Pangea Online: The Complete Trilogy

by S. L. Rowland

  The turret rattles and Dean curses as the steady stream of plasma grinds to a halt. Beetles flood the enclosed room and I slash at everything within striking distance. The air is so dense with insects that I can’t even see Dean among the chaos.

  My plasma sword cuts through the bugs with ease, but there are so many that their severed body parts make it impossible to move without falling. Green ichor obscures my vision and the health readings inside my helmet flash orange and yellow along my exposed limbs. My haptic suit clenches around my arms and legs as pincers catch me in their violent grip.

  The turret was a good plan, but we didn’t anticipate it overheating. Dean can’t be faring much better. I listen for his screams, but I can’t hear anything over the scraping of carapaces and the fluttering of wings.

  I struggle as my health readings continue to plummet, but I know it’s useless. We didn’t even make it through the first stage of the tournament. Dean is going to be so disappoint—

  There’s a loud crash of splintering wood and the familiar whir of a turret cannon. Beams of plasma speckle through the insectoid horde.

  Drawn by the light, the beetles release me and surge toward its deadly embrace. I finish off the lingerers with my sword and slash at those hovering in the air nearby.

  I crawl to the door and scan the badge, stopping the influx of beetles, though I’m sure there can’t be many more outside. The floor is a slushy mixture of guts and shell, both crunchy and slippery at the same time. I take a moment to regain my composure and search for Dean among the chaos.

  I’m unable to spot him, but I do find the source of the plasma beams. They shoot out of an exploded section in one of the crates.

  Genius! He must have blown it apart from the inside.

  Thirty seconds later and we’ve finished off the last of the insects. When the whir of the minigun fades, it’s eerily quiet.

  My boots slosh with each step until I’m hovering over Dean. He breathes heavily, lying on his back with the minigun draped across his torso. He pushes it aside and I extend a hand to help him up.

  “How’d you manage to pull this off?” I ask.

  He slouches against the crate. “I panicked. I couldn’t find my weapon. I tried to escape through the other door, but you had the badge.” He shakes his head. “In that moment, I just wanted to be safe, so I climbed into one of the crates.”

  He frowns. I know that look. He’s disappointed with himself in spite of it all.

  I place my arm on his shoulder. “Hey, it doesn’t matter how you ended up in there. It saved both our asses.”

  “Easy for you to say. You didn’t run like a little kid. Everyone watching is going to see it.”

  I shake my head. “Don’t sweat it. You ran. So what? If you decide you want to keep streaming after all of this, your viewers are going to see you make some big mistakes. But this isn’t about them. This is about me and you. Sometimes you have to run so that you can live and fight another day. You want to know the truth? When I was buried under that mountain of creepy crawlies, I gave up hope. I thought we were out of the competition. I thought it was over. And then you saved us. Whether you planned to or not, you’re the reason we’re still in the tournament. Now, let’s grab our gear and finish this thing.”

  He stares at me with a blank expression for a moment, then his mouth curls at the edges. “You’re right. You might want to clean up a bit, though.”

  I look down at my body. My bodysuit is in shambles, pieces of ripped cloth hang off me in ribbons. I’m covered in enough slime that I could probably slide on my stomach down the tunnel. The gray material is stained green and red as my blood mixes with the insects’. Dean has fared much better standing behind the turret and minigun.

  I do my best to wipe the slime from my faceguard. “Gather your weapons. We need to finish off the last of the bugs on the other side, then we can get going.”

  We gear up and exit into the web-covered tunnel. The remaining insects are easy enough to finish off with our plasma rifles. The entire corridor gives me the creeps with the way the webbing drapes over everything like a sinister snowfall.

  My helmet guides us down the tunnel and eventually, the webbing fades away. Creatures scramble in the vents as we pass underneath. A blob of slime blocks the entrance to a stairwell, but our plasma grenades clear the area with no resistance. We climb a few dozen floors before being led into a new tunnel.

  This one is slimmer than the others, clearly not designed for transport. Sleek white walls stretch in perpetuity to both sides.

