Kill Code

by Justin Sloan

  A screen popped up to my left, showing little symbols for missiles, turrets, anti-aircraft, and more. Above that was a minimap. Moving my hand along the minimap portion of the screen, I was able to highlight various areas and see where I could deploy these bases.

  “Holy shit,” I said, looking around, then at the map and processing what this was. “Metal Marines!”

  It had been one of my favorite games growing up, when my older brother had schooled me on the classics of gaming. The basics of the game was that it was a turn-based strategy Super Nintendo game, one that he said Grandpa had used to rent from a movie rental store when he was a kid and had shown him how to play. Since Grandpa had passed before I was old enough to understand, the responsibility of showing me how to play had fallen on my brother. He’d gotten impatient, but for me it was like I was connecting with my grandpa, seeing this stuff he had cared so much for as a child. It was the only way I’d known him. So when my brother moved on to friends and whatnot, I’d devoted my childhood to playing old video games, starting with the original Nintendo and going through PlayStation.

  Making a long story and many hours of gameplay short, I knew Metal Marines and loved it. Unfortunately, I’d never played a life-size simulated version of it, so this all felt rather overwhelming.

  I couldn’t imagine what the enemy was thinking right now. One minute they were overwhelming me on their warped battlefield, the next they’re here, in a game they might not have ever played.

  While they scrambled to find out what the hell was happening, I needed to move. It all started coming back to me—where to place antiaircraft and missiles, spreading out my bases so that they’d have a hard time finding them, and then crafting my metal marines. Metal marines were basically mechs that, in the old game, you would send out to take down turrets, missiles, and ultimately the enemy’s base.

  The strategy was simple—send out missiles to explode large patches of land, and hopefully something the enemy was building. They worked in a land-discovery way, exposing more of the map as they traveled. Once you discovered where their bases were, it was time to move in for the potential slaughter. I had to assume that the port had set it up so that the enemy only had one base, and that it was their actual base. It made sense, what with Rivera being on my side and her being the one who had set it up.

  Still, I imagined that destroying their base wouldn’t actually destroy the ring. Instead it would likely shatter whatever illusion they’d set up, giving us access.

  With this in mind, I pushed forward full throttle. I was the first to send a barrage of missiles, discovering a wall of turrets and antiaircraft. My next barrage went slightly closer, so they’d have less chance of blowing my missiles out of the air, and I succeeded in taking down three of their antiaircraft and two turrets.

  It would have been time to send in the metal marines, but they were still being built.

  An old, pixelated message indicator at the corner of my map flashed, and I cocked my head in curiosity. When I selected it, a pixelated version of General Omarav popped up.

  “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but this is childish!” he spat. “Accept defeat and we’ll let you live.”

  “That’s a kind offer, or would be if it weren’t for the fact that you’re only saying so because you’re actually worried now.”

  He growled. “About this? Throw Pac-Man at us. Use whatever stupid tools you can; you’ll still taste the heel of my boot when I trample you.”

  “Cliché, man,” I replied with a shake of my head, and smiled.

  “What makes you so cocky?” he asked.

  “Oh, you’ll see.” I exited the window, because I was excited to see that my metal marines were ready.

  Another message flashed. I sighed and opened it, but this time it was Rivera.

  “Ryan,” she said, grinning. “Just wanted to say I’m able to see what’s going on, but can’t be there with you. Keep it up!”

  “Thanks,” I replied, and she hung up. Seeing her message actually comforted me, giving me even more confidence. When I selected the metal marines, though, something weird happened. Instead of the original way it worked, like with the missiles going off and doing their thing, I felt a strong rumbling. Something was coming, and I wasn’t sure if I liked that. An instant later, I was rising up into the sky as metal legs formed beneath me. More metal formed around me, and it took a second for me to realize I was being encased in a mech suit—I was going to be the metal marine sent over.

