by Cosimo Yap
Check out what I found out inside. Think we should break in? Alan sent. Lambda and Doppel scanned the memory he projected.
You made the right choice, Lambda sent. We don’t know enough. Let’s concentrate on defending against the Haxlard assault. They are about to attack three locations.
This will be fun, Alan sent.
***
A squad of Haxlards dropped down into what appeared to be a storage room on the third floor. Two blue-masked soldiers carrying assault rifles took point, making sure the room was empty before posting up by the doorway.
Carrying a portable scanner, a technician ensured the room wasn’t booby-trapped. Once they gave the all-clear, a pair of green-masked Haxlards dropped down with a large laser drill. They held the device to the floor, but nothing happened. The drill seemed to have turned itself off.
Crimson blades appeared, piercing a hidden Haxlard clad in grey power armor.
Alan was revealed, a menacing figure in black power armor. A soft, blue energy field outlined him, the powerful shielding visible to the naked eye. The retracted railgun on Alan’s back looked like a massive sword sheath.
The two soldiers by the door turned their weapons on him, though the rifles failed to fire. Alan was upon them in an instant, twin swords piercing forward. Two well-aimed blows ended the Haxlards’ lives.
Discovering their pistols did no significant damage to Alan’s superior armor, the technicians scrambled away in retreat. Alan casually tossed a grenade at them, ending their lives. For his effort Alan was granted a single level.
The other two breaches have been cleared, Lambda sent. Sensors detect six new points that are about to be broken through. They can be handled by the Knights.
Alan nodded and began to climb up through the hole the Haxlards had made. He reactivated his power armor’s advanced stealth mode. A constant stream of data poured into his brain. There had been minimal losses on their side thus far, a few well-placed mines destroying what Lambda designated as Haxlard drilling squads.
A few hundred Haxlards had gathered on the surface, temporary shields and laser turrets set up on the remains of the keep. The shields were installed so that any counter-attack out of one of the tunnels being dug would be contained. Alan found himself trapped inside one such shield. Two new squads were being prepared to drop down into the hole he had just climbed out of.
Dropships flew above, ferrying Haxlard reinforcements and equipment from spaceships that maintained a steady orbit. Bright flashes of light covered the sky, a cloud of rainbow dots and bright orange flashes in every direction. It was complete chaos, with no way to tell friend from foe.
The Weaver loomed in the distance, a new swarm of ships emerging every few seconds like clockwork. A few black scars now lined the space station, but scores of drones were actively repairing the damage.
Nearby a group of Haxlards tossed a grenade down into a hole. After the explosion happened, they jumped into the Black Rose guild base. Lambda directed a pair of Knights to take care of them.
Gathering information, Alan looked around with his bionic eye activated. Six Crimson Guards directed the landing dropships and organized the battlefield. Dark crimson power armor and blood red masks made them easy to spot. Each held a unique weapon and was the equal of any Knight.
Upon further inspection, Alan noted that three more Haxlards gave off similar energy patterns. Two were posing as ordinary blue-masked soldiers, while a third was in a technician’s green mask. None of them had entered the Black Rose base yet, but Alan had Lambda make a special note and alerted the Knights to potential wolves in sheep’s clothing.
No Ultihaxlards were readily apparent. Alan had never figured out what the exact distinction was between the upper echelon and lower class, or if Crimson Guards were included in their ranks. Lambda suspected the Ultihaxlards were still up above in the spaceships, and would only descend if absolutely necessary.
For now, the Black Rose guild held the advantage, overwhelming the invading Haxlards with gear, levels, and numbers. The ability to pinpoint where enemies gathered let Lambda distribute forces optimally, destroying isolated Haxlard squads with repeated pincer movements and superior positioning. With only a few narrow chokepoints to enter through, the Haxlards couldn’t get enough bodies inside. Firefights broke out throughout the base, but always in the Black Rose guild’s favor.
