by Jeff Sproul
It didn't take Riley long to get back home and then online. After his earlier excursion with his alliance members to hunt Golem, he'd logged off in Bunker 7, which was still the headquarters of The Bunker Brawlers, even if it had changed ownership since the time they first made it their home. It was no longer owned by the same people as before. Marcella no longer worked there. Instead, she'd opted to head to a more casual VRMMO. It just so happened that Seth had left the game as well. The game was only ever supplemental income for him, since he had a job. Marcella was able to find some light work in another game where death wasn't right around the corner. The last Riley had heard about the two, they'd moved in together in the real world, since apparently they only lived about half an hour away from each other.
Bunker 7 remained intact, even after the invasion of the city. Sage had ordered the player lounges and gathering points to be attacked and raised, so that players would have nowhere to call home. But as per Riley and Sage's agreement, Bunker 7 was left alone. The owners abandoned it once they realized that they wouldn't be able to truly protect it or garner a clientele like what they had before. The owners were an older couple who had made plenty of return on their initial investment, so it wasn't as if they had lost out significantly. Both were already retired and the income from the bunker's profits just helped them travel around a bit more.
Riley's room in Bunker 7 was better-furnished than the usable room he'd logged out in before at the Crimson HQ. It gave him a longer well-rested buff, which was valuable to him since he was usually online for a long time.
Riley had requisitioned one of the alliance scorpions. He had it guarding the common area of the bunker, where normally various televisions would depict the news and patrons would eat and drink to replenish their energy and boost their stats. But now, chairs sat idle next to empty tables, while a large scorpion lurked in the center of the room.
He used the quick-moving scorpion to return to Crimson HQ. He could've called the HQ from his phone, but he wanted to be there in person and it would only take a couple minutes to get where he needed to be.
As he made his way through the city, he couldn't help but look into the sky. Were the anglers lurking high above, outside of their sensor range? Were the creatures able to determine what sensor ranges were? If that was the case, then why did that one angler attack his NPCs back at the outpost? Perhaps the anglers could determine if a sensor was stronger than their stealth? The possibilities were truly endless, if Golem could create creatures that had numerous abilities imbued into them. He could only imagine the horror the creatures could be capable of if they were also gifted his power-stealing ability.
From what Sage had described, it sounded as though Golem still had to spend resources to make creatures, just like any player would have to do. It wasn't just making something from nothing. It was utilizing resources to build new and more expensive units, if those units also had special abilities. It was likely that anything Golem would try and make with paragon or hellion powers would surely be expensive. But if the creature had near inexhaustible resources, then maybe that wasn't going to be a problem for it.
Riley reached the Crimson HQ only after taking all the twists and turns in the underground. In no time at all, he had dismounted the scorpion and was heading into the base. Once inside, he looked around and called out. "Anyone home? Sage?"
"Just me," came Chrono's voice. "Everyone else is out doing things."
Riley looked around for Chrono. He'd heard his voice but didn't see him. He walked around and spotted him behind one of the organic-cybernetic terminals that were set up throughout the room.
"I thought you'd be off for a while longer," said Chrono. "Laura and Thrash took two groups back out, but they went to some farming grounds in the Nether Plains. I doubt they'll be back for a while."
"Where's Sage?" Riley asked as he walked up to where Chrono was interacting with the terminal. As he got closer, he could see that Chrono had a 3D-rendering of the city and was manipulating it, checking defenses and minions, as well as any of their players that might be around the city.
"Offline," said Chrono.
"When's he coming back?"
"I don't know. Probably tomorrow morning. I think he wanted to do some research on how far Golem had progressed in Mage World. The only way he can do that is by logging off. Did you need him for something?"
"Kinda," said Riley. "I wanted to tell him that we might've been looking in the wrong place earlier. I think we need to start checking the skies. That angler creature that attacked me, if it's more intelligent than a regular NPC, since Golem is a hive-mind and able to control it…I think it might be up higher in the sky in the atmosphere. Somewhere out of range of our scans."
Chrono's hands stopped moving for the first time since Riley had arrived. His head turned as he looked to Riley. He was silent at first.
"It's worth checking out," said Chrono. "We have very limited aerial capabilities, as far as combat is concerned. Flying minions of any type are inefficiently expensive for their value in combat. Well, unless all you want to do is survey and scout. But let me see if we can whip anything up."
Riley was surprised that Chrono had so easily gone along with his idea. Perhaps he was onto something after all. Especially if Chrono was convinced. He walked around and stood to the side, watching what he was doing.
The time-manipulating hellion would tap at different buttons on the display screen of the terminal. He didn't say much until he reached a screen that showed a list of minions that they were capable of crafting. "I don't know of anyone that has much expertise in crafting aerial combat minions. None of our hellion members do. Does your friend Arbiter?"
"I don't think he's ever mentioned them, if he does," said Riley. "Who makes our aerial surveillance stuff?"
"That would be me," said Chrono. "But as I've said before, it's some of the easiest stuff to acquire, as far as a 'flying minion' is concerned. I'd have to do more research on trying to unlock anything more combat useful."
"Hmm, I see," Riley murmured. "None of our allies have anything?"
