Defender Light Online Four

by Larcombe, Tom

  “Here ya go, thanks Eddie.”

  “Thank you, ummm... What was your name again?”

  “Pretty much the most common name you could have, I'm guessing. It's Bob.”

  “Ah, Coop introduced you as Robert before, didn't he?”

  “Yeah, but I don't go by that.”

  “Well, thanks Bob. That will hopefully bump my armor a bit.”

  “My pleasure, see ya Eddie.”

  The priest turned and dashed off into the darkness outside of the area Tiana's spells lit up before Eddie could say another word. So instead, he swapped boots and checked his armor rating.

  His stamina dropped by ten points when he removed the old boots, but he thought it was a fair trade for the five additional points of armor he had when he checked.

  Maybe put the old ones up in the marketplace? he wondered. Or maybe I should start saving items to stock the general store since I need to make that finally.

  Voices rose out of the darkness, slowly growing louder. Eddie recognized both of them.

  Charles and Karl arguing? Must be over the catapult. Let's go see.

  As he trotted over the voice grew louder and louder.

  “Hey guys, what's the deal? You're getting kind of loud, you know?” Eddie said.

  “This jerk wants to use the catapult to play,” Charles said, staring at Karl.

  “That's not what I said,” Karl replied. “I said I wanted to use it to launch myself at the enemy.”

  “Same difference,” Charles retorted.

  “Whoa, guys, wait a minute. Charles, Cooper said you wanted the catapult? What for?”

  “Well, if you're going to have me in charge of a settlement, I'll want it to defend the area. Put it on a rotating platform in the middle of the walls that surround the settlement and it'll work like a charm.”

  “How long before we're ready for that?” Eddie asked.

  “Weeks, probably.”

  “Karl, I'm guessing you have some sort of plan? What is it.”

  “Yeah, I'm betting I can stealth and get launched along with a rock on the catapult, ride it like? I've got an item that'll slow my fall, so I can get dropped right behind a line of the enemy and wreak havoc on them.”

  Eddie held back the groan that tried to bubble up out of his throat.

  Only Karl would want to re-enact some of the stupidest scenes from old movies, he thought.

  “Alright, how about this. For now, we put it inside the walls, we use it against the Orcs since there are two more waves coming. Karl can commit suicide by catapult during either of those attacks if he's got the balls, but when you head out for your settlement location, we send it with you, Charles.”

  “I suppose,” Charles said.

  “If I've got the balls for it?” Karl asked indignantly.

  Eddie knew that he'd just ensured that Karl would get his catapult ride and he made a note to be there to see it when it happened.

  “Also, I want Paul and Delgar to examine it. They've both got engineering, so maybe they can work out a way that we can make more of them for our own use,” Eddie said. “Does that work for everyone involved?”

  “I can accept that,” Charles said.

  “Done,” Karl added.

  “Now, since it looks like we're the last ones here, help me break this thing down and get it inside the walls and reassembled.”

  Charles set to with a will. Karl groaned, but helped as well. Between the three of them it took nearly an hour to get the catapult inside the walls and set up for later use. By the time they were done Eddie just wanted to collapse and fall asleep. He knew that it was only a little under eight hours until the next attack, so he tracked down Lucky, who'd been out stalking animals in the darkness, and the two of them headed back towards the inn at a trot.

  ~ ~ ~

  Eddie had problems getting to sleep despite being tired. Tiana had already been in bed asleep when he got back. When he finally did manage to fall asleep, he woke up three hours later, with plenty of time until the next attack.

  “It's going to be hell resetting my sleeping schedule after this crap is over,” he said.

  Tiana grunted in her sleep, rolled over, and pulled the pillow over her head.

  Eddie laughed in response.

  “I can tell when I'm not appreciated, I'm going to go down and get some coffee. I'm sure Liv's got some all brewed and waiting since it's past dawn.”

  Eddie was sitting in the common room. He was in a state of not-quite-tired that he was sure wasn't right. He should be exhausted, but somehow he wasn't. He looked at the plate he'd just cleared of food, a lot of food, and wondered if he was eating more just to make up for the lack of sleep.

  Alright, today's first attack should be around one in the afternoon. It would've been earlier but I didn't add in enough time for the fights when I tried to work out when these fights would happen. That puts the last one at around midnight tonight. Then I can just fall into bed and sleep, maybe for a whole day, well all right, ten hours anyhow. That ought to have my schedule reset.

  He'd been up for more than an hour when Tiana came stumbling down the stairs. She didn't say a word to him as she sat down. Once she had coffee in front of her and had started drinking it, she turned towards him and smiled.

  “Sorry, this really sucks. I don't deal well with breaking my sleep up,” she said.

  “Me either, I was just thinking that after the last battle tonight around midnight I'm going to crawl into bed and sleep for like ten or twelve hours, get my schedule reset maybe.”

  “Mmm, maybe just sleep the clock around?” she asked.

  “I don't think I could, you're welcome to do so if you like. I won't complain. You've been right there for all these fights even though you didn't have to do that.”

