“As a Russian saying go,” Vlad said, “trust, but verify.”
He then stepped out of the elevator car and disappeared from our view.
“We should keep an eye on him all the time,” Nate whispered, looking at me. “Who knows what’s on his mind. ”
“My thoughts exactly,” I replied. I remembered Vlad being disappointed when Echo had told us that we could not keep our weapons on us all the time.
“I’m afraid of him,” Alyson said, peeking from behind Nate like a child hiding behind his or her mother’s back.
Nate wanted to say something, but at that moment, Vlad returned. This time, there was no bulge of the handgun under his shirt.
“Done,” he said as he stepped into the elevator car. “We can go now, guys.”
I tapped the button on the touchscreen panel, and the door slid close. As the elevator descended, I wondered how big this space station was. I also wanted to know if we, at some point, would be allowed to walk anywhere we wanted. So far, we could only visit three rooms: the Control Room, the Training Room, and the Preparation Room where we were currently headed.
The elevator came to a stop, and the door slid open. We walked out of the car to find ourselves in a room that was much smaller than the previous one.
On the other side of the room, there was a close door and a touchscreen panel next to it. Along the wall to our left, I saw what looked like two futuristic vending machines.
“What the hell are those?” Vlad asked, voicing my own thoughts.
“What you are looking at are equipment dispensers,” Echo said, “used to obtain new weapons, gear, and ammo. Using the first one, called the Weapon Machine, you can buy various weapons and ammo. The second one, the Gear Machine, is for acquiring gear.”
So those were actually vending machines.
“The Weapon Machine is connected to the vac-tube,” Echo continued. “So you can use it to get your pistols, which are currently in the Training Room.”
We walked to the Weapon Machine. It had a touchscreen panel on the front. It did not take us long to figure out which buttons to press to get our pistols. The Weapon Machine hummed, and a few seconds later, a section on the right side of it slid aside to reveal a compartment in which lay our pistols and extra magazines.
I scrolled through options on the touchscreen panel of the Weapon Machine. It showed a wide assortment of various firearms we could buy. However, since we had no money on our account yet, we did not waste time studying the weapons available for buying. Yet I was more than sure that in the future, we would often use both the Weapon Machine and the Gear Machine to buy guns, ammo, and equipment after we began to earn money for completing missions.
We took the pistols and the ammo out of the vac-tube.
“By the way,” Nate said, looking at the handgun and extra magazines he held in his hands, “where are we supposed to put these?”
“Just put them in your pockets, dude,” Vlad replied as he was stuffing his jacket pockets with the pistol magazines. “No biggie.”
“Easy for you to say,” Nate stated. “I’m not as conveniently dressed as you are.”
He did not have many pockets to put stuff in. He was wearing a black tank top and a pair of sweatpants. I had a similar problem. I was dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, so I was not sure what to do with my handgun and two extra pistol magazines either.
Sure, I could tuck the pistol into my waistband, but where to put the two extra pistol magazines? I could put them into my jeans pockets, but it sure was not going to be easy to get them out. I figured that when in battle, it would be very important to keep the extra mags within easy and quick reach.
“Before leaving this room, you need to change into uniforms,” Echo said. “No warrior can leave the space station unless he or she is dressed in a uniform. You can get them from the Gear Machine.”
“Great,” Vlad muttered. He had already stowed his extra mags away in the pockets of his jacket and was clearly not happy about taking off his clothes and change into a uniform. He did not want to waste any more time. He could not wait to finally jump into action.
Using the Gear Machine, we got our uniforms.
We could get various equipment through the Gear Machine. But again, since we did not have any money to buy stuff, we did not waste time studying what was on sale.
I checked out the uniform. It consisted of a leather jacket, a T-shirt, a pair of utility pants, and a pair of military-style hiking boots. Each of the articles of clothing was black-and-red colored and bore an emblem of a stylized letter W inside of a circle. It was obviously the official emblem of The Weaponized—the organization we represented and worked for. The jacket had the emblem on its back, the T-shirt on both its sleeves, the pants on the front of its right upper leg.
I undressed to my boxers and then changed into my uniform. All the clothes fit me perfectly. Moreover, I discovered that my pants had a handgun holster strapped to the right thigh. My jacket and utility belt also had pockets for holding magazines and various types of equipment. It was quite convenient.
After changing into uniforms, we hung our old clothes in a wardrobe that sat next to the Gear Machine.
Only then did I notice that Alyson was still in her old clothes, holding the still folded uniform in her hands. The girl stepped close to Nate and tipped her head back to look him in the eyes. Her face blushed, she said something to him so quietly I could not quite make out the words.
Nate nodded and then looked at Vlad and me.
“Guys, Alyson needs to change her clothes,” he said.
A wide lust grin slowly spread across Vlad’s face.
“Sure,” the blond-haired Russian said. “She can do just that.”
“Not while you’re staring at her like that,” Nate said with steel in his voice. “You guys are going to have to turn around to preserve Alyson’s modesty.”
