“I see...” that news didn’t upset me one bit. The Pride of the Bushy Shadow would know perfectly well who paid them a visit even without the Dark Faction Pulse Rifle. “Eduard, why did you go all that way on foot? You could have just killed yourself and respawned here.”
“Captain, don’t you think I thought of that? Especially when I was standing awkwardly next to the elevators and had no real idea of how to tell the sensor panel to go to deck sixteen? But think for yourself: how could I do that from a technical standpoint. I was wearing an impenetrable exoskeleton suit, and I was out of rounds. So I had to push myself forward regardless. And a Trillian space crocodile helped me with the elevators. It was the same guy you talked with in the casino. He recognized me and asked me in Geckho which floor, then traced the figure on the panel.”
I asked my crew members not to crowd around the trophies and let Eduard through to the frigate. I ordered the Space Commando to take off his battered armor and, like the twin brothers, give it to our mechanic bots. My Listener armor was also shot through in two places, but it hadn’t lost its shield, so I decided to wait. The metal millipedes had enough work as it was.
“So Avan Toi, take this gold and lock it in the safe,” I said, pointing the Supercargo to the pile of gold bars. “Uline, I need an estimation of the value of this haul. Just the bars, don’t worry about the drone pieces,” I corrected, looking at the unconfident expression on the Geckho lady’s furry face.
“Why sit here and calculate?” the Trader asked in surprise, looking at her palmtop. “It’s an in-demand good. All the bars are certified. Two hundred fifty-six thousand three hundred crypto is how much you could sell it for on Medu-Ro IV. That’s one million seven-hundred and nine thousand Geckho crystals. And, by the way, it says the Pride of the Agile Paw is willing to buy.”
Seemingly, the Pride of the Agile Paw decided to take advantage of their competitor’s temporary weakness and stake their claim. Or maybe the pride needed a formal explanation for where they suddenly got valuable metals in large quantity. This way they could just say ‘look for yourselves, we bought it on the open market.’ Well, that only played into our hand.
“Uline, let’s pay a visit to the casino owner and figure out this gold. We can also remind her that our starship needs protection. And yes, friends, half of that will be paid out to my crew! In crypto, crystals or gold, your choice!”
Authority increased to 50!
My last words were drowned out in stormy shouts of joy. Team Gnat was exuberant. I heard them praising their captain’s name in three different languages. All their resentment over my official designation as a pirate and the bounty on our ship were instantly forgotten.
Chapter Thirty-One. Big Meeting
THIS TIME, despite the late hour, there was a light on in the Dome administration building and it was packed. All prominent players were required to attend some big meeting scheduled by faction head Ivan Lozovsky. Thankfully, Dmitry Zheltov went into the real world after it had been announced, so I wasn’t even late. I greeted my colleagues and tried to take the chair closest the door, but Tamara was sitting next to it. She stood up defiantly and moved to the other side of the office. And of course everyone noticed her little walk-out. But they kept tactfully silent and continued talking as if nothing had happened. Her seat was taken by Gerd Ustinov. Our head scientist was clearly afraid to be late and was panting as he came in.
Finally, Lozovsky walked last into the office accompanied by the fed Alexander Antipov and the same chubby major who had congratulated me on destroying the Graveyard node earlier.
“Colleagues, first of all I want to introduce you to Vasily Filippov, a new player in our faction and my new deputy.” With these words, Ivan Lozovsky pointed at the military man, who was now no longer wearing an army uniform, but a dark blue track suit with the number 2018. “Most of you have not made his acquaintance yet, but Vasily Andreyevich helped launch the Dome project and has been one of the external curators of our faction for the last six months. I’ll let our new colleague tell you about the tasks ahead of us.”
It was strange, but I was less interested in the man’s face or body than his player number: two thousand eighteen?! Not bad. The faction was now over two-thousand strong! Good news! And the new player, ever so slightly embarrassed, introduced himself again for some reason and said he had been sent under the Dome and into the game with the mission of standing up to our enemies’ new Strategist, General Ui-Taka.
