by Alex Knight
Class: Carrier
Current Assignment: Greater Spiral Arm System
Commanding Officer: Captain Ava Thorne
Faction Alignment: Warden Corps
Quick facts: The Greater Spiral Arm System is designated as a ‘Starting Zone’. The threat level of this system is low and overall challenge rating is reduced. Level cap is in effect; current level cap is 25. To progress further, seek out more difficult zones - or don’t, you might live longer.
So I’m on a ship? A big ship, from the looks of it.
Standing in formation, back straight and hands at his sides, Kaiden finally had a moment to think. NextGen Games was all about immersive minimalism, he knew, and looking at his heads-up display, it showed. ‘Less menu, more game,’ as they put it.
Focusing on the edges of his vision, Kaiden could see two small bars – one green, the other blue, denoting his health and stamina, respectively. In green text, numbers over his health bar showed he was at one hundred percent, but his stamina bar was depleted a bit. From running into formation, probably. There were also two icons. The first was labeled “settings”, while the second, a power button, needed no label. That was clearly the logout button. Minimalist, indeed, Kaiden thought.
Out of curiosity, he clicked the settings icon, focusing with his eyes. A menu appeared showcasing many of the options he’d expect to find in a game. He ignored most of them, however, opting to open the one he found most interesting: his character sheet.
Character
Name: Kaiden
Race: Human
Level: 1
Class: Warden
Attributes:
Strength: 10 Intelligence: 10
Endurance: 10 Perception: 10
Dexterity: 10 Unassigned: 0
Abilities:
None
Perks:
None
Well, I’m looking awfully neutral. Not that that wasn’t to be expected on his first login to the game. Hopefully I can find an opportunity soon to earn some experience and start building my character.
He closed out the character sheet, and his eyes were drawn to the last feature of his heads-up display. It was a minimap. Pretty run of the mill, it was a small circle in the bottom of his screen. A dot in the middle of it no doubt denoted him, while the yellow blips moving around on the map must’ve been his fellow recruits and the drill sergeants. At the very edge of the map Kaiden could just make out the far wall of the hangar they were in.
That could come in handy.
Looking back to the center of his vision, Kaiden’s eyes drifted over a distant drill sergeant screaming at a recruit. Unintentionally, he left his eyes on the man for a moment. Faint wording appeared above him.
Dawson
Warden Drill Sergeant
Class: Power Warden
Faction: Warden Corps
Level: 15
Quick facts: Wardens are often described as the in-game police force for the Nova Universe. Whether collecting trade tariffs or rescuing stranded or endangered players, the Warden Corps is near universally respected.
Interesting. So I can learn more about a person by focusing on them for a moment?
As the drill sergeant continued to sprint and scream, wrangling new players into formation, Kaiden took a moment to study the inside of the ship. The game already told him he’d spawned on the starship WCSS Anakoni, but apparently they’d spawned specifically in its hangar. Not a hundred paces away the vast, empty expanse of space loomed before them. Easily forty feet high and twice as wide, two massive hangar doors lay open to the stars.
Except 'open' might not have been the right word for it. A faint, glowing field covered the doors. Some sort of magnetized barrier, Kaiden assumed. He and the other recruits were still breathing, which meant whatever the field was, it was doing a fine job of keeping the air in.
Inside the hangar, everything was metal. The floors, the walls, even the roof, far above. Various lines and lanes had been painted across the floor in colors ranging from white to bright yellow. Denoting flight lines, Kaiden assumed, eyes turning to a small fleet of what looked to be shuttles and attack craft aligned on the far side of the hangar.
As he watched, a pilot climbed into the cockpit of one of the more aggressive looking ships.
WCSS Skirmisher N-38
Class: Skirmisher
Faction Alignment: Warden Corps
With a whirring whine its engines fired up, then lifted the ship straight up into the air. A moment later and it had slipped forward, straight through the glowing field and out into the void beyond. The ship tilted next, directing its engine away from the hangar doors, then launched forward in a flash of light. For a moment Kaiden was blinded, his vision seared to pure white. When he could see again, the ship was nothing more than a gray speck and a dissipating thruster plume as it dwindled into the distance.
Kaiden had to stop himself from smiling. Sure, he was in the middle of having his eardrums blown out by screaming drill sergeants, and sure, he was playing this game from a state penitentiary, but he had to admit, seeing that ship explode away to some distant destination had been downright cool.
Nova Online was going to be his gateway to freedom, and he had some serious work to do, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t also enjoy himself a little bit, right?
“You are not here for fun and games. Do you understand me?”
Kaiden was dragged back to the present by Sergeant Dawson. The biggest and loudest of the drill sergeants, he was standing and shouting at the recruits. He bared his teeth, the pearly whites stark against his dark skin.
“I said do you understand me?”
An unsure chorus of ‘yes, sirs’ trickled out from the recruits.
“Louder!”
“Yes, sir!”
More of a shout this time.
“Louder!”
“Yes, sir!”
Kaiden joined in now, if only to get the sergeant to stop yelling. His ears were ringing again.
“Very good, recruits.” He lowered his voice a smidgeon. On a scale of one to ten he was still somewhere around a twelve, but it was an improvement. Kaiden figured he’d only suffer partial hearing loss now.