“And what about you?” Vlad asked. “She’s gonna perform a striptease exclusively for you?”
“No,” Nate said. “I’ll turn around too.”
“Sure,” I said as I turned around to face the elevator. “Take your time, Alyson.”
Nate walked up to me. Vlad looked at us, then shrugged his shoulders and turned around too.
A couple of minutes later, we heard Alyson say that we could now turn around. We did do. The uniform fit the girl perfectly, accentuating the curves of her petite body.
“You’re such a sweet little thing,” Vlad said with a smile on his lips.
Alyson blushed and lowered her eyes.
The touchscreen panel next to the door on the other side of the room lit up.
“Guess we can leave now,” Nate said.
We walked to the other end of the room and got the door open by pressing a button on the touchscreen panel.
The next room we found ourselves in was actually a futuristic-looking space hangar. In the middle of the room sat what looked like a futuristic space shuttle.
“Wow,” Vlad exclaimed. “It must be a space ship or something.”
“What you are looking at, warriors, is a dropship,” Echo replied. “You will be using it to get you to your mission locations.”
Vlad looked around the room and said, “This guy is omnipresent. Wherever we go, he always knows where we are and can talk to us.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Kinda creepy.”
“Before getting on the dropship, however, I recommend you get in the garage,” Echo said, ignoring the short exchange between Vlad and me. “There’s a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle—shortened: HMMWV, colloquial: Humvee—that you can use on your missions, warriors.”
On the other side of the hangar, there was a garage door. We approached it and used a nearby touchscreen panel to open it. In the middle of the spacious garage sat a large futuristic-looking vehicle. We slowly walked around the car, studying it. It had four big wheels, two seats up front, three seats in the back, and a roomy ca
rgo area behind the rear seats.
There was a hatch in the roof and a special brace to which a heavy-caliber weapon could be attached.
Just like our uniforms, the vehicle was black-and-red colored and bore emblems of The Weaponized, one on each door and another on the hood.
“Doesn’t look like a Humvee at all,” Vlad said.
“It doesn’t have to,” Nate said. “After all, we’re in a very distant future. So everything has a futuristic look to it.”
I came across a computer terminal. On the display screen were shown various modifications that could be installed on the Humvee. We could improve the vehicle’s speed, maneuverability, armor, and whatnot. We could also set up various useful devices and weapons on the large off-road vehicle.
But of course, each upgrade had a price. Since we did not have any money yet, we left the computer terminal alone and got into the car. I climbed behind the steering wheel, Vlad took the shotgun seat, and Nate and Alyson got in the back.
I punched the ignition button, and the engine roared to life. After driving out of the garage, I guided the Humvee up the rear ramp and into the cargo hold of the dropship. I brought the large vehicle to a stop in the middle of the room, and then we climbed out of the Humvee. We converged in front of the car.
“So what’s now?” Vlad asked.
“Proceed to the next room, please,” Echo said. The AI’s voice sounded inside the dropship now. It must have been coming from loudspeakers hidden all over the interior of the spacecraft.
Upon crossing the cargo hold and entering the next room of the dropship, we discovered four human-sized containers lying flat on the floor, two along the left-hand wall and two along the right-hand wall. They were sort of similar to the teleportation chambers in the Control Room. On the other side of the room was a closed door, which probably led to the cockpit.
Nate walked to that door and tried to open it, but to no avail.
“What are those?” Vlad asked, pointing at one of the containers.
“Those are cryogenic chambers,” Echo replied. “You are going to be put to cryogenic sleep before the dropship travels to the RX189 star system.”
“Really?” Vlad asked. “Come to think of it, why can’t we be just teleported there the way we were teleported to this space station?”
“Teleportation is a relatively new technology,” Echo explained. “It’s quite complex and expensive to be used everywhere. Moreover, one can only be teleported through teleportation chambers. The colonists living on the planet RX189 have no such technology available to them. So the only way to get to that planet is by spacecraft.”
“How far is our destination?” I asked. “How long before we get there?”
“You will get to the star system RX189 in two normal days,” Echo said.
“It’s not all that long,” I said. “Why do we have to be put to cryogenic sleep then?”
“It is one of the rules established by the leaders of the organization,” Echo answered. “Since you’re working for The Weaponized, you have to follow the rules.”
“Who’s going to pilot this thing then?” Nate asked.
“I will,” Echo replied. “The computer systems of the dropship have my copy installed on them, so I will be able to pilot the spacecraft and communicate with you, warriors.”
“The hell with this,” Vlad said angrily. “I’m not putting myself in one of those things again.”
He walked around me and stomped to the door through which we had gotten here. As soon as he reached it, the door suddenly slid close.
“What the hell,” Vlad barked. “Open up.”
He slammed his fist against the door, but it did not open, of course. The blond-haired Russian tried to get the touchscreen panel to open the door, but it must have been deactivated.