“We cannot react fast enough to events in the game from the real world. So leadership sent me on a two-year assignment under the Dome. I’ve already studied your copy of the Labyrinth and, as soon as this meeting is over, I intend to enter the game and join the faction. I am very hopeful that with my previous line of work, I will be able to choose the Strategist class or something else connected with military organization. I already have a plan to quickly level my character, and I have a ton of enthusiasm, so I look forward to working together with all of you!”
They all started applauding, and I clapped along with them, greeting our new faction member. But deep down, cats were scratching. The faction was again not taking a risk and consciously sacrificing three potential stat points, choosing one in the hand rather than two in the bush. And meanwhile three stat points would be very significant for any player, especially one in such an important role. It was hard for me to imagine legendary enemy general Ui-Taka making the same choice. Two guaranteed points instead of five potential ones. No, he would clearly choose to put his abilities to the ultimate test!
“Now on to other news,” Ivan Lozovsky cut in. “First of all I must tell you that, from here on out, the Dark Faction aren’t the only ones who can carry out grand-scale espionage. We now have confirmation from a few independent sources that the group ‘Emancipation from Mage Tyranny’ has agreed to work with us and proven their seriousness by bombing a large gathering of mages in the Dark Faction homeworld.”
Everyone started chattering and, as far as I could hear, mostly disapproved of our using terrorism as an instrument of warfare. Ustinov even called it “flagrant inhumanity” and “letting the genie out of the bottle,” implying the possibility of terrorism in Russian cities being used in response. Lozovsky called for silence and continued:
“Let me say one thing right away, so there won’t be any malicious gossip. We did not order an act of terrorism. These brave warriors are ideologically opposed to mage rule and decided to fill a plane with explosives and blow it up all on their own. It happened at the funeral of the late Coruler Thumor-Anhu La-Fin, where all the most prominent mages of the parallel world were present. In fact, many of them also play very strong characters in the game that bends reality. We do not yet have an exact number of victims, but there were very many, which means our enemy took significant losses and is now much weaker.”
What??? My heart just stopped when I heard the ghastly news. Minn-O La-Fin was at that funeral ceremony! That may have been why the Princess was still not back to Medu-Ro IV, even though my wayedda should have returned ages ago.
As if having guessed my thoughts, Ivan Lozovsky turned to me and added:
“Gnat, I can say for certain that Minn-O La-Fin survived. It was reported in the news in that world. And let me remind you that we would still be glad to see the Princess in our ranks. Her joining our side would have a very serious propaganda effect and would shred the Dark Faction’s faith that they could possibly defeat us. As for our agents from the Group for Liberation from Magical Tyranny... yes, their methods may seem radical, but we do not have other allies in the magical world, so we don’t have much of a choice. Alright, on that note we’ll end the topic of the terrorism in the magical world and I ask you all not to share what you’ve heard with other players. Now I ask the leaders of both Legions to report on their readiness for the end of the ceasefire.”
Gerd Tarasov spoke first, telling us about a decision to increase the size of the First Legion from two to three hundred soldiers. There were also in
tensive training sessions, additional enlistment decided via a competition with five candidates per opening. New weaponry was being introduced and implemented. Soldiers and armor were being moved along the road from New Bavaria to the Antique Beach, but the Centaurs building the road hadn’t finished and it really only existed on paper...
I was only half listening, still worried about Minn-O’s presence at the scene of the terror attack. The faction leader’s assurances were a meagre comfort, because saying she was still alive was different than saying she was not injured. And also, I was seriously worried by Lozovsky talking about the plan to bring my wayedda to our world. As far as I knew, the deep-cover and surprisingly well-informed Dark Faction spy in our ranks had not yet been discovered, which meant anyone in the office could potentially be an enemy. And so it followed that our plans were no longer a secret to her allies, which meant she was potentially in danger from that as well. Had the experienced Diplomat just misspoken? Or was it calculated, with secret intentions I didn’t understand?