As minutes passed the Haxlards successfully drilled additional holes with explosives and even orbital strikes from spaceships. The tide began to shift. More and more Haxlards entered the base and the fighting began to grow chaotic, sheer numbers allowing the Haxlards to gather a foothold.
Haxlard reinforcements continued to arrive. A familiar dropship began its descent—the Tutorial seemed like a lifetime ago. The Titan had been listed amongst the attacking Haxlard fleet, hadn’t it?
Concentrate. We’re going to need to begin the retreat to the fourth floor soon. You can’t be caught aboveground, Lambda sent.
Let’s leave them something to remember me by, Alan sent.
Preparing his railgun to fire a heavy projectile, Alan braced himself against the ground. The railgun extended itself, barely contained inside the stealth field that Alan projected. Alan hacked into the shield generator nearby, preparing to turn it off the moment he was ready. A few calculations later, he fired.
The shield surrounding Alan flickered, the momentary lapse allowing the heavy projectile to slip through and hurtle toward the dropship.
Not sparing the time to follow his shot, Alan leapt back into the base. Soldiers with superior discipline and reaction time fired a few shots at Alan, but they barely did 300 damage to Alan’s shields before Alan retaliated and eliminated the threats. He still had 2000 energy left.
Sadly, Alan didn’t receive a notification for destroying the dropship. Either something had stopped his attack, or its shields had been upgraded.
Grenades, Doppel sent.
Alan dove toward the room’s exit. A hexagonal energy shield flickered into life where the greatest explosive force would be applied. The explosion struck, blowing Alan back out of the room and bringing his energy down to 250.
Running back into the hallway, Alan calculated the quickest route down to the lower levels. It looked like he’d poked the hornets’ nest, as sensors showed waves of Haxlards pushing into the base. Based upon the numbers now coming down, it looked like the Haxlards were sending in everyone they had.
17 Knights, 127 Lieutenants, and 605 Recruits remain alive. We face approximately 1100 Haxlards and 9 Crimson Guard. If the plan succeeds, I am confident in our ability to hold, Lambda sent.
It’s the next battle I’m worried about, Alan sent. Any word from Sidestep?
Negative, Lambda sent.
Alan heard a series of solid thumps coming from the storage room. A quick scan of energy signatures confirmed it; a six-man squad of Crimson Guards was now in pursuit.
Activating advanced stealth mode, Alan took a deep breath. With his remaining energy, any damage could be fatal. Unfortunately, the Crimson Guards moved faster than he did. His advantage lay in the fact that they would be unsure which way he went, and would be delayed or possibly killed by traps.
Squads en-route to delay their advance, Lambda sent.
Alan confirmed Lambda’s calculations: the likelihood that he died here without help was too high. A squad of guildmates moved forward to aid him.
Two seconds later a massive pillar of flame engulfed the corridor Alan had been standing in. The heat and fire continued to radiate outwards, setting off a few explosive mines that had been placed earlier. The Crimson Guards waded through the flames like they were nothing.
Doppel attempted to maintain the Scout Power Armor’s invisibility field, but it proved to be too difficult a task. Alan was revealed by the absence of heat at his location, twenty feet from the storage room. The Haxlards gave chase.
Laser beams narrowly missed Alan as he turned at the intersection, ignoring the squad of guildmates t
hat had come to back him up. They had a job to do. Militaries depended upon necessary sacrifice. Soldiers fought. Soldiers died. They wouldn’t be fucking soldiers otherwise.
Crimson weapons tore through the squad and the Lieutenant that led it, but they bought Alan the time he needed to enter a wide, slanted passageway that went down to the fourth floor.
The fourth floor had been set up differently than the others. Gone were the labyrinthine passageways and hidden dangers. Instead, there was open space and four heavily fortified bunkers facing the entrances that led down to the floor. Each bunker could provide cover fire for the others.
Apart from the bunkers, the only cover lay in the center, a massive metal pillar. Alan knew that a solid blow to it might cause serious structural problems, but it was too late now to reconfigure the base. Not only had the vast majority of their power been used up, but two generators had been destroyed. They couldn’t afford to lose this floor.
