorge, looking towards me.
‘Capture,’ Set said to the creature.
‘Never mind,’ Gorge’s question had been answered, as Set marked Gorge, Kira and myself with his finger.
‘Kill the rest,’ Set was pointing towards Cass and the other players, including Chaz, that surrounded us.
‘Can we take it?’ I asked.
King Golem
Level: 30
Hostile
‘Sure; it’s not all his strength. He’s probably just baiting us again,’ said Gorge.
‘Very well,’ I replied. Set could only conjure creatures half his level. He had shown us a weakness. Plus I knew we weren’t alone. Kilo squad might have all been killed but for sure there was a second team in play. Like the Crimson Kings, the Corpse Divers weren’t so hasty as to come unprepared. By rambling on about making peace, Nel had been buying us time.
‘Now would be a good time to get down,’ Nel said turning towards us.
From several hundred yards behind us, Shiru fired a shot at the tiger, just as we ducked our heads down out of the way.
The golem’s health fell about a quarter of the way down. Shiru was firing with bullets strong enough to tear through a small fighter. These might have cost a fortune to buy or craft, but there was no better time to use them than now. Echo-1 were behind us, watching the whole thing, waiting for the right moment to strike. As the smoke continued to clear, it became evident the Kings were surrounded.
‘Damnit,’ said Set ruefully.
Gorge almost broke out laughing. ‘Didn’t you know?’
Set looked at Ra. ‘Can we kill them all now?’ he asked.
Now it was Ra’s turn to looked at Set and back over to us. The three mechs that Ra had earlier ordered to stop firing turned their guns towards us.
‘Give up now and we won’t kill your characters,’ Aiden’s voice echoed around us.
‘More blood for our brothers,’ Set said, motioning for the mechs to fire. At that moment three shots ripped through the smoke and air around us. All three mechs dropped. Pierce, Shiru, and Brand were with us too.
‘We aren’t alone and we don’t have to run,’ I said with relief.
Set looked over at Ra again, ‘please, I have this; we don’t have to go that far. This was supposed to be easy, we had them.’ He sounded like he was begging. ‘There is honour in dying like this,’ Ra answered, as one of his auto cannons turned into a hand reaching out and grabbing Set’s mask. He began squeezing it in his fist, killing Set and breaking the mask to pieces. The golem began to react as if it had been set on fire.
Name: Ra
Age: Unknown
Level: 90
Status: Alive
Class: Tech-Mage
Health: 250
Stamina: 300
Mana: 200
Load out: Unknown
I could see it. He had been hiding behind some kind of artefact. Both masks were artefacts. A master and an apprentice. Ra had killed Set and absorbed him into his own being. It was brutal. I bet even Gorge had never seen anything quite like it. We were up to three cameras again now and all of them turned towards Ra and the sabre-tooth tiger that was evolving to take a new form.
King Golem Type-II
Level: 60
Hostile
Shiru fired several more shots before jumping away as a Crimson attack ship flew down from the sky bombing his location. Shiru wasn’t dead but it would be awhile before he could re
load and fire again. For now, he had to avoid the attack ship. The rest of Echo-1 moved forward towards us, joining our fight against the King Golem Type-II. Even Nel had joined the fight alongside us, firing at the creature with a stun baton. As I fired at the creature alongside Gorge, Cass, and everyone else, I could feel the electricity through the air and the hair on the side of my arms stood up. Beside us stood dozens of refugees, those who had survived and had heard everything that was happening. Both players and NPCs joined the fight, as dozens of us fought to take down the creature in a battle that felt like it had turned into some kind of in-game event.
With hand gestures that commanded the golem like a puppet, Ra stood back. He had revealed himself completely now. His face was young with black hair. It seemed like he was blind in one eye and had been in an accident. A scar ran down across his neck, where it looked as if his throat had been slit. He moved his fingers quickly, giving commands to the Crimson King army that surrounded us. We had just barely survived their trap long enough to take back the advantage.