At a certain point, I raised my eyes and saw Tamara sitting opposite me and boring into me with her eyes. We met gazes and... much to my surprise, the dark-haired girl didn’t turn away. The leader of the Second Legion wanted to tell me something!
“Gnat, you are of course a real scoundrel, and I am not going to forgive you any time soon, if ever. But there’s something you should know. In the game, a Dark Faction player got in touch with the Second Legion. I won’t say his name, but he was offering services. He said that in the real world he represented a large group of rebels. And they were not merely ‘ideologically motivated’ as Lozovsky would have you believe. Well to be fair ideology could be a factor, but their services did not come cheap. They asked for half a million crystals to kill a big group of mages at Thumor-Anhu La-Fin’s funeral. Our Diplomat gave his agreement, and I provided mental protection, so our agent wouldn’t be uncovered by psionic mages. Then after the attack, Lozovsky paid with the funds he got from Geckho diplomat Kosta Dykhsh. I was there with a group of trusted soldiers at the crystal hand-off providing mental cover, so I know what I’m talking about.”
Tamara broke the mental connection, because it was now her turn to give a report on the Second Legion’s preparations for renewed military action. She spoke about reinforcing defensive structures in the Karelia node, the road they’d built with Centaur help from the Capital node all the way to the Harpy Cliffs, the intensive training sessions and her reaching level one hundred.
And in that time, I was in a state of deep contemplation. There could be no doubt that Tamara had told me the truth. I will not relay the puzzled thoughts my brain birthed after that. They were not all decent, and the least offensive of them was a desire to slap my faction head in the face then and there, accusing him of flagrant lying and knowingly putting my wife in danger. But I restrained myself. The time for tearing down my faction head had not yet come. Also, that wouldn’t change a thing, it would just put me in a negative light before key players of the Human-3 Faction, damaging my Authority both here and in the game.
But by Gerd Radugin’s speech, I had come back around. The former faction head was now in charge of supplying the nodes and players, and he told us about leveling the Eastern Swamp node to two. So that was what increased the number of players in our faction! And meanwhile, Radugin talked about creating underground reserve storage facilities far from the front to hold crude oil and petroleum products in case of a prolonged war. He even gave a concrete timeframe: the faction could last eight days given present reserves, even if the whole oil-production complex in the Eastern Swamp got destroyed again. Overall, it was very interesting and informative.
But when Gerd Ustinov started speaking, I grew bored. Laboratory capacity, reducing design research time, a new requirement of at least two testers per chemistry specialist, the need for some specific condensers and inductor coils from the real world, expanding the size of the Prometheus complex... I wasn’t the only one yawning, but everyone was doing their level best to pretend they were listening and understanding everything the scientist said.
Finally, it was my turn. Before this meeting, I was in an elevated and inspired state. I was planning to tell my colleagues everything and hide nothing. But I changed my mind and didn’t reveal any secrets, telling them only what they already knew or could easily find out. Yes, I had a Tolili-Ukh X spaceship of Meleyephatian assembly. I was the captain and co-owner, sharing the ship with a Geckho Trader named Uline Tar from a rich and influential clan of space merchants called Tar-Layneh.
How was the ship? Well, how to put it... It was of course no longer just scrap, like when we’d been awarded it by the “generous” Kung Waid Shishish, but it was still pretty dang far from good. The basic repair was done, and the ship could fly. We had recently traded out our old power unit for a higher-capacity one, and we had a new hyperdrive being installed. We purposely didn’t sell the old parts though, and at the first opportunity would be bringing them to Earth for our scientists.
