Battleframe (The Mindwars Book 1)

  “I’ve got a third degree burn in that exact same spot on my arm and it’s fair to say that it hurts a lot. Esther’s just gone to get some burn cream now for it.”

  “Is James OK?”

  James jumped in and said, “Yeah, I’m fine Uncle Mihaly. How’s Alex?”

  Although they were not related in any way both Russell and Mihaly had known each other since primary school and so it was only natural that their sons used “uncle” when addressing them.

  “He’s fine thank goodness. Not a mark on him.”

  Russell sighed deeply and said, “That’s good to hear.” Just then, Esther came through the door armed with the tube of burn cream.

  Russell spoke towards the phone and said, “Mihaly, can you and Marie come over after dinner? I think that we need to talk.”

  Esther looked at her husband quizzically.

  Hang on, after a few seconds Mihaly replied, “Sure thing, see you guys in about an hour.”

  “See you then. Bye”

  Whizzbang pushed the hang-up button and looked up at his wife.

  With her best bedside manner, Esther smiled grimly and said, “Russ, this is going to hurt but once it’s applied it will help numb the pain and speed up the healing.”

  He sometimes hated that his wife always told him the truth. In times like this, a lie would have been much easier to accept. True to her word, applying the burn cream caused him to squeeze his eyes shut with pain. After a few minutes, the pain subsided and his arm felt much better than before, courtesy of the wonders of modern anaesthetics.

  Chapter 2

  Deliberations

  Russell donned a clean shirt and quickly finished his dinner. There was a knock at the front door and Mihaly, Marie and Alex arrived, armed with some of their favourite apple cider.

  The two father’s had been through a lot together over the years and were about as close as friends could possibly be. Mihaly was about six inches shorter than Russell and had short-cropped black hair that was silvering as much as his friend’s. His parents were Hungarian born and had moved to Melbourne, Australia just after World War II as a part of the many southern Europeans that escaped the devastation of Europe at that time.

  Russell and Mihaly had been playing games together since they were in their early teens and this developed into a love for computers. After a stint in the Royal Australian Air Force as a fighter pilot Cadet, Mihaly decided to follow his desire to work in the computer industry. For the past seven years, he had been working with Russell managing Internet domain names.

  Marie was about the same height as Esther and her stunning straight red hair nearly reached her shoulders. For as long as Russell had known her, she had worn delicately framed glasses. Her quick and ready wit revealed a razor sharp mind that Russell had verbally fenced with many times over drinks. A primary school teacher by profession, Marie’s love for her students was only dwarfed by her love of Mihaly and their two children.

  The two couples had been best of friends for more years than they cared to remember. After initial greetings, they all adjourned to the comfort of the soft brown leather couches in the lounge room. Russell poured a round of drinks and set them out on coasters on the wooden coffee table.

  They quickly dispensed with further pleasantries to start unravelling what had happened while playing the game. During the discussion, Mihaly showed a number of his bruises and Russell lifted the bandage Esther had applied to his burn. Their two sons looked on with thoughtful expressions but said nothing.

  Russell looked across at his best friends and said, “Something’s going on Mihaly. How could it be that we both received actual injuries from a game? Remember when we were playing, I kept complaining about a problem with my arm? It must have been because I was actually hurt.”

  Mihaly looked thoughtful as he stared intently into his glass. “I really don’t know how all of this is possible. We also need to consider the fact that you two boys,” turning to both James and Alex, “seem to be fine.”

  “Did either of you experience any strange sensations while playing?” Russell asked.

  The two boys looked at each other and then back to their parents, when James said, “The lag did seemed to be especially bad this time. It was almost like the game was constantly surging.”

  With a smile on his face Alex said, “There was that moment when that girl began dancing with us during the party.”

  “Get serious Alex,” interjected Marie.

  “Hey Mum, she was spectacularly good looking!”

  James laughed and added, “You know you’re right Alex, she was good looking! The only problem is that the she is probably a he, and about two hundred kilograms!”