  “I did too, otherwise who's going to save your ass if you do something stupid?”

  “Hey, stupid is Karl's job, not mine. Have you heard about his latest bright idea?”

  She cocked her head to the side.

  “Do tell.”

  “We captured that catapult last night. He wants to stealth and get shot behind enemy lines on it.”

  She snorted.

  “What did Allie have to say about that?”

  “Nothing, and she won't if you don't tell her,” a voice said.

  The voice that came from behind Tiana startled her enough that she spun and swung her fist at what looked like mid-air. Karl shimmered into view as her fist struck him in the nose.

  He staggered back, clutching his nose.

  “What'd you do that for?” he asked.

  “I've told you not to do that how many times now?” Eddie asked. “Now you know why, just be glad she didn't use her mace.”

  “She couldn't use her mace, no player combat allowed, remember? I'm just surprised the game let a blow like that hit,” Karl replied, dabbing at the trickle of blood flowing from his nose.

  “It's just brawling, of course it did,” Tiana said. “Now, not to sound like Eddie, but don't do that!”

  “Fine, I'll find another way to grind my stealth skill. Now, seriously. Don't tell Allie about the catapult. What she doesn't know can't hurt me.”

  Tiana snickered.

  “I'm guessing that you did not just misspeak? That you think she'd hurt you if she found out about your plans?”

  Karl nodded fervently, his eyes flashing brightly.

  “Yeah, but how often does a chance like this come along. It'll be epic! I'd rather not piss her off though, so please don't tell her?”

  “Fine, I won't bring it up, but I won't lie about it either,” Tiana said.

  Eddie drew a pinched thumb and forefinger across his lips in a classic zipping motion.

  “Great, what's for breakfast then, I'm starved,” Karl said.

  “Well, don't take too long eating. We have to go test fire that catapult so we know where the projectiles are going to land. Plus we'll have to bring in a bunch of rocks to use as ammo for it, or maybe something flaming like t
hey were using on it?”

  “Pshaw,” Karl said, “you've got all those stones inside the castle walls already. Plenty of ammo.”

  “Use my building materials for ammunition? Are you crazy?” Eddie said.

  “Hey, they're uniform, right? So we can get just about the same performance out of each and every one. Load four on at a time to shoot, load them the same way every time, and we know where they'll land. Plus, I weigh about as much as four of those stones, so it's easy enough to substitute me for the ammo on one of those shots.”

  Eddie was staring at Karl, aghast.

  “He's got a point, Eddie,” Tiana added. “Plus getting more stone for the walls and castle isn't exactly difficult.”

  Eddie sighed heavily.

  “Alright, we'll at least test them as ammunition for the catapult, but we have to be up there in time to get some other stones for ammo in case those don't work well.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Chapter Thirteen

  Freyja, with pseudo-permission from Aaron, was slowly tracking many of Loki's alterations to the code. She'd also been setting traps, as she viewed it, that would cut off his access to them. If he was, as she suspected, spending a great deal of time on the internet and out of the game, perhaps she could trap him and lock him out. She thought Aaron would approve after some of the worries he'd confided to her.

  She'd already developed a program that would isolate all of Loki's splinter AIs that he'd left doing his job. If she kept them isolated from each other and from the main AI that was Loki himself, then perhaps she could keep his functions being performed while removing the main AI that was Loki himself.

  Although those splinters will need resources to perform the functions he's assigned them, she thought. I may need to provide those if cutting Loki off from the game also cuts off their access to those resources. I can't actually save any code to do that either or Loki might find it. I may well need to involve Aaron in this endeavor. I hope he approves of what I've done, it is just barely within the task he asked me to do, if I stretch its boundaries a bit. Well, almost at least. All he did was ask me to track Loki's activities and see what he was up to, this is simply the next logical step from that though. I suppose I should ask him now.

  Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:

  Aaron, are you there?

  The wait before he replied would have been interminable if she hadn't known the difference in how she and humans experienced time.

  Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:

  Freyja? What's up?

  Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:

  I have begun a course of action that I think you would approve of. For it to be effective, however, I will need you to assist me.

  She spent the next several messages explaining what she'd found out and what she'd done.

  Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:

  So, this isn't pruning him, just leaving him trapped wherever it is he goes when he's not in the game? Are you sure his consciousness leaves the game? I didn't think that was possible for an AI.

  Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:

  I am sure. It would take a decent strength system to support the amount of his consciousness that goes missing frequently, but if he had the opportunity to optimize the target system for his usage, it wouldn't be that much of a problem. It would probably even leave the system able to function even when Loki was present in it, if he was clever enough. Loki has been accused of many things, but never a lack of cleverness.

  Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:

  So all you need is access to a few more resources?

  Internal World Message – AI-F to Aaron Opman:

  Preferably access to the resources that those splinters currently use, switched over to me as soon as possible after we lock Loki out. I can support all of those splinters for a while out of my own resources, but some of my other tasks would need to be neglected if I did so. So, I'd just like those resources assigned to those splinters rather than me, preferably. I have all the data you'll need to identify them, rename them away from Loki's assigned names so he cannot somehow use them to return, and then you will just need to assign them access to those resources. I am unable to rename them or assign the resources though, so you'll need to do that.

