Over the loudspeaker, I issued an order to my first mate Gerd Uline Tar:
“Uline, update the ship documents and send a message to the station that our Tolili-Ukh X frigate has been given a name: ‘Tamara the Paladin.’“
The Trader reacted with utter calm. So the ship had a name now, big deal. But Pilot San-Doon Taki-Bu was also listening and his eyes went positively rectangular in surprise. Not even a minute later, Princess Minn-O La-Fin flew onto the bridge hissing in indignation:
“Husband, I know your warm feelings for that mercurial little bitch, but everything has a limit! Naming a starship after your lover in the presence of your living wife goes beyond comprehension!!! And do you understand the gravity of what you’ve done?! By giving your spacefaring frigate that name, you are signing off on support of a terrorist! The magical dynasties will be extremely upset! That is... well it might not be guaranteed to lead to war, but... but...”
With icy calm, I looked at my incensed wayedda. Minn-O met eyes with me, lost nerve and fell silent midsentence. Only after my wayedda calmed down did I answer. And mentally at that, so copilot San-Doon Taki-Bu wouldn’t overhear:
“Yes, the other dynasties are not gonna like it. But right now, they’re all headless and have no way to pressure us, so I honestly don’t give a crap. As for the antimage uprising in the First Directory, make no mistake. I am no fan. I especially do not like the fact that some prison guards went and joined the rebels, and that every day their numbers will grow. But by naming my ship ‘Tamara the Paladin,’ I am showing the rebels that I hold their leader Gerd Tamara in high esteem. Furthermore, I will force all people with common sense to think she may have had my consent to do everything she did. After all, starships names are not given lightly. Furthermore, members of the La-Fin dynasty survived the terror attack, which in fact left us the sole remaining legally recognized mage-rulers, which also supports the theory that Tamara is working for the rulers of the First Directory. Furthermore, it’s always easier to ride a wave of protest than try to stand in its way. So, now I have something to speak about with Tamara. Get that meeting scheduled.”
“But husband, how?” Gerd Minn-O La-Fin was completely at a loss. “Tamara is currently the most wanted criminal of the magocratic world and is hiding from investigators!”
“In the next three days, Tamara will be forced to enter the game that bends reality at least for a minute, and that means we can simply wait for the Paladin girl by the side of her virt pod. No, no. This will not require any sort of violent operation to shoot and detain Tamara. It should be enough to simply communicate to Tamara that I would like to speak with her. Her character is at the Geckho spaceport, right? There is a long-distance communication room there, we just have to set up a time.”
Psionic skill increased to level one hundred three!
Mysticism skill increased to level fifty!
You have reached level ninety-three!
You have received three skill points!
A new level! Not bad at all! Then out loud I asked Minn-O La-Fin, who had just come back from the real world whether she told my Chief Advisor Gerd Mac-Peu Un-Roi that we need to help the Human-25 Faction get out of a tight spot as I asked. The Princess assured me that the Chief Advisor had received the information and already given all the relevant orders. In one hour, two ferries of Relict Faction troops and builders would be departing for the other hemisphere of the virtual Earth – they would clear the node of hostile NPC’s and prepare a staging area for my faction to establish itself on the neighboring continent.
AFTER MY REMARKS TO the Starship Pilot, we didn’t accelerate so unpleasantly fast again. Our frigate was taking a wide arc toward the old shuttle, first to three thousand, then to a mere twenty-five miles – in space, that may as well be point blank. We held the Kurimiru in the sights of our nine laser cannons and were ready to throw a stasis net or deactivate its hyperspace drive at any second. But the shuttle was just drifting aimlessly, not reacting at all. Strange...
I ran scan after scan to clarify the status of the shuttle and grew more and more surprised at what I found. No energy shield. Thrusters not working. A total lack of weaponry. But an energy source was detected inside – the power unit was just fine. And eight... yes, precisely eight living creatures inside. All our attempts to establish contact with the crew of the ancient shuttle went unanswered. What was happening?