“My name is Gunnery Sergeant Dawson, but you will refer to me as sergeant, sir, or gracious overlord. Your choice.” He paced the deck in front of them, hands behind his back. “Now, Captain Thorne is the commanding officer on this carrier. She’s an outstanding leader, straight-laced, loyal, and clever as they come. She’s one heck of a battle-hardened veteran, too. Both in-game, and without. But Captain Thorne isn’t your direct commanding officer; you’re way, way, way too low down the food chain for that. No, no, no.” He smiled long and wide.
“No, recruits, you’ve been lucky enough to have me assigned to you. I hope you will find my hospitality most agreeable. If not–” He paused, leaning toward one recruit close enough to touch him. “You’re welcome to leave.” He gestured toward the gaping hangar doors and the void beyond. “There’s the door. Don’t let me stop you.”
Sergeant Dawson waited, staring at them as if personally offended by what he saw. Kaiden took those few blissful moments of silence to stare back at the man. He wore a suit of the most hi-tech armor Kaiden had ever seen. Overlapping gray metal plates fit his form perfectly, covering most of his body, but still bending and moving freely as needed. There were no visible wires, but a series of lights on the chest plate and wrist clearly indicated some sort of control mechanism. A sleek helmet fit snugly on the sergeant’s head, and could presumably become airtight in an emergency.
Or for spacewalking. When do we get to do that part?
All in all, the gray-on-slightly-lighter-gray camo almost made the sergeant blend entirely in with the matte metal covering every inch of the hangar. The more Kaiden thought about it, the more he realized that was probably exactly the idea.
There was one part of the uniform that stood out, however. The shoulders bore light gray markings, emblazoned with the sigi
l of the wardens, the same crossed hammers on a shield as the pin Kaiden had been given on his first day.
He looked down at his own shoulder. He’d spawned in armor similar to the sergeant’s, but now that he paid attention, he found it lacked the sigil of the wardens.
Basic Warden Armor
Durability: 100%
Stimulant Chamber Cooling Slots: 2 (Locked)
“Seeing as you all are wardens, or aspire to be, you’ve spawned in your armor. Accustom yourselves to it, as it will save your life many times in the coming days and months.”
Basic warden armor. That made sense, he figured. It was made from some sort of advanced metal.
The police had been using body armor similar to it in the real world for ages now. The technology in Nova Online was loosely based on predictions of the far future, but that didn’t mean it actually had to make sense. That was the benefit of being in a video game. Some things just worked because the game said so.
His armor also came with a helmet, just like the sergeant’s. It fit so comfortably on his head it’d taken a moment to realize he was even wearing it.
“You may have noticed,” Sergeant Dawson said, still shouting, “your armor comes with a stimulant cooling chamber in the wrist. This chamber is capable of holding two stimpacks that, when activated, will instantly heal twenty-five percent of your health. Then a two-minute cooldown will kick in before you can use another stimpack. But you recruits don’t need to worry about all this. Your stimulant chambers are empty, and will remain so until you’ve earned the right to carry a stimpack.”
Another sergeant stepped in front of Kaiden, and then something solid thudded into his chest, nearly knocking him over. He didn’t so much catch it as bend around it, but he did stop it from falling to the floor. Straightening up and unfurling his arms, he found he was holding a hammer.
Warden Battle Hammer
One-Handed
Base Damage: 5 bludgeoning, 7 smashing
Quick facts: Warden hammers may expend charge to attack with special abilities. Warden shields will build charge by absorbing damage. Your warden class implants will store charge, depleting at a rate of 5 every 30 seconds.
Now that was useful information. Things were starting to make a bit more sense now. Kaiden had heard Bernstein mention wardens in Nova Online before, but he’d never explained how the class worked. Now that Kaiden was beginning to understand, he felt a bit more grounded. Nova Online was a revolutionary MMORPG, but it was still an MMORPG. And when it came to those, well, Kaiden boasted his fair share of experience. Feeling a renewed confidence, Kaiden looked down at his hammer, this time studying the weapon and not looking for additional information.
The name ‘hammer’ hardly seemed to do it justice. It was as much a weapon as it was a work of art. The handle, just long enough to fit two hands, rose to meet the two-headed business end of the weapon. Made of some sort of light but clearly sturdy metal, the heads were positioned back to back. Each was roughly cylindrical in shape, though they narrowed slightly as they approached the ends meant for smashing. To better channel the force of the impact, Kaiden figured. Less surface area striking the enemy meant more force driven into a concentrated area. It was simple physics.
Between the two opposite-facing heads of the hammer rested a smooth circle of fine metal. Thin in construction, it was hollow, and almost looked like a chamber meant to hold something. Or maybe to channel something, Kaiden realized, remembering what he’d just read about the hammer expending charge for special attacks.
He wrapped a hand around the hammer’s handle – seemingly coated in some sort of semi-solid gel – and it molded to fit his grip. All told, the weapon was as long as his forearm and, despite its size, weighed surprisingly little. Made of some futuristic alloy, no doubt.