“Let me out of here, goddammit,” Vlad roared.
The door remained closed.
He spun around and drew his pistol, aiming at nobody and nothing in particular.
“Let me out, or else,” he barked.
Echo did not reply.
“Show yourself, you stupid bastard,” Vlad yelled, sweeping his pistol around. “Or I’m gonna shoot.”
“Calm down,” Nate called out to him, ducking his head as we all did.
“I highly recommend you not to open fire in there,” Echo said as calmly as always. “The walls around you are bulletproof. If you fire your pistol, the bullet will be bouncing off the walls until it hits one of you.”
“Calm down, mate,” Nate said to the pissed-off Russian. “There’s no reason to be freaking out over this.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t think Echo, or whoever he answers to, means harm to us.”
“Agreed,” Nate said. “If they wanted to hurt us, they would already have because they had plenty of opportunities to do so.”
Vlad finally lowered his pistol but still seemed pissed-off.
“Why do you not want to get in a cryogenic chamber anyway?” I asked.
“I just don’t like it, that’s all,” Vlad replied, suspiciously looking around as if expecting someone to suddenly charge at him.
Nate just watched him for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. He walked Alyson to one of the cryogenic chambers along the right-hand wall and helped her in. The girl sat in the container, watching Nate intensely. He gave her an encouraging smile, then climbed in the nearby container. He winked at the girl before lying down. Alyson did the same.
I crossed the room and climbed into one of the cryogenic chambers along the left-hand wall. I lay down and looked around the interior. There were no buttons or touchscreen panels to operate the cryogenic chamber with.
“So what do we do next?” I asked.
“When all the members of your team lie down in the cryogenic chambers, they will automatically close and put you to cryogenic sleep,” Echo replied.
There were footsteps as Vlad was pacing the room nervously.
“Take as long as you need, mate,” Nate said. “We have all the time in the world, I suppose.”
While the Russian was making his mind up, I was thinking about something. So far, Echo had greatly restricted our freedom of movement. We could visit only those rooms of the space station that we were allowed to visit. We did not seem to be allowed to walk everywhere we wanted.
And now we were being forced to get into the cryogenic chambers to be put to sleep. Why? I did not know. For some reason, Echo and whoever he answered to did not want to give us freedom of movement. They did not even want us to be awake during the space travel, however short it was going to be.
There was not much sense in that. Unless it was actually a video game. Many video games, especially shooting ones, had no open worlds. Instead, in such video games, the player completed his or her current mission and then after a loading screen, got teleported to a different location.
It seemed to be the case here. So maybe Vlad was right all along. Maybe our minds had actually somehow gotten trapped inside a video game.
Suddenly, I realized I could no longer hear the Russian’s footsteps. I wanted to sit up and peer over the edge to see where he was, but before I could do so, the two halves of the lid slid out of the container’s walls and moved toward each other, encapsulating me inside.
Unlike the teleportation chamber, the lid of the cryogenic chamber was not transparent. It made me kind of nervous. I felt claustrophobic.
“What is happening?” I asked.
To my surprise, Echo did not answer, which did not help my mood either.
I expected to be injected with something or some gas to fill the cryogenic chamber. However, nothing like that happened. Instead, a few seconds later, I suddenly felt sleepy, and my eyelids grew heavy.
My head swam and I fell asleep.
To be continued…
David’s Current Build Part I
Stats:
Class: Flanker
Current Level: 1
Experience Points: 0
Experience Points to Level 2: 50
Abilities:
Active Ability — Blink
Maximum distance: 15 meters (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Cooldown: 50 seconds (Learned Skills: Ready for Action 1/3)
Passive Ability — Sixth Sense
Effective range: 25 meters around (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Cooldown: 6 seconds (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Ultimate Ability — Teleport
Maximum length: 50 meters (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Duration: 30 seconds (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Cooldown: 10 minutes (Learned Skills: No Skills Learned Yet)
Skills:
Green Rune (Active Ability) — Blink
The First Branch of the Active Ability:
Name: Ready for Action
Description: You gain improved recharge delay for the Active Ability.
Recharge delay: -10 seconds (Current: 50 seconds)
Status: 1/3
Blue Rune (Passive Ability) — Sixth Sense
Red Rune (Ultimate Ability) — Teleport
Part II
The consciousness returned to me in the blink of an eye. Though Echo had told us that we would arrive at our destination in two normal days, it seemed to me as though I had been out for no more than half a second.
Upon opening my eyes, I found myself lying supine in the same cryogenic chamber I had fallen asleep in.
The lid above me was shut tight. I tried to push it, but it would not budge. I looked around the interior of my cryogenic chamber, searching for any buttons or a touchscreen panel I could push or tap on. There was none.
“Echo, are you here?” I said loudly. “What is happening? How to get out of this thing?”
He did not reply.
I tried again. “Echo, do you hear me?”
The only answer that I got was silence.
The Weaponized: The Complete LitRPG Series Page 9