Redemption : A LitRPG Space Adventure (The Last Enclave Book 2)

by Morgan Cole

  The third came at me again. It was incredibly fast, and I could just barely track it. It rotated around its central axis, the sound of its passage through the air loud and irregular.

  "Don't let it hit you. Their blades will cut through armor like air!" Regar warned.

  As comfortable as I was getting with flying, dodging something that fast and maneuverable just wasn't going to happen. I tried, and failed. It hit me and there was another boom of an explosion as my assault armor's countermeasures fired. The reactive armor vaporized the flying disk's blade and sent it tumbling, out of control. For a moment I could see it clearly—a rotating disk with four long, curved blades equally spaced around the center hub. Well, it had four blades. Now it had two intact blades and two shattered stumps. The Interface labeled it for me. I chuckled a bit at the strange name, but quickly pushed it out of my head.

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  Wundrus Glayve, Threat Level: 8

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  That one might be out of the fight, but there was no way I was taking a chance. I drilled it dead center with the Gazer and it exploded, raining pieces.

  The surviving disk had been trying to get Regar, but he had been successfully hiding behind one of the very thick vertical structural beams. He had been keeping it between them, but the disk had been taking pieces out of it with each run at him. Regar was lucky the thing's blades weren't that long. I remembered the Cutter Alpha slicing completely through the structural beam I had tried to take cover behind in the Habitat complex.

  "Some help here, Jake?"

  It was ignoring me and the drones, fixated on Regar. I ordered the needler to shoot on target and the beam drone to shoot high. I would shoot low. We'd bracket it, and even if it dodged we might hit anyway. It was amazing how quickly I could pass on orders to the drones. It was like I merely had to envision what I wanted and they could carry it out.

  The disk swooped at Regar, and he moved behind the pillar, interposing it between him and the spinning blades. With a loud triple clack, it cut another slice through the pillar. The drones and I all fired just after it passed Regar. It dropped, dodging the stream of needles and right into my fire. The particle beam clipped it, severing some blades, which went flying at high speed. It nearly recovered before the final blast from my beam drone made it into a pattering rain of debris.

  "Nice shooting. Let's go; we're getting close to the top."

  "How did you make it this far with just the Tempest?" I asked. "It's awesome, but situational."

  "I didn't. I had a couple of other guns, but they're both scrap now. I was kind of surprised to see you only brought that beamer with you. The drones help, I guess. Basic Seeker rule—when it comes to guns, two is one and one is none."

  "Well, I've got Excalibur here if it comes down to it," I said, patting the wrecking bar.

  "Melee weapon, huh? Better than nothing I suppose. How did you take hits from those blades, anyway? That armor has more to it than it seems."

  I looked down at my torso. Right at waist level on my right side was a scorch mark in the shape of a blade. Metra had somehow integrated that reactive armor she had made for me into the suit itself. The countermeasures had fired twice, as I saw another scorch mark on my left arm.

  "I've got a hell of an engineer as a partner. I'll introduce you if we get out of this alive."

  "When! A Seeker always tries to envision a positive outcome."

  "When, then."

  "I look forward to it. Come on."

  We continued up the shaft. I kept my eyes peeled for more of the flying disks, but I didn't have a lot of hope I'd spot one before it was on top of us. They were just too fast, and the space in here too busy. I mourned the loss of my scout drone once again.

  "We're nearly to the top. We don't want to go out there; we need to find an opening into the shaft itself."

  I thought of all the mobile turrets, the flying squid monsters, and now the disks. Damn right we didn't want to go out there if we might meet all three of those things and more. Regar's plan sounded good.

  "Yeah, I got in through a hatch on the outside. It had a little corridor that led right into the shaft. No idea what it was for, but there's got to be more of those."

  "Right, you flew up here. That would have been nice. Climbing a Spike has never been on my list of things to do and it hasn't been as fun as you might expect. Let's keep an eye open for one of those corridors."

