Just how far the situation had deteriorated had been demonstrated by the profit they had managed to make. Zach and Nora had brought a hundred doses of overdrive with them to sell on the markets. On a whim they had tried to see how high of price people were willing to pay. They put ten at a price of one thousand credits, then another ten at two thousand. They had managed to drive the price up to five thousand credits a dose, almost ten times the amount that they had originally had sold the stimulant for. Not that he was complaining. They now had almost half a million credits to work with.
They headed to Vogel Ironworks, the company that the light artillery schematic had been sold to. No one had the ability to use one yet, but eventually they would be able to, and that was going to be key to taking a fortified city. Zach wanted to check out the requirements of one of the pieces so they would be able to plan ahead.
Vogel Ironworks had a dozen sales terminals that were crowded with buyers, here for machine gun mounts and other defenses for their bases. The fabrication terminals were almost empty, however. By paying a fee players could have equipment produced from a schematic that either they owned or was a public design. It was much more expensive than producing it on your own, but if you lacked either the skill level or the equipment to produce such things you had no other choice. Zach and Nora walked over to one of the fabrication terminals and accessed it. They found the schematics they were looking for.
“75mm Howitzer. Has a range of nine thousand yards, and can fire up to five rounds a minute.,” Zach read aloud. “It has a trailer hitch on the back, so we could connect it to one of the ATVs to transport it. Huh, it can also be disassembled, if we want to carry it that way.”
“The optimum crew is six,” Nora read. “That seems like a lot.”
Zach frowned. “Yeah, but I think it makes sense. You'd have a commander, a loader and a gunner, at the very least. The other three would probably help with the loading and moving of the gun.”
“Still, that's sixty people for a battery of ten of these,” Nora said. “And I have a feeling that they're going to be very hard to operate. There's going to be a world of difference between being having the skill points to use it, and using it well.”
“I think we're going to have to look for more schematics,” Zach said. “Not just around this area, either. We need to look in all directions.”
“We should try to team with Redd Foxx,” Nora suggested. “They're good scouts, and we can help transport them to where they need to go with our ATVs.”
“Ah, good idea,” Zach said. “That's the kind of thinking we need.” Both of their alerts went off. “Crap. Let's get to the meeting point.”
“I wonder what they're going to think of the whole thing,” Nora said as they walked.
“Who, Ragnarok?”
“No, Dr. Unger and his team. I'm sure he's loving the web of politics and deceit that's forming right now.”
“And he gets lucky enough to study the ones that are going to try to play both sides,” Zach said.
“Is that your plan?” Nora asked.
“Well, I don't want to side with Ragnarok, but come on, we are playing both sides for our advantage right now.”
“That's probably what Ragnarok's going to think too,” Nora said.
Zach shrugged. “Well, at least it's not going to be a shock to them.”
They hurried to the south side concourse. There were two Ragnarok members waiting for them. They led them to a cafe area against one of the buildings, though the cafe itself was only for show since there were no food items in the game at this point. Still, it made for a good neutral meeting point.
There were two people at the table they were lead to. One was sitting, and had the company commander insignia on his shoulder. The other was standing beside him, silent, disinterested, with the gear of a sniper. That was probably the Wraith.
“Hello, hello,” the figure seated at the table told them. He stood up and shook their hands. “I'm Lucas Otrar, the commander of Ragnarok Company. This is my second in command, Patrick.”
“I'm Zach, Black Wolf Company commander. This is Nora, my second. Pleased to meet you. And pleased to see you again, not on the wrong end of your scope,” Zach said, directing his last comment at Patrick.
“Quite,” the Wraith said simply.
Lucas laughed. “I'm quite sorry that you ended up caught in that mess at Ronin Fortress.”
“Actually, I have to give my complements to your second. He took down the most dangerous elements of my teams within the span of a minute. And we were responsible for killing a good chunk of the attack force, so it's only fair that he fire back.”
“I do find it interesting that you seemed to specifically target the company commanders and no one else,” Nora said. “Other than the two members of our company that you shot. They must have been quite the danger.”
“Maybe. I will say that your sniper has some good potential,” the Wraith shrugged.
“Forgive me, but I don't quite understand what all this is suggesting,” Lucas said.
“I find it interesting that you had a significant attack force assaulting Ronin Fortress, but you had your best sniper target company commanders and no one else, since that would become quite obvious if you compared death reports,” Zach said. “That's meant as a warning for them not to join Ronin's alliance, no?”
“If that were true, what of it?” Lucas replied amicably, but Zach could hear something dangerous in his voice.
“You know very well that your efforts to expand Ragnarok are making quite a few enemies that will stop at nothing to bring you down,” Zach said. “We're also very well aware that a good portion of your fighting strength comes from giving overdrive to new recruits to boost their abilities. If that supply were to be cut, that would be quite the blow now, wouldn't it? At least that's what the alliance is asking of us.”