  I stop in front of one of the many doors lining the corridor. “These look like rooms for the crew.”

  Each door has a scanner and a peephole. I attempt to enter one of the rooms, but I’m met with “Access Denied.” Apparently, level-ten access isn’t good enough to enter personal quarters.

  “You think there’s anyone inside?”

  “Of the original crew? I doubt it. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here. Who knows what kind of creatures could be hidden within.”

  We’re making our way down the corridor when something rams against one of the doors. The sound is so unexpected that I jump. A moment later, something smashes against the door to our right.

  “That’s our cue to get moving.” I take off running down the corridor.

  Dean follows closely at my heels. More rumblings thunder all around us as creatures wreak havoc on the other side of the doors.

  Then a bone-chilling sound stops me in my tracks. A loud hiss lingers in the air as the doors behind us open simultaneously.

  A large figure steps out into the hallway. A reptilian humanoid with slick green scales looks in our direction. It has a thick tail that touches the ground, black claws on the tips of its fingers, and a head reminiscent of a T-Rex. It flashes rows of dangerous teeth as it snarls.

  As we stand frozen in shock, more of the creatures step into the corridor. Tongues lash out at the air as they taste our scent.

  “Run!” I yell.

  I pry a plasma grenade from my vest, activate it, and toss it over my shoulder. I glance back just in time to see it explode, knocking several of our reptilian pursuers against the wall.

  “Toss everything you’ve got behind us. We can’t stop and fight, but we can slow them down.” I activate another grenade and let it fly.

  “On it!” There are faint beeps each time Dean activates a grenade.

  Every few seconds, an explosion rumbles behind us. I don’t dare to look, only focused on the map before us. If we can make it to the end of the corridor, there’s a stairwell waiting for us.

  Growling and hissing mixes with the sounds of explosions and bodies hurled against the pristine white walls. Dean’s feet patter behind me. The beeping of plasma grenades speeding up just before they explode might be the final note to a chaotic symphony if not for the thunderous pulse pounding inside my ears.

  A dark figure emerges into the tunnel a hundred yards in front of us. A scaled version of a wolf with barbs running down its spine lowers its shoulders as if ready to pounce.

  Please don’t move, I pray silently to myself. The creature is far enough away that we’ll be able to make it into the stairwell, but not if it attacks us.

  The closer we get, the deeper the creature sinks into a pouncing position. Its shoulders rock back and forth as it watches us hungrily. I can sense an impending lunge.

  We’re a few yards from the stairwell entrance when the creature lunges. I activate my plasma sword in one hand and equip the badge with another.

  The cat-wolf-reptile is mid-air when I drop to one knee. The green ichor from our battle with the beetles allows me to slide with surprising speed along the slick floor. I use my free hand to scan the entrance to the stairwell and extend my sword, ripping into the creature’s body as I pass underneath. The creature collapses to the ground, and Dean makes it safely inside.

  He stands in the doorframe with the door propped, waiting for me. I crawl to my feet and run to him, ready to unload my plasm
a rifle on the pursuing reptilians, but they swarm the dead creature, feasting on the easy prey.

  The door closes with a clank, and I lean against the wall.

  “Another close call.” Dean squats and presses his head to his knees. “This is way more intense than any of the training we’ve done.”

  “No, it’s not.” I shake my head. “We’ve battled aliens, escaped from dinosaurs, hell, we even fought a dragon. Not that it ended well. The only thing different is the pressure you’re putting on yourself. This is still just a game.”

  “I know. I just—” He stands back up. “I just really want to win. I want to prove that I can be more than what I am.”

  “Hey.” I step in front of him and my faceguard isn’t more than an inch from his. “You are more than you think you are. Regardless of how this ends. Just take it one step at a time. I know it’s easier said than done, but try to enjoy the experience. This is your first tournament, after all.”

  He takes a deep breath and then slowly releases. “Alright, one step at a time.”

  I can’t tell if my words sink in or not, but I know if he keeps putting so much pressure on himself, eventually it will take its toll.