  A few minutes later, the top of the Spike was above us. We'd climbed and flown as far as we could, with no trace of any kind of corridor from the outer skin to the shaft. There was no way we could scout the entire circumference of the tower, but I flew back and forth, covering as much of the outside as I could. Nothing.

  The sky had lightened a lot since I'd entered the Spike. It must be fully morning out there now, as bright purple sky was visible above us through the openings onto the top of the Spike.

  "We don't have time to search any longer, Jake. Look," Regar said, pointing downward.

  I spotted them immediately, a tidal wave of Nagite Soldiers slithering up the support structure. Hundreds of them. They were still far below, but they'd be on us soon enough.

  "To the top then, we can place the device there," I said.

  I flew through the opening above, setting down and looking around. The shaft of the Spike was nearby, a yawning black chasm. The purple sky was full of moving shapes, mostly below us. Several schools of the flying squids swum through the air sedately, as yet unaware I was there.

  Purple light flashed as the mobile defense turrets ringing the shaft opened fire.

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  Countermeasures: Laser—active.

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  It was like a shooting gallery. The drones and I had a clear field of fire, and the little bastards couldn't hurt me. I raked the beam across them, popping two and three at a time. The Gazer drank deeply from the Krigar Assault Armor's enhanced power supply, recharging as I fired. The drones did great work as well, firing in more conservative bursts but destroying the turrets in droves as they darted around in the sky.

  Regar pulled himself out of the opening below me, keeping low as he hurried to the edge of the shaft. He pulled a small metal box the size of a deck of cards from his belt and stuck it to the inside of the shaft.

  He turned back to me, pulling the Tempest free. "Jake, use this to cover me. This is going to take a while. I've got to give it eight hundred Nanite Clusters. Once we start I think we're going to get a lot of attention. Those Nagites will be here soon, too."

  I took the Tempest with my right hand, transferring the Gazer to my left. The Tempest was heavy, but I was in powered armor and really strong. I might be less accurate, but I could handle both of these weapons at the same time.

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  TDR-501 "Tempest" Dimensional Rift weapon

  58% Charge

  Control(s) Available: None

  ╠═╦╬╧╪

  As I watched it, the charge ticked up a percent. With a thought, I throttled the maximum amount of power the weapon could draw, leaving some for my Gazer.

  "Safety's off. Keep the trigger held down as long as you need the rift. Maximum range is two hundred meters. You ready?" Regar asked.

  "Do it."

  He triggered something, and a thick rope of Nanite Clusters pulsed out of him, pouring into the tiny metal box. A column of metal, the very material the Spike was made of, began to extrude from the side of the shaft, stretching across. We were spiking the Spike.

  The schools of squids reacted nearly immediately. All three of them that I could see ceased their aimless swimming through the air and drove for us. Each school had at least five and up to twelve of the flying squid monsters in it. Combined with the horde of Nagites below, jumping off the tower and flying away as fast as possible was looking more and more like the best course.

  My drones took up station over two different openings and began firing down into the Spike. I'd taske
d them with slowing the horde as much as they could. It was like shooting snakes in a barrel. With luck they'd make a dent, but I knew they would both run out of ammunition and energy before the Spike ran out of snakes.

  The first school was here, pyramidal mouths gaping slightly open as they charged in formation. I pointed the Tempest and squeezed the trigger.

  The distortion in space appeared dead center in the group of squids. In the middle of the formation, one instantly popped, the others swirling into the spatial grinder. I tried to wave the Tempest to move the effect, but it was stuck fast in the air like it was nailed to the very walls of spacetime.

  I cursed, aiming awkwardly with the Gazer and waving its deadly beam over the second closest school. The lethal particles cut deep, dropping the lead members of the school, but the rest pressed on. I released the trigger on the Tempest, watching the broken pieces of flying squid fall. I could move it once again, but those few seconds of use had taken eighteen percent of the weapon's charge.

  "This is going to get ugly, Regar."

  The drones were firing nonstop, conserving their power and ammo as best as they could, but I had no doubt the wave of Nagite Soldiers was close. The column of metal was about one-third of the way across the shaft now, and was branching out, thin limbs questing for all sides of the shaft.

