Game On! A GameLit Anthology

by Anthea Sharp

  Behold the power of modern technology. In this world where no one dies, my burning escape pod moves violently through the atmosphere of the planet Terminus. Orange and blue flames trail behind me. I have never felt so alone. Lost from the rest of my crew, my pod rocking back and forth as I hold myself back against the handlebars that line the upper half near the 3-inch window. The behemoth that was once my ship is now wrecked, breaking apart as pieces of debris fall after me like rain. I just barely escaped death from above and now the idea of death down below seems much more likely. I should have just stayed and died with my crew.

  Despite the debris field that now hails down on my pod, my rear thrusters manage to deploy and my bruised, slightly broken, slightly battered metal tomb slows just enough that I’ll survive before I hit the ground.

  I let go of the handles that I have been holding on to for dear life and with a thud I pass out for a moment just after hitting the ground.

  Health: 40

  I quickly grab a nearby medical pack, rifle, electronic toolkit, and a piece of tarnished psychic paper. Chances of using it are slim to none, but should I encounter any possible natives or hostile alien life that could read or write its use will be invaluable. I open the hatch to my pod and stumble out into the dirt. Surrounded by the buildings of the Sprawl. The city is covered in dust and decay. I smell the rot in the air as I wonder how it is possible anything could survive here at all. I pull myself up and begin moving away from the pod.

  Away from the technology that had saved my life. I feel like I am going to be swallowed whole by the planet itself as the Sprawl calls out to me. I set up camp in the ruins of what might have been a library. I pull a small capsule from my pack and open it up into a makeshift tent small enough for one person to fit inside. Everything I need to survive is in my pack. Food, water, vitamin pills, painkillers, antibiotics, and more. I use every part of it to increase my health back to 100.

  A bit calmer now, I pull out my psychic paper and find myself drawing images on it. Images lifted from my memories, portraits of family and famous figures I admire. Words flash across the rugged center of the paper from my favorite novels. Everything I have ever seen or read could be viewed on the paper like a screen. Of course, trying to show anyone else would be pointless, as only their thoughts would be shown, but for me this is a great way to pass the time. Not that it matters. I am alone with all the time in the world to myself and to be honest a part of me likes it this way.

  Quietly I stare at the paper. Most of the time my thoughts are random and chaotic. As a child, I had been taught to try and turn them into symbols. Special sigils that I could focus on to make the reality that I desired more real. I stare at a symbol on the paper now. Something I couldn’t remember seeing. There is a large black circle with two smaller ones above and below, surrounded by a larger circle. The image seems ancient. I feel it calling out to me. There is something sad about it. Perhaps, I had seen it as a child and now, because of my present situation, my mind was calling back to it. While staring at it I feel both despair and hope.

  I rummage through my pack, eat a ration bar, and put my tent away. I’m not ready to sleep. It is still too early. I’m not even sure why I decided to make camp in the first place. At the very bottom of the pack I find a small communication device no bigger than the palm of my hand. I stare at the device and slowly start to remember my mission.

  To my surprise a figure appears from behind me. I turn around, grabbing my rifle from my side, and watch as the shadowy figure begins to speak.

  "You have the schematics, right? Seals are already broken, so just suit up and follow my lead, I'll take point down the main hallway to reach the bridge, the rest of you will branch out from there. I'll let you lead a team of three. We are looking for an artifact."

  Keyes

  Level 10

  Friendly

  My mind flashes back. A war somewhere in Alpha Euthymia. A planet light years away from the hub, light years from Alpha and from what remains of Earth. I'm running down an alley. I'm holding some kind of modified M44. It's an energy rifle. It is hard to believe only an hour earlier I was falling out of the sky. We are in a city Sprawl, an oasis inside a desert. I can feel the heat from my rifle. Burning hot. I feel the dust blowing over the horizon as it hits my cheeks like razors carried by the wind. I catch my reflection in a broken window. I am wearing the best in military armor. I feel like a tank. Everything except my head is covered in the Crimson King tech. I have a bandanna covering my forehead. I can't even see my eyes. Altered just enough I can see in the darkness. My unit is following behind me. We approach a metal door. The soldier on my six bursts through and I watch as he falls to the ground while at the same time my body twists in ways I never knew it could. Not in the real anyway. I watch myself gun down a hole full of 'bad' guys. NPC's set to hostile. Aliens known as the wraiths.

  Wraith x 10

  Level 5

  Hostile

  +1000 EXP

  I toss a grenade behind the door just to make sure there is no more resistance. Watch my experience grow in the bottom left hand side of my vision. I smile for a moment but there is something else going on around me. Behind the smoke rising towards me something is moving. I can hear it as it knocks me backwards and I start to black out again only to catch myself grabbing hold of the wall. My fingernails tear the paint away. Nausea, ready to vomit. I try to regain my composure and do so, with just enough time to get a fix on it.

  King Wraith

  Level 10

  Hostile

  I turn back around to run. Everyone is dead. Blood is flooding the floor.

  "Guys?" I shout.