Alan made his way to the nearest bunker, choosing his steps carefully. The bunker was only about six feet high, but dug down into the fifth floor. An array of laser turrets, Black Rose soldiers, and four Knights wielding heavy weaponry lay in wait inside. All weapons were trained on the entrance Alan came out of.
A Crimson Guard checked the corner and was immediately met with a barrage of energy weapons and explosions that was complete overkill. Nothing dared peek out afterward.
Alan joined his guildmates in the bunker, setting up his light railgun so it aimed upwards.
Unlike Seeker, the Haxlards were not arrogant enough to ignore the sensors and cameras they passed by. Slowly the information stream died down as Lambda ordered the retreat of remaining personnel to the fourth floor.
It’s almost time, Lambda sent.
Are we sure the structure can take the weight? Alan asked.
Affirmative. The ejection of the bottom floors reduced strain, and additional support beams are in place, Doppel sent.
All squad have been notified and are prepared, Lambda sent.
A button in Alan’s mind was pressed, and a series of detonations went off. This time, the floor dropped out from underneath the Haxlards. With the collapse of the third floor, enemies rained from the sky.
Activating his cybernetic vision, Alan detected the three Haxlards he had pinpointed earlier. He lined up his railgun.
One. Headshot, finished off mid-air.
Two. Headshot, killed as they landed.
Three. Headshot, disoriented and eliminated.
They had all been slain before they could use any of their abilities or items. Instakills, just the way Alan liked it.
The ordinary Haxlard soldiers fared no better, unable to aim or get their bearings as they fell from the sky, lasers, rockets, and grenades tearing apart any large clump of soldiers.
The falling debris set off the minefield. Explosions rocked the battlefield as the Haxlards took even greater losses. Trying to regroup, the Crimson Guards that had been chasing Alan pointed toward his position, yelling at survivors to put up a concerted resistance.
Two Crimson Guards carrying massive metal screens covered by red energy shielding led the charge, shrugging off plasma and laser fire. Remote-detonated mines surrounding the bunker, manually controlled by Alan, put an end to that.
The Crimson Guards were blown back up into the air, heavy fire continually crashing into them.
One of the Guard landed next to the bunker. Miraculously, they stood back up, their armor and body covered by grievous wounds. They tossed a bright red grenade toward the guild group before a sniper from across the battlefield finished them off.
Without prompting, a Knight in heavy power armor leapt over the grenade, while another shoved Alan backward, hard. There was a solid crack as Alan crashed into the wall. Bright light and then flame washed over Alan.
Shield energy depleted, Alan took large amounts of damage, his body on fire as he fell unconscious.
***
Alan woke up in the infirmary he had set up on the floor of the cavern. His wounds had been mostly recovered. Thanks to the Knight that had leapt over the grenade, Alan had lived, only taking severe burn damage.
Messages appeared:
x147 Level up!
+100 ability points for gaining over 100 levels in one battle.
+9450 Survival points
Lambda replayed footage from the previous battle. The remaining Haxlard forces had been cleared out after Alan lost consciousness. Left without leadership or cover, underleveled and outplayed, they put up much less of a fight.
Alan was now level 1555. The Black Rose guild was left with 416 personnel: 13 Knights, 85 Lieutenants, and 318 Recruits. They had taken out over three Haxlards for every person they lost, but they couldn’t do it again.
The Haxlards hadn’t sent in another wave of soldiers, but it was only a matter of time before they amassed the numbers for a second assault. And they wouldn’t be tricked by the same tactics twice. Besides, there was no longer a third floor.
In the meantime, the Haxlard spaceships were now constantly bombarding the Black Rose base from above. By Alan and Doppel’s calculations, the base would soon collapse—too much structural integrity had been lost from the repeated self-destruction of floors and the Helios’s initial blast.
The power armor Phantom had designed hadn’t survived the battle. Without the ability to repair it, Alan was forced to equip Advanced Revenant Scout Armor instead, abandoning his railgun and replacing it with a high-powered laser sniper rifle. The crimson blades, however, were still in working condition.