  I took off, flying across the water and then landing in front of the remaining antiaircraft and turrets. My goal was the turrets, as the others didn’t pose a threat after landing. I charged forward, unleashing rounds on them, and then went to work with my electricity sword just like in the game. The rest of the battle went on like this, and though I’d lost one of my three bases, soon I spotted his on my screens. I selected my metal marine to send after it.

  “Send Metal Marine?” the screen asked.

  I selected ‘Yes’ and felt a rumbling. Again I became the metal marine, and then it was complete and I was being shot over the water, right at the point on the map I’d selected. When I landed, the countdown timer kicked in and I charged forward to find the base. I was the Metal marine again with a machine gun attached to one hand and my electric sword in the other. Turrets lit into me, but I was a machine of destruction and felt unstoppable. As I tore into them, I found myself laughing. It was only a game, yet so much more. It was the culmination of all my gaming, the days of my youth, the connection with my grandpa who I’d never met—all come to life as I myself came to life.

  After taking out the turrets, I wasn’t about to stop. I thrust forward and saw two enemy metal marines emerging through the smoke, and went on to meet them.

  “Come on, Ryan!” Rivera said. Though I couldn’t see her, I felt her presence. Working together, we were unstoppable. The first mech came at me and met my sword, flying back as electricity wracked it. I plowed the next with round after round, only pausing when the first recovered and returned fire, causing my mech to stumble back. Smoke rose from my mech, but I charged forward again and hit the first across the top with my sword, slamming it to the ground, and then delivered a shot point-blank. It was out.

  The second caught me from behind, pushing me back, and I realized why. It wasn’t just trying to fight me, it was trying to keep me from discovering its base. A base that, I now knew, must be not far behind it.

  My countdown timer was low, but I had to go for it. Ignoring the mech, I threw myself toward where I knew the base must be. The mech tried to get to me, but I was charging with thrusters, and started shooting as I bypassed it. The base appeared in my line of sight, and I went to the other side, tearing into it.

  The other mech was in pursuit, but my power was too strong, the base unable to hold me off without turrets on this side. Apparently, these guys hadn’t played their share of Metal Marines. Amateurs.

  The mech came around the edge as the timer hit three, then two—a shot flew at me, and I struck the base just in time. The shot hit me and knocked me back, but flames and smoke were rising from the base, and I knew it would only take one more hit.

  “There we go!” Rivera said, appearing beside me in the mech, and she threw her arms around me. “I fixed it—no matter how many times they knock me out, I come back swinging. We’ve got this!”

  My mech hit the base one more time, and then it exploded in a burst of lights. When it cleared, we were at the edge of the temple from earlier, the glowing ring within pulsing as it was about to push out another respawn.

  “Hit it, and hit it hard,” Rivera said.

  “Only one attack I can think of that will hit it hard enough,” I said, and glanced her way. “How’s the self-destruct option work?”

  The other mech was charging us now, intent on finishing this his way.

  Rivera gulped. “I honestly didn’t enjoy that ejection process, but…” She pulled up the display in front of us, working it w
ith holo-controls, and then the self-destruct option showed. “You’re sure about this?”

  “You see another option? Any minute, they’ll all respawn and start attacking, and we won’t be able to destroy the ring.”

  She nodded. “Lead us forward.”

  Using the controls, I thrust the mech forward until it was in the midst of the blue, glowing ring, and gave her the go-ahead. She hit the command, then three more swipes. ‘Eject’ appeared on the screen. As the enemy mech changed its trajectory and aimed, Rivera threw herself at me, grabbing tight, and said, “Hold on.”

  With a thrust that I was certain would leave me with whiplash, we shot out of our mech and into the sky in the ejected seat. It didn’t go as far as I’d expected, and the thrusters didn’t seem to be working as well as they should’ve.

  “It’s built for one,” Rivera said, and moved to jump. I held onto her, not about to let that happen.

  “Then we do our best,” I said, and she buried her head into my chest, arms wrapped around me so tight I wasn’t sure which would hurt more—the fall or her if she squeezed the tiniest bit more.