“Naturally,” Lucas responded. The warmth of his early greeting was fading away fast.
Zach put his hands up disarmingly. “Now don't get me wrong. Black Wolf is not willing to give up selling overdrive on the market. The money is simply too good, and I don't exactly appreciate them asking us to destroy our lifeline. But your policies are forcing us into a corner if we want to survive as a company.”
“So you want to exist as Black Wolf, as a neutral party in all of this?” Lucas said. “Mind you, I would dearly love to have all of you as part of Ragnarok, but I would be willing to sponsor you as a neutral party, so long as the overdrive supplies continue to reach the market.”
“We can certainly try to stick to that, though as you're probably well aware we can't always keep a steady supply going,” Nora said. “It can be rather touch and go as to whether we'll be able to manufacture any.”
“I would like a more constant supply, but if you can't do that, than supplying what you can to the market is fine,” Lucas told her.
“We'd be satisfied with that. We'll keep the overdrive supplies coming into market, and you will respect our right to operate as a sovereign entity,” Zach said.
“Agreed,” Lucas said. “It's been a pleasure doing business with you two. You've shown a lot more savvy that many of the other company commanders I've dealt with.”
“Thank you. It was a pleasure for us as well,” Zach said with a handshake.
He and Nora headed to their ATV parked at the south end of the concourse. Neither of them said anything. There could be Ragnarok members watching them. Zach noticed that Nora was typing something in her menu as she walked. His wrist alert went off as they reached their ATV.
They're going to betray us as soon as they get the opportunity, the message from her read.
Zach responded with this own message. I know. We're just trying to buy ourselves as much time as possible before that happens.
* * *
They had another session with Dr. Unger the next morning.
“You look like you need this,” Zach said to Danny as he handed him a cup of coffee.
“Thanks,
” Danny replied, taking the proffered cup. “I was up pretty late doing some research for my dissertation.”
“What's it on?” Miko asked.
“Kantian philosophy and its relation to a virtual world.”
“That's way beyond anything I can understand,” Miko said. “High level math, I'm good at, Abstract philosophy, not so much.”
“What part of Kantian philosophy are you concentrating on?” Dr. Unger asked.
“I'm focusing on the theory of perception, and how it relates to a virtual world. Mainly, can object in a virtual world be considered an external object that we perceive? Or are they just bits of data that create the illusion of perception?”
“Aaand, now I'm lost,” Gavin said.
“You have a master's degree. How lost do you think I am?” Javy said.
Dr. Unger laughed. “Ah, then we'll stop confusing everyone.” He glanced at his watch. “We'll wait for one last person, and then we'll get started.”
Zach wondered who that was. Everyone from the study group was here, along with the doctor. And the sessions before had not included any of the other staff. His confusion was answered by the opening of the door. President Starvos stepped in and took a seat.
“Well, good morning, everyone,” he said. “I'm going to be here to observe and to ask a few questions when pertinent. Otherwise, don't mind me.”
“Let's get started, then. We noticed from your logs that you were in contact with both Ragnarok Company, and the companies trying to form an alliance against them. Was there a particular reason why?” Dr. Unger asked.
“We felt it was prudent to hedge our bets,” Nora said. “Plus, we needed to buy some time for ourselves to get properly trained and equipped for our ends.”
“And what would those ends be?”
“The capture of a fortified city,” Nora said.
President Starvos sat up in his chair. “Oh really? That's quite the ambitious undertaking, if I may say so. We weren't expecting someone would try that so soon. It might not go so well, I'm afraid. It's going to take an extremely good plan of attack, a huge number of troops, or very heavy firepower that you probably won't acquire for a while. We were estimating around six more months before someone would be able to even think about attacking.”
“Jeeze,” Danny commented.
“I guess we realized that to some degree, which is why we tried to buy ourselves some time with Ragnarok,” Nora said.
“But still, six months is a long period of time to try to organize such a large undertaking,” Dr. Unger said. “Especially in a game world that's constantly in motion.”
“I was hoping to have a force ready in no more than two months,” Zach said.
“Oh? That's rather ambitious,” Starvos said. “Some would say that's impossible.”
“We do have a plan,” Zach said.
“We're going to start training our teams for close quarters fighting and storm assault,” Selene said. “We'll be able to exploit any breaches in the walls of a fortress.”
“But you'll need to be able to breach the wall of a fortress. Have you thought of how you're going to to that?” Starvos asked.
“Well, we're going to do a lot of scouting on our target, once we figure that out,” Selene said. “That should hopefully allow us to figure out the weak points in the wall, and whether there's another way in.”
“You'll have to coordinate a large number of disparate groups in order to achieve your goals as well,” Dr. Unger said. “Are you sure that the social structures are in place to do that?”
Zach frowned. “I'm not quite sure what you mean by that.”
“Do you mean the lack of coordination between the different companies?” Xavier asked.