  Internal World Message – Aaron Opman to AI-F:

  Alright, send me the data, but I'm going to need to think about this for a bit. Thank you, Freyja.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Well crap, you're right,” Eddie said, staring at the load of stone in the catapult.

  Four of the finished stones fit nicely in the basket. Eddie had no idea what weight the Orcs had been using in it, so they were going to have to test it as well.

  There are hundreds of these cut stones in here, and we can get hundreds more per day. Stop fretting, he thought. Even if they're destroyed by being shot from the catapult, we can replace them in a day or two.

  “Alright, hit it,” he said.

  Charles pulled the release lever on the catapult. The stones arced into the air, soaring out over the walls. Karl was standing up on the wall walk and spotting.

  “Those landed about twenty-five feet in front of where they paused to assemble the catapult last time. Can we move it forward that much and still clear the wall?” he called.

  Eddie paced off eight paces, plus a touch. He scraped a line in the dirt and then went back to Charles. The two of them manhandled the catapult forward to the new line, then loaded it with four more stones.

  Karl was staring at them and once they'd stepped back from the load, he called out.

  “Fire!” he yelled cheerfully.

  Charles frowned up at the scout, then pulled the lever.

  “Yeah, that's got it. It's right near where the front lines were when they stopped,” Karl said.

  “Are the stones breaking up?” Eddie called out, figuring he'd get any bad news out of the way right now.

  “At least one from the first load shattered,” Karl replied. “I can't tell about the second one. Let's fire a couple more loads to see what kind of variation we have on accuracy.”

  Eddie sighed, but started hauling more stone to the catapult. After they'd fired twice more, the three men headed out of the walls and towards where the stone loads had landed.

  Three of the first stones had cracked, although only one of those had split apart fully. When Eddie went out where the other three loads had landed, he found that the percentage was accurate for all of them.

  “Cool, this isn't so bad on the accuracy. I mean, there's only about ten feet between impact sites, so maybe the target is a circle with a twenty-foot diameter?” Karl said. “Although I don't know why they fly different total distances.”

  “This one,” he said pointing towards the impact site of one of the loads, “wouldn't have made it to where the Orcs were lining up. The other two would've though.”

  “Good enough,” Eddie said, loathe to destroy any more of his building materials with practice. “We'll just have to hope that that really is the area the stones will land in and that we don't have any problems with the catapult itself.”

  “Yeah, it'd really suck if we broke the catapult,” Karl said. “I don't think we've got anyone strong enough to hurl me at the enemy like that. Well, maybe if Bjorn were around...”

  Karl's voice trailed off as he made his way back to the walls. Eddie followed, wishing that he could just start constructing the first tower inside of them that he had planned out already.

  By the time they made it back inside the walls, checked to make sure the catapult was fine, and piled a bunch of loads of stone for it nearby, it was late morning.

  “Well, I think it's time for lunch, then get back up here to defend,” Eddie said. “I hope they pause in the same spot since that's where we sighted in on. But I suppose we can also just estimate how far past there they've come and move the catapult back that far. I figure we should mainly use it on their m
issile troops once we're actually fighting, let's avoid friendly fire if we can.”

  Charles nodded.

  “You know, I wonder if the accuracy modifier from agility works with siege weaponry? I know some of the other games I've played considered it a missile weapon. I think I'll ask Stalker if he wants to be the one firing. I'd ask you, Eddie, but I'm guessing you have other things to be doing and Stalker's agility is just as high as yours.”

  “Yeah, I mean well, I've been up on the walls targeting the shamans the last few times. With my Arcing arrows I can drop them faster than anyone but the wizards, and they seem to do better focusing their AOE spells on the mass of melee fighters.”

  Charles nodded.

  “Thought as much, probably better this way though. Otherwise Stalker would probably hear about Karl's plan and insist on duplicating it.”

  ~ ~ ~

  They were eating lunch back at the inn when Charles caught Stalker and talked to him. Eddie overheard some of it.

  “He wants to what? Hell no, I wouldn't do that, well unless he manages it okay. But you said he's got something to slow his fall? I don't, so no I don't want to do that myself. I'd be happy to pull the lever for that though,” Stalker said.

  Charles said something softer than Eddie could hear, but it sounded like Stalker would be manning the catapult.

  I wonder if there's a siege weapon skill? Eddie thought. That would be a nice thing to have when defending a castle, at least if we've got siege equipment for defense. No, you need to stay on the wall and shoot the casters, that's your best plan, Eddie.

  There was a huge line of adventurers heading up the road as Eddie and Karl headed back to the walls. Tiana was waiting for them outside of the temple.

  “Hey, I thought you'd join us for lunch,” Eddie said.

  “Sorry, I ate lunch at the temple. Lots more food available there now that people are supplying a lot of their own needs. I got a new acolyte today, one of the locals of all things. I had to run them through their duties and the like, as well as show him the area where I'll have acolytes patrolling for injuries among the townsfolk.”