  Before the mothers could begin dressing down their two sons on the proper way to treat a girl, virtual or otherwise, Russell said, “I felt that strange surging as well. From the first moment I arrived in Freehold. It didn’t happen all the time but it seemed to get progressively worse.” He turned to speak directly to Mihaly. “In fact, it seemed to get really bad when I arrived at the Terrarium to rescue you. As we discussed in the game, it felt like the whole world was compressing and then expanding. It was a really strange feeling but I put it down to the take-out that we’d had for lunch.”

  “Come to think of it I felt the same thing from the moment that I first stepped into the game,” Mihaly said.

  Russell turned to the two boys, “Did either of you feel anything like that?”

  A look of concentration crossed James’s face as he said, “I wasn’t going to mention it because I thought it was nothing. Dad, remember when we first met at Freehold? I felt like I was suddenly falling. You know when you’re flying in an aeroplane and your stomach ends up in your throat after hitting an air pocket. It only lasted a few seconds so I thought nothing of it.”

  Alex looked back from James to both their fathers, “Like James, I wasn’t going to make a big deal of it, but I did feel something when you both arrived in Freehold. It was only for a few seconds and I didn’t think of it again.”

  Esther had remained silent as she listened to each of the boys share their thoughts, finally she said, “So let me understand this. Each of you experienced something you’ve never felt before while playing a game and this has resulted in both Mihaly and Russ getting hurt. The solution seems pretty simple to me, stop playing the game!”

  Russell placed his handed gently on Esther’s knee and said, “You’re right of course. We could stop playing ‘Scourge Wars’, but I for one, need to find out what happened to us. It must be some new technology that induces a psychosomatic physical response in the player.”

  Esther turned to her husband and said with just a hint of sarcasm in her voice, “Spoken like a true consultant Russ.” Looking at the four men she continued, “Seriously guys, you have no idea what is going on and don’t pretend that you do.”

  Marie joined in and said, “I agree with Esther. You have to stop playing, whatever it’s called. It’s just too risky. We don’t know what’s going on but I do know that you all could be seriously hurt by that thing.”

  Russell nodded his head and smiled warmly as he said to both Esther and Marie, “You’re both right of course, it’s a dangerous game and I have no intention of getting burned again but…”

  Esther interrupted, “Russ why is there always a but with you? Can’t you just leave it be?”

  Marie rolled her eyes. Over the thirty plus years she had known Russell she’d heard that but numerous times before. It always meant something bad was about to happen and would somehow involve Mihaly.

  Russell raised his voice to be heard above his wife’s objections, “As I was saying. I need to find out what has happened to me. What about you Mihaly? How about you James and Alex? Aren’t you curious about what happened to you?”

  The three other males in the room looked at each other and then back to Russell. Mihaly then hesitantly said, “Russ, I know this may sound crazy but we seemed to be really there, on Alpha Three. If this is
really the case then we were making a difference and for some reason those people needed us. I don’t know how it happened or why it happened to us but for me I need to get to the bottom of it.”

  Marie sighed in exasperation as she exclaimed, “Men!”

  By this time, Esther had had enough of the conversation and said, “Mihaly, can you hear yourself? You’re talking about a game. Alpha Three, or whatever it’s called, is inside a computer. It only exists in the mind of a bunch of programmers in Los Angeles.”

  Russell looked thoughtfully over at Mihaly and Mihaly back at him before saying, “You’re right Esther. We need to go to Los Angeles.”

  “What?” Esther asked in amazement.

  “You heard me. We need to go to LA and speak with the guys at Blue Sky Studios.”

  And so it went on, hour after hour, as the two couples and their sons discussed the strange unfolding of events into the late hours of the evening. At one point, they even called both Kheldar and DG to find out if they had experienced anything similar to themselves. Both of them had not received any physical evidence like Russell and Mihaly but they had felt that strange compression and release sensation.

  After their friends had left, Russell and Esther said goodnight to their son. While they cleaned up, they chatted about their girls, Michelle and Rose, schooling, the business and other more mundane matters. It was all so normal, something they had done many times before, but this time it was so false.