When I reached that part, head geek Gerd Ustinov predictably stood at attention. His hands were shaking with excitement as he asked:
“Did I hear you right? Gerd Gnat, do you have a working gravity-quark power unit in your possession?! And it comes with a hyperspace drive, also in working order? Colleagues, do you have any idea what this means for terrestrial science? It will be a massive boon. Understanding how they work that will give humanity a gigantic boost in the field of quantum physics and multivariate analysis! Just those artifacts are more than enough to justify all our expenses on the Dome project! They must be brought to our territory as soon as possible!”
Everyone began buzzing, loudly discussing the news. I was congratulated, praised and promised rewards. Alexander Antipov even said I might get an official medal, although it was with great caution. Clearly, that decision was not up to the federal agent. I basked in the stream of glory, satisfied with the effect. I waited for the enthusiastic exclamations to end and continued my report, trying purposely not to emphasize our problems.
I said the frigate had new electronics, most importantly good near-space scanners, which had run us a pretty penny. Repairing the inside had also taken lots of effort and resources, particularly installing a cargo elevator. At present we were finishing modernization and, in one day’s time, we could leave Medu-Ro IV with our small frigate. But where to take it?
“What do you mean?” Alexander Antipov was sincerely surprised at my question. “To Earth, of course! We’re on the brink of war, and we desperately need a combat frigate!”
I shook my head, expressing doubt:
“Our ship wouldn’t be worth much against the Dark Faction in its present form. It cannot land on a planet, nor fire from orbit. It lacks the stabilizers needed to enter a dense atmosphere and has no weaponry. What’s more, you need gravity compensators to land on such a massive astronomical body. We could get all that with time but our main issue now is a serious lack of crew and funds. We should have thirty in our team, but we now have just eleven. And to modify and arm the starship, we need at least another four million Geckho crystals, preferably nine.”
The room started buzzing again. Everyone was shaken by the colossal sum. I could see the smiles on their faces go dim one after the next. They all knew that the destitute H3 Faction had no way of improving that, which meant they wouldn’t have help from orbit. I even tried to build on that sentiment:
“Uline Tar doesn’t have a ton of money. And as you understand, I don’t either. We are working to solve that issue by carrying out various missions for Miyelonian prides. My crew can tell you about a recent successful operations on the Medu-Ro IV station, which helped us get the money for the bare minimum. What’s more, we have ideas for profitable trade routes. We can also search for valuable minerals on asteroids. If we really need it, Uline Tar can get a loan from her relatives but we’d prefer to get the money on our own. But no matter what it takes, we will arm the ship, and take on new crew. All that is going t
o take some time though. For now, flying god knows how many billions of miles and throwing our money into a bottomless pit for fuel just so we can mark targets for howitzers from the Yellow Mountains, and only if the weather is good...” I cringed and shook my head. “It hardly makes sense. And the ship’s other owner would never agree. What’s more, any quadcopter with a camera from the real world could do the job just as well...”
“No it couldn’t,” the future Strategist interrupted me. “We’ve tried that before, a few times. The Dark Faction has electronic drone jamming systems and they instantly destroy or crash anything we send over. Incidentally, we are not behind in that regard, and we do the same to their drones. But I agree with Gnat. It is better to wait and get the ship into fighting shape than reveal our trump card, only to have it prove useless in combat.”
“I expect to solve our financial issues in five to seven days. It should be enough,” I said, giving a cautious timeframe and attentively watching my colleagues.
No, no one in the room could squeeze out a happy smile when they heard the news that the Human-3 frigate would have to keep waiting for the significant reinforcement of a space frigate. “Plus, another day or two to install the modules we bought, then a day and a half in flight... That means somewhere around eight to ten days from now we’ll have delivered our scientifically-valuable cargo, and a combat starship will be orbiting the Earth, ready to fight our enemies! For now though, you’ll have to resist the Dark Faction without us. But I sent a million crystals to buy whatever you need and reinforce our defenses before the inevitable war with the alternate world.”
Game Changer (Reality Benders Book #3) LitRPG Series Page 31