Sidestep stood by a nearby bed, hovering over an unconscious Aurora. She was hooked up to a series of machines pumping blood into her body.
“I’m sorry that I didn’t join the battle, but my main priority is to keep her safe. You had things covered, though,” Sidestep said without looking up. His hand rested on Aurora’s arm.
“Is she going to be alright?” Alan asked.
“Medical coma, for at least another day,” Sidestep said.
Alan took a second to think, mulling over the current options.
“Well,” Alan said slowly, “I think it’s about time we figured out what’s inside that vault, don’t you?”
Chapter 20
As a result of the prior battle and Aurora’s destruction of a capital ship, the Black Rose guild was in the clear. Barring an exemplary showing from every other player in the Game, no guild personnel would be deleted. Any member lingering in the bottom 10% of the population at the end of the crusade could be bailed out with survival points earned by guildmates. Everything from here on out would be a bonus.
The Black Rose guild’s Council was conspicuously absent from the leaderboard. Either they were still preparing to make a move, or something had gone very, very wrong. Alan hoped for the former, but suspected the latter, given Seeker had exited from the Abyss Labyrinth where they should have appeared.
Sidestep and Alan were flown up to the Black Rose base. They made their way to the tunnel near the Council’s meeting room. Progress seemed to take forever, Sidestep waiting for Alan to make sure he didn’t trigger any of the traps that led up the entrance.
The halls were barren, most personnel either waiting above in the bunkers on the fourth floor or on the ground floor in the infirmary preparing for a potential retreat into the Abyss Labyrinth. A squad of scouts led by two Knights had been sent into the dungeon to investigate if the way was clear.
“Sure you want to do this?” Sidestep asked.
“The base will be lost, that’s inevitable. What we manage to salvage is another matter,” Alan said. “Either we get what’s inside, or the Haxlards do.”
“I wonder what’s inside our vault,” Sidestep said. “What if it’s platinum marks? Money’s not going to help us; we should turn them into ability points for everyone.”
“One problem at a time,” Alan said. They finally reached inside the Council’s meeting room. “First thing we need to do is destroy the base’s data core
and a few servers. That will disable the defense programs and allow me to hack into the vault’s controls.”
The proper server was identified, a grey metal box behind solid metal paneling on the floor. Alan looked at Sidestep.
“What?” Sidestep asked.
“Destroy the box,” Alan said.
“This was your idea,” Sidestep said, taking a step back.
“We’ll stab it together so we’re both accountable,” Alan said. He raised a crimson blade.
Sidestep walked over slowly, raising his blade. It looked new, a line of the same pulsing green energy spiraling along the edges.
Estimated damage: 4,000-5,000. Suspected ability: the weapon may teleport forward and backward similar to Sidestep, Doppel sent.
“On 3,” Alan said. “1, 2—”
There was a whoosh of air as an overhead ramp was released, then a series of clicks as mechanical locks and gears disengaged.
“Give me one good reason I shouldn’t kill you two,” Enigma said, walking down the ramp that led up into the central vault. He was flanked by Phantom and S.
Alan scanned everyone. He detected nothing abnormal about the people, but there were trace amounts of radiation leaking from out of the vault.
What the fuck, Alan sent.
I can read Phantom’s facial expressions now. It looks like he is as surprised to see us as we are to see him, Lambda sent.
Processing the new developments, Alan ran through his memories with Doppel, hypercognition active. He had seen both Phantom and Enigma enter the Abyss Labyrinth, and they couldn’t have returned to the vault without his notice. They needed to have been inside from the beginning.
You know what? I bet Enigma and Phantom are two separate players, each with android duplicates, Alan thought. This entire time I thought I’d been training as Phantom’s squire, but the Phantom I’ve been under is an apparition. Who I’ve actually been talking with most of the time is Enigma, controlling the Phantom android.
You’re crazy. We would have noticed if Phantom was a robot, your cybernetic eye— Lambda stopped mid-sentence.