  Finally, when they were in bed with the light off Esther leaned over and gave Russell a kiss good night. Whispering, she said, “I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  “Russ, do what you think’s best.”

  With that, Russell closed his eyes with a sense of peace and drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 3

  Is this a dream?

  Whizzbang looked up as a huge hand engulfed his and hauled him to his feet. A half-familiar ugly face seemed to rush towards him as Tiny rumbled in his gravelly voice, “What are ya doing down there Whizz?”

  Whizzbang shook his head from side to side to help recover from his momentary vertigo. The last thing he remembered was saying goodnight to Esther, so this was either a dream or somehow he’d been ported back to Alpha Three. He looked around at the open Freehold plaza with its cobblestoned paving and the freedom torch towering in the middle of the courtyard. He ignored Tiny’s question and said authoritatively, “Report soldier.”

  Tiny took a half smoked cigar from between his lips and responded with his deep reverberating voice, “Since last night we’ve managed to get twenty-four frames operational sir. The nano-printers are still short on tellurite but we’ve got a couple of squads of Diggers to the north, just outside Free, to see what they can mine out. The scouts have reported no contact with the enemy and the lookouts up on the rock above haven’t seen anything either.”

  “Twenty-four frames! That’s not going to be enough!” Whizzbang thought to himself. He looked up at the sun and saw that it was halfway across the sky. I’ve been away for about eight hours he thought. That's about the same amount of time as I was back home.

  “Tiny, can you point me in the direction of Bosk?”

  Pointing through an archway leading out of the plaza Tiny said, “Sure, for the last fifteen minutes he’s been working with the scouting teams just where the parts vendors have set up shop.”

  “Thanks for that” Whizzbang replied and almost as an afterthought said, “It’s good to see you soldier.”

  A broad smile split Tiny’s face in two, revealing a number of broken teeth. He straightened his back, saluted by raising his right pointer and index finger to his temple and then sweeping them forward by pivoting from his elbow. “Yes sir!” he said in his very best soldier’s voice.

  Whizzbang returned the salute, turned and jump-jetted up the steps in the direction that Tiny had last seen Bosk. Cocking his head to the side, he spoke into his Raven’s local comnet pickup, “Bosk, you copy?”

  Bosk quickly replied, “Heh Whizz, you back here again as well. It seems like we don’t have to play anymore to be sucked back to Alpha Three. So much for our girls telling us to leave well and good alone.”

  Whizzbang rounded the corner and spotted his friend, just as he stepped away from speaking with a squad of five pilots. Whizzbang settled gently to the ground next to Bosk. “So this isn’t a dream then?”

  “Doesn’t look like it Whizz. Put it this way, when was the last time you had a vaguely intelligent conversation with me in a dream?”

  “Good point. Who else is here?”

  “No idea, let’s find out”

  Bosk tilted his head to speak into his comnet, “Bosk and Whizz calling, Kheldar, DG, Pyro and Elzetro.” Leaning towards Whizzbang he asked, “Who were those other two you were with again?”

  “Acheron and Selfia”

  “Also, add Acheron and Selfia to the previous list. All identified pilots, reply.”

  Suddenly the local comnet was awash with familiar voices. Above the clamour Whizzbang heard his son say, “Dad is that you and Bosky?”

  Motioning to get Bosk’s attention Whizzbang said, “Call them all in, we need a serious talk.”

  While Bosk arranged for the pilots to come in Whizzbang tuned into a private comnet channel and said, “Yes it is son. Bosk is calling all of you in, so get to my location ASAP.”

  Pyro slipped straight back into battlespeak and replied “CT Dad, your position in five.”

  Whizzbang watched the familiar scarred battleframes jump jet, run and bound towards Bosk and him. Each one had their own style but all of them exhibited a deadly grace and an economy of movement that betrayed their elite competency. Looking up he saw Pyro bearing down towards him in a steep glide, pull up and then do a leisurely aerial circuit of Freehold.