  "Hold, Jake."

  The next school of squids crested the lip of the Spike. It was a few members short since I'd culled it with the Gazer, but there were still far too many hungry Ferals there. I fired the Tempest into their midst again. The distortion appeared in the air, anchoring my right hand in place. It chewed the school to pieces, tentacles and broken bits of tetrahedral heads feeding into the spatial shredder. I released the trigger earlier than I had the last time, trying to save power. The distorted, destroyed forms of the squids fell out of sight. They hadn't been liquified, but they were dead enough.

  I belatedly noticed that the drones had both run out of resources a few seconds ago and were hovering in place. With a small effort I brought up the beam drone's gunsight camera in my HUD. A wall of hostile, champing teeth and squirming coils. The Nagites were here.

  I stuck the Gazer to my left thigh and pulled a grenade free, tossing it down the nearby opening onto the squirming mass of Nagites. 0.25 seconds after impact, it detonated and the cloud of plasma eradicated the Nagites. More swarmed in instantly to fill the space. I tossed my final two grenades down the two openings nearest us. Time was almost up.

  The crack of detonating grenades was punctuation as I fired the Tempest again into the third school of squids. This one had gotten far too close when I was preoccupied with the Nagites. They had spread out, moving to envelop Regar and me. The rift's distortion effect snagged all but three of them, crushing them in its invisible, whirling teeth.

  Two on the right went for Regar, the Nanites still streaming from him as he crouched by the edge of the shaft.

  "Regar, look out!" I yelled, holding down the Gazer's trigger stud and spraying the Nagites with the deadly beam. The rear one fell in two parts, while the second dove for Regar. He smashed it with an armored fist, knocking it away for the heartbeat I needed to cut it in half.

  The final squid monster latched onto my left arm, teeth scraping ineffectively against the armor. The tentacles curled around, bright sparks dancing. I had no drones to save my ass this time, and the Gazer was in the wrong hand.

  I released the Tempest's trigger and dropped it. It hit the ground with a clank, and I pulled Excalibur free from my waist, the chisel point glowing bright blue. With a growl I drove it into the triangular head fastened onto my arm. The squid struggled, shaking my arm. Pushing and pulling on the bar, I moved the charged Voidcutter point around inside the head of the Feral. The tentacles drooped as it began to die.

  Regar ran past, snatching the Tempest off the ground at my feet. "Time to go!"

  I looked up. Our spike was almost completely across the shaft, but that wasn't what caught my attention. It was the acceleration blocks pushing out of the walls. A payload was coming.

  "Oh shit!" I yelled.

  Regar beat me to the edge, diving off of it. I knew he couldn't fly, and despite being a badass he couldn't survive the fall. Even with that in mind, it would still be better than being anywhere near the Spike when the payload hit.

  I stuck Excalibur and dove after him, grabbing him with my right arm and engaging every gecko patch I had. Once I was sure I wouldn't lose him, I leveled out and went full throttle. Direction? Anywhere but here.

  The thrust that the propulsion units in my boots could deliver was amazing, far more than I had imagined from such tiny units. I knew that without Transcendent Flesh I'd probably already be unconscious from the blood pooling in my feet. I freed my left hand by sticking the Gazer and used the propulsion units in that hand to add even more thrust. We needed distance.

  I saw the explosion before I heard it. A blinding flash behind us, just like on all those nuclear war documentaries. I angled up, aiming for the upper atmosphere. The shockwave would be propagated through the air, so the less there was of it around us, the better. It wasn't enough.

  The shockwave hit us, the air superheated. I tumbled wildly, the atmosphere still thick enough to toss me around. My HUD flashed a temperature warning at me. Naked flesh would be turned to ash in that air but the armor held. I cut the thrust until I could stabilize.

  The shockwave passed and I fixed our tumble with some work and the proper visualization.

  "I told you, Jake. Positivity," Regar said. His voice sounded rougher than normal.