A Jocia Trader flew overhead. It was a courier starship. Attached to it was a cargo container that dropped about fifty yards away from us. We began to run towards it, hoping that it was some kind of gift from our allies. Our assumption was correct. The Jocian starship had been hired by none other than Naomi. On the side of the container was a note. ‘Thanks for naming your rifle after me, I hope this helps.’ Inside the container was a blue mech. The kind made for a peace-loving, electricity-wielding robot.
‘Nel can you interface with this?’ I called out.
‘No problem,’ Nel answered, flying towards the mech and integrating with it the same way that she would integrate with a starship. The mech’s head looked like a larger version of Nel, with a small thin torso and long arms and legs. Each hand had four fingers and attached to the back of the blue mech was a rifle. There was an auto-rifle alongside it as well. The mech stood about thirty feet high, with an eight foot rifle. There was a small battery pack attached to its back along with several other plugs and wires wrapped in cloth. Taking control of the mech, Nel immediately ran up to the golem, slamming it into the ground head first and firing into its torso, ripping it apart.
Naomi’s Grace
Medium Mech - Hybrid
A robust frame with a closed cockpit with four repulsors, two on the back of the legs and two on the shoulders along with two fusion jets attached to the back of the torso. This blue mech was custom designed in only a few hours. Commissioned and paid for by Moonrain Media.
Weight: 7 Tons (with a thick ballistic shell)
Health: 2000
Speed: 8
Agility: 5
Weapons: Primary - Large TX - 7 Auto Rifle (100 Damage 200 RPM)
Secondary - Large M7 - 3 Auto Canon (50 Damage 300 RPM)
Melee - Great Sword of Alet (300 Damage)
14.
Mercy
Quick Lore
When humans came through the first world gate and found themselves stranded at the Spire, the Chel didn’t approach them. Instead they waited for humanity to come to them. The first humans found they couldn’t interface with any of the Chel technology which was operated via a genetic code and so an expedition was led inside the lost chamber. The first dungeon. Inside the chamber the entire expedition team disappeared, however, soon after Chel technology was compatible with human genetics.
Even at level 60, the golem stood no chance against Nel and the rest of us. After five minutes of fighting, Ra stopped moving his fingers. Ra’s life force was being drawn into the machine, but that still wasn’t enough. The golem type-II stopped moving and began to dissolve as it tried to crawl away from Nel. After it dissipated completely there was silence and Nel turned her rifle towards Ra. Ra took off running.
I ran after him as quick as I could, rounding a large piece of debris to find him standing at the edge of the ruins of the Youthful Indiscretion.
‘It’s my turn now,’ he said, before running inside. I slung my rifle down at my side and took out my sword. I thought about firing but it seemed like a waste of ammo. This was over and all of us knew it. Ra was running for his life now. I soon caught up to him near the bridge. He vanished before my eyes as the blast of light appeared straight behind me. I was blinded for a moment. A stun grenade? No. It was a flare.
‘Awww, did that hurt?’ he mocked me, disappearing again. Despite the fact I couldn’t see him, his footsteps were echoing around me.
This wasn’t a chase. Not like I imagined. Ra was using implants. Some kind of stealth. Ghosting. Spectral armour? I picked up my rifle and tucked my sword away. I should have shot first. I turned back towards the hallways that led outside. Some intuition told me it would be better to go back then blast the wreckage from orbit.
I soon found myself drowning. Mud began pouring in from outside as the walls began caving in. The longest I had ever held my breath under water had been two minutes. My parents use to take me swimming at a local park. ‘It is good to get out,’ my father would say. I thought once I had set a world record. As the mud poured in now I held my breath for two and a half minutes before finding a pocket of air that led to another level above. Ra thought he could get rid of me. Something about the chase brought fury into my mind. I was filled with rage. I moved faster, knowing my life was in danger, that I could lose everything because of one simple mistake.
Finally, I reached a door. An armoury. My luck was failing me now. There was nowhere else he could have run. I opened the door and dropped down to my knee, firing several shots. If he was invisible, I would have to hope I hit him before he realised I had caught up.