  “Thanks for the overhead Pyro,” Bosk said into his comnet.

  “CT Bosk, just taking a last check for Scourge. All clear, we are G2G.”

  Pyro broke out of his circuit and headed down to his father and uncle just as Kheldar and DG arrived with Selfia and Acheron not far behind.

  “It’s good to see you guys!” Whizzbang exclaimed over the sound of breaking jump jets and screeching massive plasteel shod boots on stone pavers.

  Giving hugs in a battleframe really was not possible so each of them gave the same salute to each other that Tiny had given Whizzbang earlier. It seemed appropriate for such an occasion.

  “So my friends, by now you’ve probably worked out that playing ‘Scourge Wars’ isn’t just a game,” Whizzbang said in a matter of fact tone of voice. “So let’s hear where everyone’s really from,” he continued.

  Kheldar spoke first while he raised his hand towards the others, “San Francisco here Whizz.”

  “Los Angeles,” piped in DG.

  “We’re both from London,” replied Acheron as he indicated Selfia.

  Whizzbang cocked an eyebrow towards Selfia in surprise and then continued the introductions, “Everyone, this is my son Pyro and my best friend Bosk. We’re from Melbourne Australia.”

  Bosk turned towards Pyro and asked, “Where’s Elzetro? I thought that he was with you up top.”

  Pyro spared a glance skyward and replied, “He wanted to do a high altitude circuit and the last I heard he thought that he saw something south-west of Free, so he used some of his extra height to glide closer to check it out.”

  Bosk held up his hand to stop any further discussion and spoke into his comnet, “Bosk to Elzetro, come in Elzetro.”

  Other than static, the comnet was devoid of a reply to Bosk’s call. This time it was a father’s voice calling a son across the comnet, “Bosk to Elzetro. Are you there son?”

  Whizzbang moved to stand next to his friend, while the seconds ticked by waiting for some sort of reply. Whizzbang could see the stress play itself out across Bosk’s face. The normally smiling carefree eyes betrayed the inner anguish and turmoil as Bosk again called, “Son, are you there?”

 
The constant monotone noise of static again greeted them all across the comnet and it appeared as if the whole of Freehold was holding its breath. Suddenly there was a greater volume of noise followed by, “Dad, it’s me!”

  The relief was short-lived as Elzetro’s stressed high-pitched voice again sounded over the comnet, “Dad, I’m coming in hot! I’ve got a damaged winglet that’s been punctured by sniper fire! I’ve been trying to call you for the last couple of minutes but the Scourge are blanketing the area with interference again.”

  Chapter 4

  Plans and Gliding

  The blaring of the Freehold Scourge attack-warning siren sounded. It was immediately followed by a burst of local comnet battlespeak from outlying squads that were on scouting duty. Battleframes all around Freehold froze whatever they were doing as they mentally zeroed in on what was important for their specific duties amongst all the comnet chatter.

  Looking across at his friends Whizzbang took charge and said, “Guys, the reunion’s going to have to wait. It looks like we’ve some uninvited guests heading our way. Bosk, you, Pyro, Kheldar and DG make sure that Elzetro receives some covering fire as he comes in. He may crash short of Free and your job is to make sure that he gets to safety in one piece.”

  Bosk did not need any further instructions and neither did any of the others. In a single uniform motion and a roar of jump jets, the four battleframes leapt into the air to get some height so that they could glide to Elzetro’s rescue.

  Whizzbang signalled to both Selfia and Acheron to follow him as he spoke into the private comnet channel and said, “Whizzbang for Tiny.”

  Tiny’s gruff voice instantly responded, “Tiny here, awaiting instructions.”

  “We’ve got company heading our way. How many frames are ready and active in Free right now?”

  “We’ve got fifteen within Free and twelve as a ready reserve to the outlying squads”

  “Tiny, have the northern Digging teams checked in as yet?”

  “No, they haven’t as yet.” There was a slight pause and Whizzbang could hear Tiny typing on his wrist-comp. “Whizz. Squad three is long overdue.”