  I remind myself that death isn't real. They may lose their stats and experience but they are still just as alive as I am outside in the real. Meanwhile, the King Wraith is nowhere to be seen. I take a moment to breathe and recheck my stats.

  Attack: 6

  Affinity: 5

  Sharpness: 9

  Agility: 6

  Strength: 8

  Intelligence: 8

  Luck: 10

  I hear a voice in the next room and move slowly, holding my rifle at the ready. I unlock the door once I have made certain the room is clear.

  Stealth +5

  A slim red haired woman is being held in the closet. She is an American. Green eyes. The same green eyes that remind me of Azra. The woman I loved. The one that I had to leave behind. If not for the red hair I would swear it was her. I recognize her face. She is a journalist. That much I can tell.

  A small broken sphere lies beside her. The sphere is a camera, typically used to capture in-game moments and events for the masses. Her screaming and crying is making my ears want to bleed. I scan her trying to figure out whether she is a player that got themselves trapped or some kind of NPC. When nothing appears, I assume she's a part of the game. I let go of my fear, and focus.

  "Where is the artifact?" I sound more like I'm growling than talking.

  I don't know why I'm saying or doing these things. That wasn’t what I thought I was going to say. A part of me feels like I have no control. On my hand I see a number written - 1327. I have no idea what it means. I continue to scream at the journalist.

  "WHERE IS THE ARTIFACT?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about," she cries.

  I lower my rifle and tell her it is going to be ok. I watch as I reach my hand out. She takes it.

  "You are going to be alright. Just stay behind me," I reassure her.

  Behind her I see a small passageway. Pulling back the drywall reveals a staircase leading underground.

  "Command this is Alpha-1 we are going below, repeat, I might have found something... heading below," I say, thinking how this would be a great time to call for reinforcements. I don’t even know if anyone is listening but it feels better to play it safe. I lead the way as the journalist follows behind me. I think about asking her name but it’s not like it really matters. Everything moves so fast in-game. I remind myself that non
e of this is real. I'm inside my pod with a headset on, lying in my room.

  Together we enter a dimly lit cave. The walls that are made from rock begin to transition into panels of flat black metal.

  “Some kind of underground laboratory. It reeks of piss and puke,” she says before I look over to see her throw up. I almost do the same. We stop for a minute to get our bearings. I scan for enemies.

  “At least we are alone.” I smile.

  “How do you know that?” she asks, bewildered.

  “Trust me.”

  Three minutes later we finally enter an open room. The room couldn't be more than twenty by twenty feet and in the center is a red box. The box is no more than a few feet tall and maybe six inches wide. I recognize it as a black box from an airship, at least that’s what my mind is telling me. Why we are here to get this and what was so important about it I couldn't tell you. I could just feel this is my mission. The artifact I had come looking for. This is what I was supposed to be doing. I pull out a strap and some thin rope from my bag of supplies and wrap it around the box. After that I throw it over my back.

  Of course, the whole thing is a trap.

  Quest: Survive

  Expected Difficulty: Veteran

  Rewards: Artifact, +100 EXP

  Wraiths pour out from behind cracks in the wall towards the two of us. I hand the girl my pistol and she knows exactly what to do. It’d like she becomes an entirely different person. We start to run backwards, continuing to run into resistance as we fight our way through the tunnels lost in a maze.

  “Somewhere we took a wrong turn,” I say.

  “They won’t let us leave.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “This place, it won’t let us leave!”

  We continue to run. Down the dark hallway until we see a ladder.

  “Climb!” I shout, firing back at the wraiths chasing us. My rifle is low on energy as I switch the battery out, almost losing my arm in the process. I don't know why but I let her climb first.

  We open the hatch and find ourselves inside a storage facility.

  “Another part of the maze?” I wonder aloud.

  “Hidden, secret place.”

  Dozens of bodies surround us in cryo-pods 12 feet high filled with a gel-like substance keeping them fresh. All of their eyes beat down on us.

  “It feels like we just walked onto the set of a horror movie,” she says.

  “At least the wraith aren’t after us anymore.”

  Walking through the facility I begin to feel like we are surrounded. Every time I try to scan the area around me it just comes up unknown.

  “Any idea what this place is?” I ask.

  “I’ve had dreams of this, nightmares.”

  The journalist moves ahead of me as I seal the hatchway behind us, just in case the wraith figure out a way to climb ladders. She is staring at one of the pods like a zombie. She turns around and fires at me, misses and hits the cryo-pod behind me. The liquid gel mixed with blood creates a purple substance that stains the floor. The body inside falls to the ground, wires, tubes sticking out in the open air. I can hear screaming. She continues to fire and soon I fire back.

  She runs. I think about going after her but it seems pointless. I have the artifact. I have to press forward and pace myself as I come to the exit of the facility. Every maze has an end.

  It takes me half an hour to find it, but I am back in the Sprawl, surrounded by the city and the dust. I can see the red sun setting in the sky above. Now all I have to do is call for an extraction. Another artifact means another payday.

  I pick up my comm. Before I can call for a pickup I hear a voice…

  "Nekros, this is Recon team, do you hear us?"