"The Weavers don't. The Thrashers don't. The Vigilant don't have anything aerial beyond surveillance. The Royals and The Pale Ones don't have anything either. The rest of the guilds are less established. And you and your BBs aren't really crafters. Just your friend Arbiter who runs his own guild, yes?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"That's what I thought. So, this puts us in a bit of a dilemma. As far as trying to act on your new theory, that is."
"What about the outpost I secured earlier?" Riley asked. "Is it alright? Did you check the schematics it had?"
Chrono glanced back to Riley. "The site is as secure as it can be. It's well defended for the time being. What schematics are you talking about? Didn't Arbiter provide you with the data-drive?"
"Yeah, but there was a whole other drive that I didn't quite get around to searching through. I was kinda busy with what I knew I could make and get running before heading back as quick as I was able."
"You're saying there's a whole schematic drive that you didn't check out?"
"Well, it had some mortar rounds that I built, but I was so eager to wrap it all up that I forgot to check through everything on the drive. There might be something there. I don't know."
"Well, we should at least check it out," said Chrono. "I upgraded the teleporter at that location, so that it links more efficiently with ours here at HQ."
"Did you have any problem returning back to Crimson HQ from the outpost?" Riley asked.
Chrono shook his head. "There was no issue. At least, not after I upgraded the teleporter. It will be expensive for it to teleport you somewhere, unless that place is the Crimson HQ. So we can move freely back and forth between there and here without a significant cost per person."
"Sounds useful. Is that how our other locations are set up?"
Chrono nodded. "Yeah, but only when going back and forth between the HQ and the set location. It's still poryte intensive for you to t
eleport from one outpost to another outpost directly. You'll want to go from outpost A, to the Crimson HQ, to then go to outpost B. Do you understand?"
"Yeah, I get it," said Riley. "It's not that difficult a concept."
"Just checking," Chrono remarked. "So, why don't you head over to Outpost Rose?"
"Rose?" Riley asked. "We named my outpost 'Rose?' I thought I'd get to choose the name."
"Did you have an outpost name that had something to do with the color red?"
"Not off the top of my head, no," said Riley.
"You know that Sage has some innate desire to name everything some semblance of red."
"Yeah, I figured that out pretty early. I just…never mind. Rose is perfectly fine. So, you want me to head over to Rose and check the schematics there? We can't just ping it from HQ, like you do with other outposts?"
"Correct," said Chrono. "I didn't upgrade the facility's command center with better comms yet. That interference you mentioned was still prevalent. So I didn't want to waste resources on a better antenna—that still probably wouldn't work. There must be some sort of strong jammer in the vicinity between us and Outpost Rose. I wanted to start extracting resources from the location to make up for what we've been losing before spending too much more on it. Upgrading outposts can get expensive very quickly. Luckily, it's on a decent enough site, so that it's pretty self-sufficient."
"Alright, I guess I'll just pop over there real quick and check the schematics. Did you modify anything else while you were over there?" Riley asked, as he headed over to a doorway in one of the walls, which would lead to the teleporter room.
"I added a few more troopers, but nothing too major. I mostly just took inventory and noted its extraction capabilities, and what it would take to upgrade some of the facilities. It looks about as well-defended as it's going to be. Also, I had to scrap the railgun because there's no way that we're going to waste poryte on its use. It's a very inefficient design with a lower damage output. So, yes, it's a powerful weapon by any means, but it's one of the lowest end models I've ever seen, and very inefficient on power and resource usage. I brought some poryte back with me when I transferred back to base, but the facility should have a nice little supply of resources again. I can't trigger a supply transfer from the location remotely, due to the comms issue. So for now, we're going to have to spend some poryte to go over there and transfer resources ourselves. I also need to pop over there myself, or send someone every once in a while just to ensure that it's not being attacked. The comms issue is a multi-faceted problem, unfortunately."
"I get it," said Riley. "I'll head over and take care of it."
"See you in a few, then," said Chrono. "Were you planning on being on for a while tonight?" he asked, since it was already past sundown.
"Not too late, I hope," said Riley. "I mainly wanted to look into the idea of these creatures being in the sky or not. But I really shouldn't be going out and hunting by myself, so I guess I'll take care of this and then see what else is going on nearby."
"Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Things have been relatively quiet since this morning, except for that excursion to search for Golem earlier. But that only took a couple hours. So people have been switching to PVE."
"I'll hurry back, so if any groups start to form, tell them to wait for me. I'd like to get a little leveling in tonight."
"Sure thing. Catch you in a bit."
Riley went through one of the translucent red doorways, which slid open as he approached. He entered a circular room with glowing red lights on the floor. He stood on one of them and smiled to himself. At least he could teleport to Outpost Rose now, instead of trudging along in the rover. The rover was cool and all, but teleport was much faster.
"System, teleport me to Outpost Rose.'
A sharp female hiss filled the room. "Travelling to Outpost Rose in ten…nine…"
A tingle ran up Riley's spine. He forgot how the hellion's system voice sounded. He should've gotten used to it by now, but he supposed that he was expecting the paragon system voice.
"Three…two…one."
In a flash of red light, he was gone.