‘I FOUND YOU,’ I shouted. Ra was standing in the corner of the room. He moved towards me. His mouth gasping. Everything went red. All around me I saw images of Damien. Ra’s body was wet and I could sense the cold coming off of him. Behind him several more creatures appeared from pools of black goo. He was summoning wolves from the pools. Then Ra looked like he was coming at me from every direction, that he was filling the room. Damien; wolves; darkness. I felt like I was losing my mind. I screamed again and everything disappeared. Suddenly, I am face-to-face with a bizarre soul of decay and heat. Six crazed eyes stare at me with a terrifying grimace and another moan surges from its thin mouth, expressing unfathomable agony. Four thin horns adorn its head, which itself is almost bark-like. Chains wrap around it, as if to keep the creature contained; the creature seems to take pride in this, before taking a step forward, its two legs carrying firmly its infernal body with a sedated energy. The creature looks at me for what feels like hours, but as the seconds disappear it seems bored with my presence.
‘Mercy,’ Ra called out. We were standing back outside the wreckage of the starship. I had dragged him out, breaking his arm in the process. The only reason he hadn’t logged out yet was he was begging for his life. He must have set his pain receptors to their lowest point. Looking around I could see why Bane was a mature game. Why those too young to understand couldn’t play it.
‘Was there mercy for the refugees you killed? the NPCs? The players whose games you ended? What about the crew of the Youthful Indiscretion or Lady Gray and all of the crew aboard the Wave Maker? Was there mercy?’ I was screaming, but I managed to check myself and wait for Ra to give a response.
‘There was no honour in what you did to Orithyia: my home, my family has fallen apart, I offered you a chance to escape fate, to level up, the secrets of the game,’ Ra was pleading for his life. There were no secrets I couldn’t discover on my own but something he had said earlier had stayed with me. That he would help me ‘enter the cold’. Did he know what I was truly after? Did Kira talk to him? Or someone else at Moonrain Media? I wanted to take Ra prisoner, to interrogate him. There had to be a way to find out what he knew.
I threw him down on the ground and stepped away. By the time Nel fired upon him, it was already too late to take him prisoner. Ra had logged out just seconds before abandoning his body and his years of investment in this
character. Mercy had been lost. Ra was dead. He would have to start over at level 1 just like thousands of others.
‘You are one wicked little bot,’ said Gorge, ‘that was brutal. Even for me as a spectator.’
The remaining Crimson Kings on the surface surrendered to the Ad Astra Exploration society. In space, the two Titans that were working against Lady Gray jumped away, retreating to the far off reaches of space. We were victorious again. The Crimson Kings who had come after us were gone. The Battle of Rem had been won in our favour.
Aiden approached me. I was so glad to see him, I was ready to give him a hug but instead he punched me in the face.
‘Idiot, we ARE a team, all of us, YOU had no reason to run off like that; you are lucky you didn’t get more people killed,’ he breathed a sigh of relief, ‘but I am glad you’re OK.’
‘Don’t let him get to you, that was the most fun I’ve had playing in a long time,’ said Brand, who gave Chaz a curious look.
‘That was insane, I can’t believe we survived,’ said Shiru standing beside Pierce.
‘You know, you probably just made that bounty go up another million,’ laughed Eli who was admiring Nel’s new mech, ‘we need to get you back to the Ibanez, this new suit is a marvel.’
Several dozen ships appeared as time and space folded in the skies above. First was the Gowaur Clipper: passenger carrier The Gowaur Clipper had an elegant, white polished hull and long-range fusion engines with automatic repair systems. It was equipped to hold 320 passenger seats and a landing shuttle. At the moment it was empty and ready to escort refugees off planet. Next came Robert Goddard: research spaceship. The Robert Goddard had a rebuilt hull with large observation windows. It was equipped with an astronomical sensor system and was scanning the area around us as it would continue to do for days to come. Several drones flew around it as a defence mechanism. Another passenger carrier arrived soon after, called the Solar Queen. Empty, with enough room for 100 passengers, it landed on the ground and acted as a medical bay for refugees and players who were injured.
Star Divers- Dungeons of Bane Page 17