  "Nekros responding, go ahead Recon," a second voice breaks the static.

  "We found something, Sector 7-B-13. Looks like an old transport ship from before the war. Scans indicate a small power source inside but the reactors look dead. Fungal growth on the hull I'm guessing she made it through the nebula alright, possible she might have come from the gamma forests and why we couldn't see her from the ground."

  "Is she a seeder? Please advise as to the condition of the craft?"

  "Scans show temperatures that line up with that, aside from the power source the ship is ice cold. Thermal suits should keep us safe should we scavenge. Whole thing looks to be in one piece, unlike the priests or the council, they built these things to last. Jenson and Triz are about to sweep the interior, shouldn't be long before we know what's inside."

  "Copy Recon, be careful and watch yourselves, could be ghosts."

  A VTOL hovers just above the ground thirty yards away. Like it had been waiting there forever. I watch it land like a scripted event. The straight and narrow blades on the sides give it a very gritty look. The wings are beautiful and make it look like a raven. I feel myself drawn to it. I don’t know why.

  I move across the streets watching several figures step outside. They are dressed in power armor much like my own. I don’t recognize their guild nor what kind of party they might belong to. I try to scan them. Nothing. Maybe something is wrong with my UI. The game is known for having a few glitches here and there... every MMORPG has those problems. I am about to approach them and call for help when I see the journalist walk out towards them.

  I stand with my back against the wall and hold my rifle at the ready. If they are friends of hers, I am screwed. I can hold my own against wraith no problem but other players are be a different story altogether. PvP is not my strong suit. I turn my comm to silent, muting myself but continuing to listen to their conversations.

  “I have to double back,” I whisper to myself. “Back down into the facility. No matter what I can’t let them get their hands on the artifact. It is mine.”

  "They can be anywhere, you know how they are, Recon. Make sure you guys take precautions. We don't want to look lazy. The core may be active and could be corrupted, or worse. Who knows how long that thing has been floating around out there. Could be a hive. All sorts of no good things, or have you forgotten how dangerous the game is?"

  "No sir, we're taking precautions. There should be an interface near every department, and we're monitoring Jen and Triz from here... they should be breaking through the first seals now. Already heard reports of about a dozen wraith in the area." The voice stopped short.

  The journalist must be speaking to them again.

  "Alright, I'll take point, you just give me an idea of where we should go," the soldier said, stepping further away from me as the power turned on and the lights began to flicker.

  "I think I preferred the dark." It was her... her voice.

  "Was that a joke? This Sprawl is probably near a thousand years old, wouldn't you say?" said another voice. "There shouldn't be anything here to sneak up on us. Only a few feral wraith.”

  My heart is racing. I feel like they are hunting me.

  I think about setting some traps. Maybe unleash the horde of wraith from the sealed tunnel underground. That would show them.

  I make my way back inside of the facility where I see three of my fellow crew pinned down, surrounded by wraith.

  "We're trapped," I hear one of them yell.

  Another from the group, a pilot named Farsi, calls out to me, "You wouldn't happen to be able to lend a hand down here would you!" Before he finishes I am already fighting my way towards them, pushing my way through the horde. Another five wraith.

  +500 EXP

  "Do you have any grenades?" Farsi yells.

  I have three still on me and another two I taken from the pack in my pod.

  “Sure enough.” I hand them over.

  "Great! This will do. This should be all we need to get out of here. There’s an interface near the side of the lab. We came out here to scout the damage," Farsi says, firing at the wraith and launching a grenade towards them.

  "What happened to Keyes?" I ask.

  "Killed by a player," Farsi says.

  "A p
layer killer! I saw several outside.”

  "Just great, not what we need right now," says Farsi.

  "If we can reach Sector 7-B-13 we can get out of here. There is an old transport ship I heard them talking about," I say, thankful I have finally found some help and have a plan.

  “That’s the best news I’ve heard all day!”

  “How did you guys survive?” I ask trying to remember if I what I saw before was a dream or some kind of hallucination.

  “What are you talking about? We dropped in, same as you.”

  “Same as me?” I ask.

  Farsi ignores my question. He pulls up a holographic map and leads the way. Sector 7-B-13 isn’t too far away from our current position, and after establishing a link between us all we have to do is follow the path before us. A few wraith here and there, but for the most part we are walking in a straight line down hallways as the lights flicker on and off.

  After fifteen minutes we reach the craft. Farsi studies it for a moment.

  "I need to re-energize the quantum vacuum chamber. If I can do that then we might be able to take off again." He grins. "If I can get it set up fast enough, we might actually survive this."

  A few stragglers from outside make their way in. Smaller wraith that look more like mutant komodo dragons than the monsters of men. They are breaking into the hallway through maintenance tunnels and the ventilation shafts. Each time one comes in range I open fire.

  "We've got incoming, looks like they might be human.” Farsi looks towards me and the other soldier who is helping hold the line.

  “I just leveled up!” he shouts, laughing.

  Farsi takes out a small device the size of his palm and connects it to the panel. He taps it once to make sure it is fastened tight before grabbing his rifle and spinning around, firing at the wraith alongside us.