Chapter 17: Rose
The second floor of the command room appeared. A wave of momentum rushed over him. He waited a second, then another. There was no sick feeling, which he was thankful for. It didn't usually occur with a teleport. There had only been one or two uneasy teleports, but none recently. The game had gotten better about the data-load on the brain, which he was immeasurably thankful for. Portals still caused a wave of nausea, but not nearly as bad as what it had been back in Hellions during the pain patch.
After he knew that no nausea was coming, he stepped out of the teleporter bay. He glanced back to it, noticing that it looked slightly different than how he'd left it. It was reinforced and better-lit than it had been previously. Surely due to the upgrades that Chrono had made to it.
At that moment, Riley realized he hadn't grabbed Chrono's power again. "Crap," he muttered under his breath. He wasn't going to teleport back, just on the off-chance that he'd need Chrono's powers more than Gem's. Gem's powers were pretty useful in their own right. But he already had a damaging ability with Amber Impaler's powers. So having two damage sources wasn't ideal, in his opinion. He much preferred to have utility and damage, or healing and damage. If he was confident about how his body would react to portal use, he'd probably hold on to Parviz's powers, since he could create two portals at will.
For now, he had a relatively simple task to accomplish. "System, are you operational? Any problems?" he asked as he headed for the doorway.
"Welcome back, commander," said the system. "There are no ongoing issues at this time. The base is in full operation."
"How's the power looking, now that the sun has gone down?" Riley asked as he headed to the stairs. "How's Trooper One?"
"Epper rods are currently being utilized for powering the base. The solar array is functional, but no sunlight is currently available. The epper rods currently supplied will keep the base operating until tomorrow when the sun will be available to power the array. I would suggest increasing solar array capacity for the future, along with energy storage. Trooper One is currently on the first floor of the command building. He has received no injuries that I am aware of."
"Oh, that's right, he's still tied to me, but not you, right?" Riley asked.
"That is correct," said the system.
"Hmm, and since he was only under my own permissions, I imagine Chrono wasn't able to take command of him. System, Chrono could've established a new commander and demoted him while he was here, right?"
"That is correct. Chrono has rights to the base, since he is a high-enough officer level in the alliance that this outpost is tied to. But Chrono did not modify Trooper One's command permissions of Outpost Rose."
"Good, good," Riley said as he reached the first floor and immediately entered the command room. He spotted Trooper One in the command chair and headed right over to him. "I'm back! How's it going?" he asked, more curious as to how T-One would reply, than what he would say.
T-One turned and looked over to him. He didn't have any look of surprise at Riley's sudden arrival. It was likely that the system had notified him.
T-One got out of the command chair and stood nearby. His rifle sat next to the command chair. "Welcome back, sir. Everything looks good. I do need to ask that you allocate my new skill points, if you have the time."
"New skill points?" Riley asked curiously.
"Yes, sir. During my time commanding the base, I acquired enough experience to gain a rank. I am now rank two. You may set my skills as you see fit."
"Huh, interesting,” Riley said as he reached out to rest his hand on the NPC's shoulder, which immediately brought up a screen with information about him.
-
Trooper One
Rank up skills: (Choose one)
Base Command:
All minions under the command of 'Trooper One' will gain a 5% ene
rgy increase. This applies to directly-managed minions and any that might be managed through a command structure, under the minion's control.
Minion Command:
All minions under direct command of 'Trooper One' will gain a 10% energy boost. Does not apply to minions that are managed through a command structure.
-
Riley scanned the available information. "Hmm…Base Command gives everyone you command at the base a 5% energy increase. Then there's Minion Command, which gives everything under your control when you're not at a base a 10% energy boost. Tough decision. That sounds like a lot of energy. But then again, energy isn't as crucial for NPCs as it is for players. NPCs tend to use it for running around or using the occasional ability, if they even have one. I'm surprised that you ranked up this quickly."
"I think it might've had something to do with my lack of experience and the magnitude of the base I was managing."
"That makes sense," Riley mused. "Alright, well, I don't think I'm going to put you in charge of any expeditionary forces, so let's go with…" he trailed off as he then tapped the 'Base Command' skill. "There you go. That should help some. At least for when I'm not around."
"Yes sir, I think it's a good choice."
"It'll have to do for the time being. I'm curious to see if you'll rank up any further. I suppose there might've been a better choice unit-wise to put in command of the base but…I don't know of anything, so you're it for now."
T-One nodded. "I appreciate your faith in me, sir."
Riley smiled and patted T-One on the shoulder, which also refreshed the screen for the NPC in Riley's view. He then dismissed it and went over to sit in the command chair. "Alright, I'll finish up here and then let you get back to managing things."
Riley proceeded to take a look at the 3D-rendered map of the area. There were no red blips, which meant that there weren't any detectable threats. He was sure that the system would have notified him on his arrival if there had been any.
He then went to the printing functions and quickly checked what the schematic data-drive had. Even though the two drives were hooked into the base, they were viewed as separate things, so he had to access them individually. He went into the list of items that he could make from the data-drive that had already been present at the base when he arrived. He perused it, trying to see if there was something he might have overlooked, which was 100% likely.