  After checking our gear, we’re both out of plasma grenades. We have a few pulse grenades, but they only work on inanimate objects. Aside from my tattered body suit, the chest and back piece of my armor are holding up fine.

  My helmet guides us up the stairwell, past two more floors of crew quarters. Above that is a mess hall and entertainment section. I’m almost tempted to check them out, but we don’t have time for side quests.

  We stop in front of an exit where an echoing clank beats in rhythmic succession from the other side. Once we’re certain it’s not a threat, we head up several more levels and exit the stairwell into an enormous open bay filled with all-terrain vehicles.

  Hundreds of vehicles are parked in neat lines, ranging from small one-man ATVs to tanks large enough to run down trees in a forest. There are motorcycles, trucks, and armored vehicles topped with plasma turrets. Almost anything an army would need for a land invasion.

  Too bad there’s nothing that’s going to help us fight our way through the ship. Even if we took one of the motorbikes, we’ve had to weasel and wind enough that they wouldn’t last us long. What we need are more grenades.

  “Is there anywhere we can replenish our plasma grenades on our current route?” I ask the helmet AI.

  A room lights up green on the hologram. It’s a side room a few floors up along our current route so it’ll be an easy stop.

  I close the hologram. “They’ve been the most useful item we’ve found so far. It makes sense to replenish them if we can.”

  Dean nods. “I’d love to take one of these babies for a spin sometime.” He runs his hand along the side of a bulky tank with a flame thrower mounted to the front.

  “Let’s try to beat this stage before we start thinking about joy-riding.”

  We’re running between a row of ATVs when I spot something out of the corner of my eye that forces me to do a double-take. I stop running and Dean plows into my back, nearly knocking me over.

  He instinctively raises his weapon in the direction I’m looking.

  “What is it?” he whispers.

  “Behind those trucks. What does that look like to you?”

  His eyes go wide. “You’ve gotta be kidding me. Are those mech suits?”

  We make our way to the six mechanical exoskeletons parked against the back wall. They are so far back that I nearly missed them. Each one is slate gray and about ten feet tall. Big enough to make it a formidable force, but not too big that we couldn’t operate them in most of the tunnels. We’d be banned from stairwells, but cargo elevators should work nicely.

  I run my finger along the slick exterior. “What do you say we take them for a ride?”

  “Hell yes!” Dean doesn’t waste a second, running to the closest mech unit.

  He presses his hand against the chest piece and the mech splits down the center along the chest and legs with a hiss. The head area flips backward, and plates extend outward and away, making room for him to climb inside.

  Dean removes his weapons from his chest armor and climbs into the mech. There’s a seat and footrests to support him, with each appendage being about two feet longer than his own. When he inserts his arms into the arm slots, the machine beeps to life. Straps extend from small compartments, holding him in place. He moves his arm and the helmet clamps into place, concealing his head, followed quickly by the legs and chest plate.

  “Dude, this is so cool!” a mechanical voice booms from the mech. “This thing is loaded with weapons.”

  He takes a step forward and the unit hisses and groans as gears and pistons maneuver the giant machine. A panel opens in each arm, revealing a Gatling gun and a flamethrower. A missile launcher emerges from each shoulder, armed with a half-dozen missiles each.

  Dean jumps and the mech soars several yards through the air before landing with a thud and shaking the ground.

  While he tests out the unit, I activate my own and climb inside. It’s surprisingly comfortable to be so bulky. I slip my hand into one of the arm holes and the unit pairs with my helmet, opening a slew of new commands. A video feed gives me a view of my surroundings. Thin green boxes follow Dean as he moves around, constantly alerting me to his location.

  Activate Unit? Y/N

  I accept and the mech comes to life. Pistons activate as the mech stands.

  Mode: Standby.

  Weapons: Standby.

  When I focus on Mode, I’m given several options. Peacekeeping, Agility, and Heavy Artillery.

  For Weapons, there is the option for manual or automatic. When I select manual, I’m given an interface with all the weapon attachments available.