  An enemy blast hit before we landed, throwing us back and into the air. Our seat slammed into a building and we fell, crashing through a balcony and then bouncing off another in a way that sent me flying, unable to keep my grip on Rivera.

  I hit the ground, hard, and rolled to my back to watch the smoke rise into the sky. Our mech was gone. The enemy mech fell, done for. The ring, I hoped, was gone as well, but we’d have to make our way back and make sure of it.

  19

  My body ached, my breaths came with pain, but I was filled with relief. We were so close to finally finishing this hell. But when I turned back to look for Rivera, my heart sank.

  She was under the ejection seat, leg trapped and trying to push herself free. I rushed over and found a position to leverage my weight and shove it off of her. She grunted in pain and took my hand, but when she tried to stand, she fell right back down.

  “It’s broken,” she said.

  “Can’t you just heal it or something?”

  “Not how it works.” She scooted over, grabbed her rifle and pointed. “Go. I’ll do what I can to cover you from here. In the meantime, I’ll be seeing what I can do on the other side.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Go!”

  I nodded and took off at a jog, still not sure how committed I was to rushing back there without her. However, as I drew closer, my spirits began to lift again. It looked like we had been successful. The temple and surrounding buildings were flattened, and there was no glowing blue light.

  If what I understood of this place was true, that meant we’d leveled not only these buildings, but the playing field as well. No more respawning—though we hadn’t necessarily blocked them from other hacks.

  My main focus, at the moment, was to find Omarav if he was still there, and expel him from the sim.

  Two soldiers appeared, pushing their way out of the rubble, and one took a shot at me. I returned fire, blasting him in the head. The bullet tore half his skull away, leaving him to collapse. A corpse. Holy shit. Not only had getting rid of the ring stopped their respawning, it made it so that they were dying in the game as well.

  That wasn’t what I wanted, but it made one thing very clear—we needed to end this the old-fashioned way. There would be no surrender. It made me very curious, however, about what happened to all the soldiers who had been about to respawn but weren’t able to when we blew up the ring. Were their bodies now in some sort of soulless vegetable state? Something told me the EAC wouldn’t allow them to continue like that. At least then their blood would be on their own governing body’s hands, not mine.

  Another shot rang out, and I threw myself down behind a half wall left standing. The soldier let out a shout, apparently having seen his dead companion, and then took off running. Fine by me. I charged into the midst of the rubble, rifle at the ready.

  “Omarav!” I shouted. “You better not still be alive!”

  A shot echoed, and I spun to see one of the soldiers falling. Rivera waved to me in the distance, and I waved a thanks. I kept moving, eyes searching the chaos.

  Then I saw him. He was at the edge of the explosive area, eyes white, hands gesturing as if adjusting screens. That son of a bitch was up to something, and I had to act fast. Charging forward, I fired as I ran. Before the shots could hit, he looked up at me as his eyes returned to normal, his surroundings morphing so that a tunnel formed behind him. Then he was through the tunnel, bullets bouncing off an invisible barrier—and the tunnel was closing.

  Before it could close, I dove in.

  Only then did I realize that I’d just thrown myself to his mercy, to a degree. I was in whatever world he’d chosen, which meant he had the advantage. That’s what I thought when I arrived in darkness.

  But as I kept moving, I realized it wasn’t darkness… it was Shining in the Darkness. The square stone walls with oval stones for floor and ceiling, I’d remember those anywhere! And the way the tunnel led me with different turns, I was back in the old patterns. If there was one game I’d spent nearly as much time on as Metal Marines, it was Shining in the Darkness. The prequel to Shining Force, this game hadn’t held any special emotional value to me. It had just been damn fun. I still remember sneaking up to play it at three in the morning, and the way I’d feel so sick from sleep deprivation at school the next day.