“Yes. I think that will ultimately be your downfall if you fail,” Dr. Unger said.
“It's the hidden part of the game that hardly anyone thinks about,” Starvos said. “It's not only about fighting.”
“So it's really a political game?” Danny asked. “I really didn't think about it that way. I guess it's obvious once you think about it, though.”
“Yes. Everything in the world revolves around the political aspect of the game. The economy, the the crafting system, the fighting itself, all of it is build to support the political nature of the game,” Starvos.
“I think I said something about that once,” Danny said. “Something about the fighting being very Clausewitzian.”
“And I think you all realize that, to some degree,” Starvos said. “The question is, what degree is that?”
“It's not something I really think about, to be honest,” Javy said. “I'm more there to be part of the world.”
“Me too,” Gavin said. “I mean, I'm mostly there for the adventure. I guess that makes me more of the dumb muscle.”
“I really don't think you qualify as dumb muscle,” Nora said. “I mean, there was the thing with the chilus.”
“What was that?” Dr. Unger asked.
“I thought that there was some way to get the armor plates off a chilus. I thought that if there was some way to mold it then it could make some good armor,” Gavin said. “I also managed to find the toxin sacks, but I didn't have any way to transport it before, so we didn't get any.”
“But I think that shows outside of the box thinking. And not everyone has to be a general,” Nora said. “I think one of our strengths is that we have a lot of people who can fulfill a lot of different roles. We're not really a specialized group, but we're versatile.”
Starvos smiled. “Well said. I think you might fail, but not for lack of trying. We'll be watching what you do with great interest.” He stood up. “It was a pleasure to see you all again. Good luck with your endeavors.”
CHAPTER 10
Recon
“I contacted Redd Foxx,” Selene said. “They're willing to work with us to scout a wider range outside of Old Chicago. A lot of their teams are built for speed and not for straight up combat, so we'll also be providing some of the muscle.”
“If we're going to coordinate with the other companies in the alliance, we're going to need some practice at it. This would be a good start,” Xavier said.
“Alright, so within the week we'll be able to afford an ATV for each of us,” Danny said. “Once we have that, we can easily take a twenty man party anywhere we need to go. That should make things a lot easier for them.”
“I think Nora had part of the funds earmarked for that purpose,” Zach said.
“Speaking of Nora, where is she?” Miko asked.
“She had a concert tonight,” Zach said. “And Javy, Ethan and Ryan are playing basketball.”
“Redd Foxx is eager to start scouting as soon as possible. I told them we might be able to organize a small scouting mission today if we had time, and if everyone agreed. I'll signal them if you guys are good with that,” Selene said.
Gavin spoke up from his corner. “We were going to try to head back to the bunker to grab some chilus venom, and some of their chitin, if possible.”
“I think the two of us can handle it on our own,” Danny said. “I've got a couple of boxes of armor-piercing ammunition for my machine gun.”
“Sheesh, how much did that cost you?” Selene said.
“It's about five thousand for a box of two hundred rounds.”
“Might as well be firing money at them,” she said.
Zach shrugged. “If you two want to do it, be my guest. We can take a four person team out scouting. Contact Redd Foxx and tell them to send the four scouts they're going to be using here. We'll grant them permission to enter our territory.”
A company had several options when it came to the control of their in game territory, and the NPCs that guarded it. Officers of the company could adjust the setting to allow only certain people into the territory; if someone without permission entered, the NPC guards would attack them on sight. Normally they would have only used that for their base, but the recent unrest had forced them to act more defensively. In response t
o the fighting, anyone without permission was attacked on sight if they crossed into any of Black Wolf's territory.
“Got it. Oh, one question about that. Do you have any idea where we should scout toward?”
“I think we need to decided amongst all of us,” Zach said.
“Alright, I'll let them know.”
Gavin and Danny stood up and headed to the armory to gear up for their own expedition. “Have fun with that. Don't get killed,” Danny said cheerfully.
“I should say that same to you,” Zach retorted. “You're the one that seems to get killed the most.”
“Haha, you're quite the comedian,” Danny said, just before he disappeared around the armory doorway. “Make sure you pick somewhere good to go.”
That was going to be the problem. From the look of things, the world followed the same basic layout of the real earth, so the cities should also be in the same place. The issues were finding a city that was going to be feasible to invade, and then having that city be in an advantageous area. It would also need to be in a spot where they didn't have to worry about running into Ragnarok any time soon.
There weren't many cities he could think of off the top of his head that fit that description, either. The scouting report already eliminated Milwaukee, and that was probably too close to Old Chicago as well. The Twin Cities were going to be far too large to conquer with whatever force they could scrape together at this point. Des Moines was in the middle of nowhere, and St. Louis was too far away.
“Alright, I got a response,” Selene said. “They'll be here in around an hour. Faster, if we can come pick the up in Old Chicago.”
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