“These,” Sergeant Dawson shouted as the others tossed more hammers at the recruits. “Are your battle hammers. They’re good for hitting things.” Next, a series of what appeared to be bracers were thrown at the recruits.
“And these are your shields. They’re good for stopping things from hitting you.”
Kaiden slid it onto his left wrist. It locked into place via a series of small clamps, then contracted until it fit comfortably.
Warden Shield
Damage: +10 resistance to melee attacks, +10 resistance to energy attacks
Current charge: 0/100 units (Locked)
Quick facts: When too much damage is absorbed, this shield will overload and shut down for 30 seconds.
Not much of a shield, Kaiden thought, staring at the device. How was he supposed to block any attacks with this? It was far too small.
“When your shield is equipped, you simply have to think ‘on’ and it will turn on. Think you can handle that?”
On. Kaiden thought the word and sure enough, his bracer sparked to life. A glowing light poured from it, then spread out in front of him in waves of crackling, fizzing energy. It grew and stretched until it had formed into the distinct shape of a rounded shield. Next, the energy seemed to solidify. If Kaiden didn’t look too closely, he could almost mistake it for blue-tinged glass. Every so often a little crackle of electricity jolted through it with a faint hiss.
The bracer felt no heavier with the shield turned on.
Impressive.
Next, he had an idea. If the shield turned on with a thought, could it...? Yup. Kaiden merely had to think the word ‘off’ and the shield flickered once, then disappeared, returning his bracer to a dormant state. Okay, he had to admit that was cool. And useful, too. No buttons or switches required. All he had to do was think.
“Your shield and hammer work together,” Sergeant Dawson said when everyone had stopped flicking their shields on and off. “There’s virtually no limit to the creative ways they can be used. But, considering the look of you lot, I’ll keeps things simple. When you block an attack with your shield, it will absorb some of the blocked energy. You can then use that energy to perform special moves – abilities you’ll learn as you level up.”
Kaiden’s mind was already filled with ideas on how that could be utilized. The first of them was too good to be true, but he had to try.
Flicking his shield back on, he held it in front of him, then gave it a good knock with his hammer. The energy that made up the shield flared at the hammer’s impact, then thrust the weapon away, almost like two magnets repelling each other.
“You cannot charge energy by hitting your own shield,” the sergeant said, eyeing Kaiden with a smirk. “Though if you want to go on hitting yourself, don’t let me stop you, recruit.”
Well, sorry, Kaiden thought, feeling his cheeks burning as the others turned to stare at him. I got lost in all the oh-so-detailed instructions you’ve given.
“Why don’t you try hitting each other’s shields next?” Based on Sergeant Dawson’s expression, it didn’t take a genius to tell there was some reason that wouldn’t work either. “Only players, NPCs or other mobs marked as neutral or hostile toward you can charge your shield. No dice with allies or party members, I’m afraid. You’ll have to build charge by getting into the thick of the action.
“Today will be your first taste of some action, and for many of you, your last. For this test, you’ll be given no abilities or warden class variations. If you want either of those, you’ll have to level up and earn them. In the meantime, I suggest you get awfully familiar with your hammers and shields. Along with your fellow recruits.”
Sergeant Dawson pointed to a waiting shuttle, a loading ramp extending from its rear.
“It’s time to see who’s worthy of joining my beloved Warden Corps,” he said, his ever-present scowl replaced briefly with a smile. “Load up, recruits.”
Chapter Five
Achievement Unlocked!
Novice Voyager - 50 EXP gained!
You’ve begun your first voyage out into the universe. Here’s to many more! Just watch out for asteroids. And pirates. And…well, you’ll figure it out.
At any othe
r time, Kaiden would have found the surprise achievement pretty cool. But currently, he had a more pressing issue.
“Your weapons and your fellow recruits will be the only things not trying to kill you today.” Sergeant Dawson had said something to that effect shortly before their shuttle departed, but now, huddled in with the other recruits, Kaiden wasn’t so sure that was true. Whoever the woman sitting across from him was, she clearly wanted him dead. Hadn’t stopped scowling at him since he’d sat down.
He’d boarded the shuttle along with the others to find seventeen more recruits already waiting within. Recruits from the other wing of the prison, he’d realized, as they were all women.
More people I have to beat in this test.
They wore the same uniforms as the men, carried the same weapons, and for the most part, looked the same degrees of worried, scared, and confused as did everyone else.
Except for her.
Based on her avatar she couldn’t have been much older than himself, with dark hair and eyes to match. A gentle slope to her features gave her an inquisitive look, as if she were studying everything around her.
Kaiden hadn’t had a crush on anyone since high school, but in different circumstances – another life, maybe – he might have tried to strike up conversation with her.
But he had a test to pass, and there was no time for distractions. Besides, they were both prisoners of the state with virtually no control over their own lives. Oh, and there was the little fact that she hated him.
Or that was what her expression said, at least.
If eyes could bore holes, Kaiden’s head would’ve been nothing but pulp, drilled through the wall of the shuttle behind him and left floating in the eternal abyss of space. Thankfully, his head remained firmly attached to his shoulders. He took advantage of this fact to focus on her a moment to see what information the game would give him.