  Regar was smiling at me through his helmet's visor, but his right arm was gone just under the shoulder. The pod with Kiril was still attached to the back of his armor and seemed untouched by everything we had gone through.

  "Damn, you lost your arm."

  "It really hurt, too. I'll grow it back when we get to the outpost. Speaking of which, can we go? It's been a long few days."

  "Yeah, of course."

  I spun in the air, trying to orient myself. A mushroom cloud was rising over the ruins of the city in the distance. It was beautiful in its own way. I could see the mountains around the valley, but had no idea which one had the outpost in it.

  "Brick, can you guide me back to the outpost?"

  "Of course."

  A blue waypoint marker appeared in my vision, labeled "Outpost."

  The wind roared as I flew toward the outpost at high speed, the mushroom cloud slowly dissipating and turning the sky a rainbow of strange, alien colors.

  Chapter Five: Aftermath of the Rescue

  NOT LONG AFTER, I WAS sitting on an unmade bed in the outpost's barracks, watching Regar's missing arm regrow. It was a simple matter of the proper materials and an adequate amount of Nanite Clusters, and a Union citizen could restore almost any missing appendage. I thought that the head might be an exception.

  Regar had removed his armor and was sitting in a ragged ship suit, identical to the ones I'd been wearing on the station until I'd used a Manufactor to make some more familiar, Earth-style clothing. The man's beard was indeed epic, a thick waterfall of black hair. He was broad with dense musculature. If anything, he reminded me of a dwarf from fantasy novels, but it was clear he was just short.

  Metra was hovering nearby, looking odd. I'd say she was nervous. I still wasn't good at reading Horgrim body language, despite the skill implants’ help and some weeks of practice with Metra.

  "Once this is done we can pop Kiril out of his pod and fix him up. Kiril's a bit of a pessimist. I think he might be surprised to wake up again. It'll be a good lesson in the power of positive thinking for him," Regar said and laughed at the last bit.

  "In all seriousness, Jake, thank you. I owe you a life debt."

  Metra gasped, covering her mouth with one of her larger hands.

  "Excuse my ignorance, Regar. A month ago I didn't know the Union was even a thing. I don't know what that means, I don't know what it means to be First, and I don't know
why Metra is freaking out. Can one of you tell me?"

  "I'm not freaking out!" Metra protested.

  "It's fine," Regar said, making a calming gesture with his left hand. "I'm used to it. Well, I used to be. I've been stuck on this stars-forsaken planet for so long I've almost forgotten what it was like. Let me explain."

  Metra sat down nearby and I leaned back against the wall.

  "I'm a Seeker. Kiril is too. Everyone that comes to an Infested planet is, generally. Your grandfather Matty was. No one else would be mad enough to come to these places. There are easier, safer ways to harvest Nanite Clusters."

  "What are you seeking?" I asked.

  "The truth, of course. We seek the truth about what happened when the AIs were born so long ago. How were they made? Where? Who made them? Any answers to those questions that existed died along with the civilizations that knew the truth. The only place we can search for the truth is on Infested worlds like this one. Someday, one of them will have the truth. A knowledge repository, even a fragment of one, documenting what happened. Something that we can use to end this war for good."

  "I get it. I thought the Union already knew what happened, though? Some ancient race created the AIs, hard-takeoff Singularity, and bam, you've got a galactic apocalypse."

  "All of what you have said is in the same class as myths and legends now, Jake. So many civilizations were lost before the Union formed, that every piece of info we have is either unreliable or something a Seeker found."

  "Uh, if I may?" Metra asked. "Jake, the First is right. We are all taught about the AIs when we are young, but how could we really know anything? There are no records of the ancients that made the AIs in Horgrim records, because we never encountered them. They and all of their neighboring civilizations were destroyed before we could. We don't even know their names or what they looked like."

  That threw me a bit. I'd had an idea in my head of how the galaxy was, before the war. I'd pictured a lively place, full of different civilizations and trade. That wasn't the case.