  A good year of my life had been invested in this game, and now Omarav had chosen it as the port for his escape. The stupid ass! I laughed, charging through the dungeon with my rifle at the ready. I followed the sounds of footsteps, made two lefts, then the passage took us to the right. I had several new upgrades from the levels my rifle had gained, in addition to my own, and looked forward to trying them out. First, I put on the thermal sight. It would help in the darkness, and when I looked through the sight, I saw a form ahead. Then it vanished. It had been there running down the tunnel ahead of me, and then was gone.

  The game came back to me, along with all of the little cheats. Two lefts and then following the passage led me to a very specific location, I recalled. Suddenly it made sense why he had vanished. I had to see it for myself before believing, so I darted forward, not stopping until I saw what I’d suspected—a wall with a damn eye on it. One of the weirder monsters in this game. Apparently, Omarav was being treated like a monster, so had no problem going past the wall. I, however, would have to fight it.

  At first I tried shooting it, taking cover from afar, but the bullets went right through. When the thing shot a laser my way, I wanted to call foul. The laser eye robot wouldn’t be a thing until Shining Force, so the fact that the wall here was using it felt wrong. Then again, this was supposed to be an actual war, not a run through my favorite dungeon crawler. The funny thing was, I’d later heard that many people from my day thought the game was too difficult—that was after I’d beat it as a pre-teen.

  So what were my options here? Most likely, I’d have to hit it with something stronger, but couldn’t get close enough with the grenades. Not when it had that laser aimed my way.

  I turned back around the corner and pulled up my weapons levels, glad to see I hadn’t used all of the upgrade points. One more than I had, and I could get the grenade launcher. Since I still had two grenades, that might just do it.

  However, monsters and the like weren’t a possibility here, because of… wait a minute. The ring had been their way of keeping NPCs at bay. Now it was gone. And that door was some form of monster, so…

  “Rivera, can you hear me,” I said into my comms.

  It took a second, but then she was there, her voice coming in scratchy. “I’m still trying something here.”

  “I have something. Can you spawn monsters here? It’s a Shining in the Darkness port.”

  “What, that’s awesome!”

  I grinned. “It is, actually. Can you do it?”

  “You actually want monsters.”


  “I need levels, and I think they’re already doing something here.”

  “Hold on… I have to… just…” She let out a whoop. “No problem! Give it a few seconds, then walk down a hall and see what happens.”

  “You’re the best!”

  With that, I turned and ran down the hall back toward the entrance. It struck me as funny when the crazy, slug-looking monsters appeared. But I shot them down and watched my weapon get closer to leveling up. I spun round, running back the way I’d come, careful to avoid the laser hall, and found some slimes.

  “I need the heavy hitters, Rivera!” I shouted.

  “Coming up.”

  Sure enough, out from the darkness came several knights and dragons. Not big dragons, but about the size of large dogs, flapping through the air. This was getting real, and kind of freaky. The dragons came at me first, breathing fire that I could only avoid by throwing myself backwards.

  “Maybe a bit too much,” I admitted.

  “Can’t handle it?” she asked.

  “I’ll manage.”

  My bullets bounced right off their scales, but when one opened its jaws to breathe fire, I managed to make contact through the top of the inside of its mouth. That did the trick, causing the dragon to fall instantly. The knights charged and I aimed for the joints and slits in the helmets, and then took out another dragon as it was about to breathe fire. When the next knight came for me, I rolled right and pulled out my Ka-Bar, slamming it up and into the visor. A sword swung down at my head, but I dove back and shot, dropping the last of them.

  Quickly upgrading my rifle to add the grenade launcher attachment, I sprinted back to the passage with the laser eye, attached a grenade, and then fired.

  KA-BOOM!

  The wall exploded, pieces of eye splattering the walls, and I was through. Unfortunately, the general now had a bit of a head start on me. I charged through the maze, trying to pull up memories, recall what I could from my youth. Bits of those memories surfaced, such as where a treasure chest had been and how to kill certain monsters, but the maps were much more difficult. It was on the tenth set of slug monsters and another level up of my rifle, when I realized I was lost.