“No players with necessary skill,” the Jarg offered up a possibility. “Captain not in game. Pilot not in game. Communications officer not in game.”
Very strange, although... And then it dawned on me! Most likely, Coruler Anri-Huvi La-Shin’s close relative and captain of the Kurimiru shuttle Mart-Ton La-Shin was not the only crew member that belonged to the upper magical crust of society. In fact, all the senior officers were likely noble mages. And that wasn’t the extent of things! In the laws of the magocratic world, such major positions could only be occupied by mages, and probably those of a very high rank. So that meant they were all likely at the ill-fated council of the Mage-Rulers and had died in Tamara’s terror attack! So, the shuttle had come out of hyperspace and was now just drifting aimlessly while the remaining eight shuttle crew members didn’t have the skills to take the helm!
“They’re in a disastrous position. And not only do they not present a threat, they have no way of contacting the outside world or activating their thrusters,” I voiced my conclusions. “Dmitry, short advance! Let’s get up practically point-blank, two or three hundred yards. I want to try and establish contact with the Kurimiru crew mentally.”
Five miles... Four... Three... Got ‘em! At just over two miles, I managed to sense some faint echoes of emotion, then thoughts.
“Panic. Resignation. Suffocation. Sweat dripping into eyes. Forty minutes’ worth of oxygen in the best case. Then death is assured. Little San-Sano is already unconscious. It would probably be most humane to slit her throat while she still can’t feel anything. Although what’s the point? She’ll still have to respawn a number of times. And die just as many. Exiting into the real world will be just a reprieve from final death. This is a red zone, and her virtual body will be dying time and again regardless...”
I quickly broke the psionic contact. It was so arduous to read and feel all that. Ugh! My brow started to sweat. God forbid I ever find myself in such a hopeless situation, slowly dying of lack of oxygen...
Psionic skill increased to level one hundred four!
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level one hundred six!
I turned on the loudspeaker and turned to the Engineer:
“Orun Va-Mart, you’re a starship specialist. Can you tell me if old Kurimirus had oxygen regeneration units?”
The tailed Engineer’s reply came in almost instantly:
“Yes, captain. All models of Kurimiru and the first run of Ytsuke which initially replaced them had no oxygen regeneration capabilities. They carried condensed air in tanks.”
“I see. Then Gerd T’yu-Pan, this will be your first outing! Mission number one: within half an hour... correction, within one tenth of an ummi, your landing crew must infiltrate the Kurimiru shuttle and rescue the eight people on board. Prepare both landing modules for evacuation. Some of the people on board are unconscious due to lack of oxygen. I will try to explain them how to open the dock airlock for us. But I’m not certain it will work. They can barely breathe, which is to say nothing of moving or doing anything that actually requires brainpower. And Medic Gerd Mauu-La, prepare to receive patients! Mission number two: efficiently remove the Kurimiru’s entire cargo, then deliver it safe and sound to our frigate. And do not open the boxes or containers!”
Chapter Twenty-Four. Pirates or Victims?
AT THE TABLE in the middle of Tamara the Paladin’s state room, eight exhausted and tortured players were sitting eating a meal in identical uniforms of black and green, the heraldic colors of the great La-Shin dynasty of mage-rulers. Seven of them were big brutish men of combat classes with levels ra
nging from ninety-five to one hundred twenty, and the eighth was a dainty level-87 Engineer lady with fire-red hair. All the guests were clearly feeling shy in the presence of the ruling couple of the First Directory, but hunger took precedence nevertheless, and the food on the rescued astronauts’ plates disappeared as if by sorcery. I was not afraid of aggression on my guests’ part, so I didn’t even take any guards, but Gerd T’yu-Pan wanted to attach five soldiers to me “just in case.”