  There’s the heavy firepower of the Gatling gun, flamethrower, and homing missiles, but there are also plasma beams, stun beams, heat-seeking missiles. There’s also an option for EMP, an electro-magnetic pulse that disables the mech and all other technology within a hundred-yard radius as a last resort.

  Better than having it fall into the wrong hands, I suppose.

  I cycle between the various modes. Peacekeeping switches to non-lethal stun weapons. Agility engages thrusters along the legs, back, and arms, making it possible to maneuver mid-air. And Heavy Artillery equips all the weapons at once. There is also an option for a custom setup, but we don’t have time to do that.

  I switch to Agility mode and jump. At my peak, I engage the thrusters and rocket over Dean. Despite its weight, my mech lands without jostling me. Then I switch to Heavy Artillery, and the weaponry springs to life.

  The mech unit is surprisingly easy to control. It responds to my movement like a second layer of skin, and even though it’s bulky, the feedback never feels cumbersome.

  “Route us to the control room using only tunnels and cargo elevators,” I order the AI, and a new route appears on the map. This one avoids stairwells and anywhere that the mech wouldn’t be able to fit. “Lock and load, Dean. Time to bring this baby home!”

  Dean activates his flamethrower, and a cone of flame pours out in a steady stream. His normal voice cackles with laughter inside of my mech’s speakers.

  I keep my mech in Heavy Artillery mode in case we run into any enemies. It doesn’t take long before we are tested.

  Green squares appear in my feed as it locks onto something moving down the tunnel. Dark amorphous blobs glide from one wall to another. They look like slimes for a second, but I’ve never seen slimes move that fast. And the way they are constantly changing shapes is unsettling. They switch from blobs to humanoids to different depictions of beasts, like it doesn’t know what it wants to be.

  “What are these creepy things?” Dean asks.

  We’re too far out to analyze them, but as we move down the tunnel, they eventually become identifiable.

  Foreign Lifeform. Ooze Beast. A sentient and more dangerous cousin to the slime, an ooze beast
is capable of transforming into lifelike forms and launching acidic projectile attacks.

  “I wonder how well our mechs will hold up against acid?” I say it more to myself than anything.

  Dean switches his mech to Agility mode and his thrusters carry him down the tunnel. He grinds to a halt once in range and extends his arm. The Gatling gun emerges from the mech’s forearm and fires a burst of plasma beams into the oozes. The beams rip through their bodies the same as our weapons did to the slimes. Without a concentrated burst attack all it does is distort the ooze for a moment before the holes repair themselves.

  I catch up to Dean just as the oozes begin to group up in front of him. One of them transforms into something resembling an elephant and shoots a blob of acid from its trunk. The acid hits Dean’s mech and slides off without so much as a scratch.

  “Haha!” he shouts. “Let’s go!”

  Dean runs into battle, punching and kicking, and firing plasma at the oozes. They assault him with acid, but it has no effect on the mech.

  They fight, neither one gaining the upper hand. This is nothing more than a waste of time.

  “Dean, if they can’t hurt us, we should just bypass them.” I activate Agility mode and launch myself forward.

  “Oh no. I think I pissed them off.”

  I’m confused as to what he’s talking about until I notice that the dozens of small green squares on my screen have morphed into one large square. The oozes have bonded together into a giant ooze. Combined, they dwarf our mechs.

  One of the giant ooze’s appendages extends and engulfs a forklift, wrapping around it like a sledgehammer. Dean fires at the giant, but his plasma beams have no effect aside from rearranging the ooze.

  The ooze beast lifts the forklift and smashes it into Dean, sending his mech crashing against the wall. One of the missile launchers on the mech’s shoulder snaps and hangs at an odd angle. The beast stalks toward him, forklift raised and ready to strike.

  I switch back to Heavy Artillery and unleash a combination of plasma and fire. The plasma gains its attention, but the fire actually causes the ooze to melt and lose its grip on the forklift. The heavy machinery crashes to the floor.