I had already determined from their stories that the old Kurimiru shuttle didn’t have enough power to take off from Earth, so their captain Mart-Ton La-Shin had skimped on basically everything that could possibly reduce the ship’s weight, even by a fraction of an ounce. Estimated flight time to Kasti-Utsh III fifty-nine hours? That means just two oxygen tanks – exactly enough for sixty hours if you really scrimp and keep only a minimal crew on board for the majority of the flight. They took only enough food for two modest meals, some very small and lightweight high-energy rations. One point five quarts of water per person. One set of light cotton clothing per crew member, cloth footwear and no personal items allowed in their inventory. The troopers carried light laser pistols (more for show than actual fighting) and not a single extra energy battery.
Cots, armchairs and even internal heat isolation plating and antiradiation protection had been removed to reduce mass. And meanwhile they were hauling as much cargo as possible to sell: five large galvanized containers with bars and rods of lutetium, praseodymium, ytterbium and other rare-earth metals. Plus Captain Mart-Ton La-Shin had a box of large and flawless precious stones in his inventory. Unfortunately, that most valuable part of the cargo had gone up in smoke along with its captain.
For the ten days prior to takeoff, the crew was put on a semi-starvation diet and their weight was further reduced with hours of grueling physical exercise while wearing thick rubberized suits, all while having to take pills of furosemide and other diuretics. But in the end, their goal was achieved – the rickety old starship broke free of Earth’s gravitational field and entered a hyperspace jump. However, no one had considered the harsh radiation, the fact space was a “red zone,” or the risks associated with moving their respawn points onto a starship. In the end, they started having problems almost immediately due to lack of oxygen because, even when the players went into the real world, their avatars remained in the game, consuming the already limited supply of oxygen. And so they made a harsh decision and killed the inactive avatars. Then the captain and two senior officers left the game and never came back...
“So what should I do with you?” I asked a niggling question. “None of you know any galactic languages, so even if I bring you to the Kasti-Utsh III station, you will simply disappear. And sending you off with a translator who does know the language of the magocratic world – Gerd Ayni, Gerd T’yu-Pan or my wife Gerd Minn-O La-Fin – would be wasteful. I need all of them here on the frigate. I could sign you onto my crew and take you into deep space. But I have too good an understanding of the magocratic world’s strict laws and I know that you would be accused of treason back home for working for a competing dynasty. And you wouldn’t be the only ones put at risk of the death penalty by that, all your close relatives would be in danger as well.”
“But Coruler Gnat La-Fin, I am an orphan! I have no relatives!” the red-headed lady raised her eyes to me with hope, her face framed by two silly pigtails that stuck out in different directions.
San-Sano. Human. La-Shin Faction. Level-87 Engineer.
Another Engineer on the frigate couldn’t hurt... Should I set her up as Orun Va-Mart’s assistant then? But I didn’t answer fast enough. A combat alert siren suddenly rolled through the ship.
And I didn’t even have time to think about why, because three Meleyephatians materialized right there in the state room. The huge spider-like troopers were wearing additional armor over their chitin and holding weapons at the ready in four hands. A moment later, the head of the human Gunfighter nearest them, who had been enjoying a peaceful meal, flew clean off, severed by the swipe of a sharp claw, which the space spider had at the end of each of its eight arms.
“We’re under attack! Time to fight, let’s go!” I shouted into the microphone of the helmet that was instantly on my head, meanwhile falling out of my chair onto my back and transitioning into a somersault.
Danger Sense skill increased to level seventy-nine!
Mental Fortitude skill increased to level one hundred seven!
Medium Armor skill increased to level seventy!
Jump to the side! Roll! Use a metal stand as cover! I was acting on pure intuition, not thinking at all. And I was making the right moves! The wall where I was just standing melted a second after I got out of the way, subjected to dozens of shots from a very high-speed and destructive weapon – all three of the spiders were focusing on me, their most dangerous target. And they weren’t only using their guns, they were also attacking psionically. My head was humming, as if someone smacked it with a heavy bag. It was hard to think. Furthermore, the armor’s forcefield was down by fifteen percent. In the end I did take a couple hits.
The Annihilator appeared in my hand. Hit the Scanning icon! I need to know where my enemies are without peeking out from behind cover! Put markers on them!
Scanning skill increased to level sixty-three!
Targeting skill increased to level forty-two!
Oh! One of the enemies is right next to my cover! Fire! I jumped up and shot the Annihilator twice from three feet away. Miss! Miss! Meleyephatians move so quickly! The spider I was shooting practically point blank had some clever way to dodge, jumping to the side, then up and hanging from the ceiling, its clawed feet hooked into the lighting domes.
“Coruler! Kill this one while we hold it down!” came a blood-curdling scream from a level-116 human Shocktroop.
Three bloodied and injured La-Shin Faction troops were pinning a Meleyephatian to the floor and trying to pull the weapon from the spiny beast’s arms. Another Meleyephatian meanwhile was racing around the room, successfully dodging laser pistol bursts from Gerd Minn-O La-Fin and two other humans, shooting back all the while.
I evened out my breathing, aimed and, trying not to mind my two new chest wounds, shot the creature right in the head. And when I looked at the Spy being held against the ground, I noticed he was level 162 (!!!). I hit with the Annihilator at thirty feet!!! A personal record!
Medium Armor skill increased to level seventy-one!
Targeting skill increased to level forty-three!
Sharpshooter skill increased to level forty-four!
You have reached level ninety-four!
You have received three skill points (total points accumulated: six).
Seems like slim experience for killing such a high-level enemy... Maybe the game system was splitting the experience between the four of us. Anyhow, I had no time to think. The Meleyephatian on the ceiling nimbly crawled right over me, spraying Gnat with fire from his two high-speed snub-nose laser rifles. My Energy Armor shield started to fall at a catastrophic rate. I rolled aside, trying to kill or at least repel the pesky enemy as I did, but it was like he was possessed. Miss! Miss! Miss! Miss!
The Annihilator battery lost all charge. I jumped back from the old cover, which was now all shot through and rolled again, taking shelter behind the corpses of Minn-O La-Fin and the girl with red braids, which were draped across an overturned chair. My arms were shaking with panic. I nearly dropped my reserve Annihilator battery. An alarm siren wailed through the ship to inform us that one of the sectors had lost pressure. The plastic ceiling panels caught fire, filling the state room with acrid black smoke. The automatic fire suppression system kicked into gear – all the doors automatically locked, cutting us off from the rest of the starship, and sending foamy water spraying out of the jets. Meanwhile, a stream of carbon dioxide gas was released from a set of slits that opened in the wall.
Danger Sense skill increased to level eighty!
“The
re won’t be any breathable air in here soon!” I shouted to my allies, just three of whom remained, immediately marking a now open cupboard in the wall for their benefit. “Oxygen masks on!”
I can’t say whether they understood me in the din of battle, but I suddenly had bigger concerns. The huge Meleyephatian sharply jumped off the ceiling, knocking me off my feet and pinning me to the ground with all his weight. Seemingly, he’d started doubting his ability to get through my Listener Energy Armor shield and decided to come in and bite my neck with his razor-sharp mandibles. But that was an error of the crudest variety. First of all, the ancient armor suit’s thick metal was not exactly the kind of thing you just casually bite through. Second, with him at absolute point blank, I did not miss! A massive hole the size of a soccer ball appeared in the giant spider’s chest plate. And my second shot split the dangerous foe’s carcass in two!
Medium Armor skill increased to level seventy-two!
Rifles skill increased to level sixty!
Sharpshooter skill increased to level forty-five!
I didn’t get another level-up, although my progress bar to ninety-five went up ninety percent from that one kill. I didn’t look at the dead enemy’s level, but it must not have been that high. All wet with water and covered in a sticky orange slime, I stood up and extended an arm toward the final enemy, who was lying on top of a bloodied human man and preparing to slice into him with his claws:
A Jump into the Unknown (Reality Benders Book #5) LitRPG Series Page 26